# Whats going on with my hedgehog's ears?



## Quillatron (Aug 19, 2009)

Is it normal for a hedgehog's ear to look tattered, dry, & ripped? From what I've read on here it means they have mites but when I took my Quilla to the vet, the vet said that its normal with aging & that he couldn't do an ear swab cause my hedgehog wouldn't cooperate at the time so he gave her ear drops anyway. The ear drops were suppose to be put in each ear, 1 drop, for 2 nights only. I did so & nothing happened. Her ears look the same.

What should I do? Quilla doesn't show any signs of having mites other then the ears being funny looking.


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## karennoel (Dec 20, 2010)

You can get some flaxseed oil on your fingers and put some on the outseide of her ear. This should help with the dryness.


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Its most likely a build up of "gunk" on the ears. You can either rub on some flaxseed oil as has been mentioned or another thing that works is "bag balm" or human nipple cream. Once the build up is softened it usually just falls off. It doesn't mean your hedgie has mites unless he's scratching alot.


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

If your hedgie is at all like Snarf, you may have trouble massaging the cream/balm into his ears (I didn't know he even HAD ears for the forst 2 weeks). 

Once a week, I poke a pin in the end of a flax seed oil capsule and verrrry carefully squeeze two drops of oil on each ear. DON'T get it in the ear. I just have my BF hold him and I stand behind him and drop...drop...he huffs and shakes his head but he's getting used to it.

I also squeeze a couple drops on his food 2X/week and the remaining 2 - 3 drops I squeeze onto his shoulders/back. 

His ears were very tattered and dry looking, 3 weeks later and they're almost round little ears!


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

My girl Zoey came to us with tattered ears. We also used flaxseed on the back of the ears & they have cleared up very nicely.


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## silvercat (Oct 24, 2008)

nikki said:


> Its most likely a build up of "gunk" on the ears. You can either rub on some flaxseed oil as has been mentioned or another thing that works is "bag balm" or human nipple cream. Once the build up is softened it usually just falls off. It doesn't mean your hedgie has mites unless he's scratching alot.


I'm gonna go with "gunk" too. Annabell's ears were looking tattered but her skin totally fine. I was putting flax seed on them but not working. Last night when she was calm I managed to rub the tips of her ears a bit and what I thought was a tattered scabby thing just started to lift off, it was "gunk" sticking her fur together. It hadn't been washed off in baths as I keep the water away from her face. Tonight I'm going to take some moist paper towel and see if I can massages her ears a little bit more to remove the stuff.


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## Quillatron (Aug 19, 2009)

Is there any truth to it happening with age though?


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

Well since it builds up over time then yes it would look like it's correlated with age. Babies will have less gunk and dry skin build up than an adult.


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