# New kids on the block!



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

So, I have had these new babies for a couple of months now, but I have-unfortunately-had little to no time to actually sit down and make a post (even though I have been itching to make one).

In January I adopted a little coonhound puppy, who I've named Lucy (though more often than not I'll call her Loo or Loobug) from a local shelter to become a playmate for my older border collie/chow mix. It had been a decision I had been thinking about for over a year, and one day I saw a dog I was interested in, so I went to the shelter to go visit and see if he would be a fit. When I got there, however, he was already being adopted, so I opted to look around. She was in the second to last cage, and when she saw me coming she looked at me with a big ol set of puppy eyes and a couple of tail thumps, and the rest, as they say, is history.

They are still adapting to one another, but every day it is getting better and I can definitely see a change in my older guy's attitude in general. He is definitely perkier and he loves having someone to play with whenever he wants lol.

A couple of months later, in March, I found a pair of hedgehogs (a male and a female) on a local sales site that were looking for a new home. They were living in tiny plastic storage containers with a wire-mesh mouse/hamster wheel, a water bottle, and only one of them had a hide. I had also been thinking about taking on another hedgehog that needed a home-in memory of the rehome I lost last year-but I wasn't absolutely sure. However, after I saw pics of the hedgies and what they were living in I just could not turn a blind eye to it. So, I called.

The original owner got them for their set of twins from a local pet store (that has a reputation of keeping their animals in horrible conditions) that did not educate them properly on hedgehogs.

The female (now dubbed Charlotte) is absolutely lovely, she doesn't even try to spike you when you pick you up. The male (now dubbed Little Rebel/Rebel) however, is your typical hedgehog: Grumpy, huffy, and prickly when first awoken. Unfortunately, because they weren't educated properly, they did not understand his behaviour and the twins did not want to have anything to do with either hedgehog anymore. So, they decided to rehome them.

When I called, they only had one person call to ask about Charlotte, but after some convincing they were willing to sell both to me.

When I went to go pick them up Rebel had no hide and no toys and was trying to desperately burrow in the aspen shavings. Charlotte was not as scared, but one of her legs was twice the size it should've been, her ears were (are) tattered, and she had a green, slimy bowel movement on my shirt as I was holding her.

I took both to the vet the thursday after I got them and both were diagnosed with a case of mites and the Dr wasn't sure if her leg was the resukt of metabolic bone disease or onset bone cancer. I was given a treatment for the mites and metacam for her leg. When I contacted the original owner to see if she knew about the leg, she told me that she had noticed it, but thought that it was a "birth defect".

Charlotte did have a recheck for her leg, and the Dr believes that it is healing. While at the vets, they also told me that they had a radiologist look at the original xrays again, and the radiologist told them that it actually looks like she dislocated her entire ankle and foot (probably from having it caught the wire mesh wheel) on top of having metabolic bone disease. As of right now she can use the leg still, but it will never look the way it should and she will probably lose some mobility in it.

They finished their treatments for mites last week, but I think I will have to take them back for a recheck, because they are still losing a lot of quills on a weekly basis. So maybe they have a skin infection? I'm not really sure.

To conclude this massive post, I will try and post pics of the new babies. That evens it all out, right? ?


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Lucy :grin:

She is only a year old and has an endless amount of energy that she sometimes uses to get into trouble, but she has such a great personality. 

The other dog in the second pic is my older guy, Shadow.


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Charlotte

She is such a sweet girl. A little camera shy, but I have managed to grab a couple of pics of her.


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Rebel

Rebel is one of those kids who had his name already picked out for him before I even saw him lol 

After David Bowie died, I wanted to eventually name something after one of his songs, so Rebel is named after David Bowie's song "Rebel, Rebel".

He likes to put up a fight in his cage, but once out he is quite adventurous :lol:


----------



## Prue (Feb 20, 2016)

Good for you, taking them in! Love Rebel's name choice, and it's great that he found an owner who understands him.


----------



## Artemis-Ichiro (Jan 22, 2016)

Thank you for rescuing them. 

So you see if new quills are growing in? Did you change their food?


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Prue said:


> Good for you, taking them in! Love Rebel's name choice, and it's great that he found an owner who understands him.


Thank you! It is amazing to see the progress he has made. :grin:


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Artemis-Ichiro said:


> Thank you for rescuing them.
> 
> So you see if new quills are growing in? Did you change their food?


No, I haven't been able to spot where there are new ones growing in. They are losing a lot of quills, but they aren't developing any bald spots as of yet either.

Yes, I had to change their food immediately after I got them. The previous owner had run out of their hedgehog food and was just feeding them sweet potato baby food.


----------



## CherylMatthews (Apr 19, 2016)

*That's great that you have taken them in and got them straight to the vets for a check over. I'm sure they will be much happier in your company. *


----------



## Artemis-Ichiro (Jan 22, 2016)

Sometimes they lose a lot of quills when they are changed to a better food, try to see if more growing in. Are they scratching? Is their skin dry and flaky?


----------



## ENF686 (Aug 23, 2013)

Artemis-Ichiro said:


> Sometimes they lose a lot of quills when they are changed to a better food, try to see if more growing in. Are they scratching? Is their skin dry and flaky?


I can see a handful of new ones growing on both of them, and so far they seem to be growing in normally.

They aren't scratching, though their skin is a little dry.

I did talk to their regular vet today, and she said that there are a couple of possibilities.

1) It is just an effect because the mite infestation was bad. Apparently one of the techs that works at the clinic rescued a mite-infested hedgehog and dealt with the quill loss also. According to her, hers continued for about a month after the treatment ended, so I am hoping that this is the case for Rebel and Charlotte.

2) Like you mentioned, it could be because of their diet changes.

3) It could be a skin infection left over from the mites or a fungus that they picked up at the pet store.

4) We might not have gotten rid of all of the mites and might have to do another, longer treatment for them.

We agreed to watch and see for another couple of weeks and see if any other signs develop/the quills stop falling out. If they don't then I'll bring them in for another evaluation and we will go from there.


----------

