# Not eating, but otherwise normal



## Nibblesmom (Feb 12, 2015)

My 2 year old hedgehog, Nibbles, stopped eating several days ago. She is normal in every other aspect, she's drinking, running, peeing, and attempting to poop (there's not much left since she isn't eating). There is absolutely nothing different about her environment - food is the same, cage is the same, bedding is washed in the same detergent, same nightly routine, same heating keeping her toasty. She is becoming wobbly and lethargic from the lack of food and hardly huffs or makes noises anymore. We have started force feeding her with a syringe, which has proved to be very difficult because she is determined to starve herself, but we have managed to get some into her, and she has just spit out a good amount of what we get into her mouth. We are getting as much into her as we can, which we know is not enough, but some is better than none at this point. She is even rejecting her favorite treat of chicken. She might pick up a bit, then just spits it right back out. We tried a new type of food too, just in case she suddenly decided to hate what we have been giving her, and no luck there either.

We took her to the vet today and he said everything about her appears normal, except they did find a bit of blood in her urine. The blood was not visible under the naked eye, it was discovered when they ran analysis on it. The doctor is starting treatment as if it is a UTI and gave us antibiotics to give to her over the next 10 days, but wants us to bring her back for bloodwork and xrays if she isn't eating on her own by Wednesday to test for cancer. He said he has never seen starvation as a symptom of a UTI before so he really doesn't think that is the issue, but wanted to try the antibiotic route anyway. He didn't see or feel anything abnormal in his examination and appeared to be a bit stumped by the fact that she appears perfectly healthy except for the food strike. 

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this, or does anyone have any ideas as to why she suddenly thinks food is the enemy and what else we can do for her? We are extremely concerned for her at this point, and we don't know what else to do


----------



## Heggielover (Jan 2, 2017)

I don't have much experience under this topic and you did everything I would recommend. I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear that your little guy isn't doing well and I am praying he heals quickly


----------



## Heggielover (Jan 2, 2017)

Actually just had a thought. Maybe you could try syringe feeding him some kind of food? I know they use pumpkin for constipation but you could try something else that you can get to go through the syringe. Maybe crush up his food and make it soft with the water? Just an idea so he can get some nutrients. Never tried this method before.
Best of luck!


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

They said they're already syringe-feeding her. 

Did the vet check her mouth & teeth thoroughly, just in case? What are you syringe-feeding her? There are a few different things you can try syringing to see if she takes any of them better. You can get Hills A/D canned food and Carnivore Care from your vet (CC can also be bought online, not sure about A/D). They're both really easy to syringe & are meant to appeal to sick animals more, so they might entice her if you're not using one already.

You could also try offering a variety of different things for her at night, just to see if anything perks her interest. Her regular food, some of what you're syringing, a different canned food, etc.


----------



## Nibblesmom (Feb 12, 2015)

We are using Mazuri food to syringe feed her, which the vet said was one of the best foods we could feed her. We normally give her Rachel Ray's Nutrish cat food for her regular diet, which would not crush up or soak up water well enough for the syringe. I wasn't at the vet appointment because it was impossible for me to leave work, but I was told he did look into her mouth and didn't see anything wrong there. 

The vet we took her to specializes in exotics and pocket pets, and is highly recommended by everyone in our area, so i have no concern that he doesn't know what to look for. 

It look like she didn't drink anything on her own last night, and she barely peed at all, so we got about 3mL of water in her first thing this morning and 1mL of food, and hopefully the antibiotic made it into her belly and didn't get spit out (it was hard to tell). We will force food and water into her every 2-3 hours and hope we see some improvement


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I would really, really suggest trying one of the other syringing options. Mazuri is not a good food at all, despite vets seeming to like them so much. The ingredients in most of their foods are questionable, though I'm not sure which one you're syringing. At the very least it'd be worth trying the other two options to see if she's more willing to swallow them instead of spitting so much out.


----------



## daisydiva (Nov 28, 2016)

Chiming in on the Hill's A/D. 

I'm still prepping to bring a hedgie home, but I used A/D several years ago when my dog had part of her jaw removed. 

She didn't want to eat anything, but she scarfed the A/D. Couldn't get enough of it. 

Obviously, dogs and hedgies are different. But as a pet owner who was desperate to get a pet to start eating again, I wanted to share. 

Good luck and I hope Nibbles feels better soon. 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Nibblesmom (Feb 12, 2015)

We've tried everything, but being the weekend we couldn't get Hills a/d or Carnivore Care from the vet, so I found another supplement/appetite stimulant in the pet store that I hoped would work. We got the recommended dosage of that down along with some chicken baby food, which she loved (chicken has always been her favorite treat, so I was happy to find something she would willingly swallow). She even almost tried eating the chicken puree on her own, licking remnants on our fingers. Unfortunately, despite all our efforts she has continued to weaken and we fear it is too late. Our last attempt at getting water in her failed as it just ran right out of her mouth, and she can barely pick herself up to walk. We will continue to do what we can, but we have little optimism at this point.

Thank you for the advice, I just wish we knew something was wrong with her sooner so we could do more


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Is there an emergency vet you can get to? If you've been having a lot of trouble getting water into her, she could be really dehydrated. It makes them seem a hundred times worse because it makes them so lethargic & they don't have energy to do anything. If you can take her to an emergency vet, they could try giving her subcutaneous (sub-q) fluids under her skin. It's a much faster way to hydrate them than orally and it might make a difference. Especially if she's still showing some interest in any food at all.


----------



## Nibblesmom (Feb 12, 2015)

We took her last night to get a shot of fluids because she was severely dehydrated, and it gave her energy to eat a little on her own last night and to play. She pooped, but didn't pee at all after the fluids, and was still really dehydrated, so we took her back today. An xray confirmed our fears, she had a huge tumor on her kidney, which explains her reluctance to consume anything. We decided to put her down with the comfort of knowing we did absolutely everything we could for her, and she was just unfairly taken from us far too soon.


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm so sorry to hear that.  She was lucky to be cared for by you, and I'm glad she's no longer suffering, at least. Sending lots of hugs & good thoughts tonight.


----------

