# Hedgie Diabetes



## breenL (Nov 10, 2008)

Hi there,

My hedgie, Pickles, is about 4.5-5 years old now. I noticed a few weeks back he hadn't been using his wheel, which he absolutley loves to run on. Just recently, I've also noticed he's gotten alot skinnier. I took him to the vet on Friday and she said that his body weight had dropped 20% from his last check up about 9 months ago. Also, he has a hazy spot in one eye. She gave me some eye drops for his possible cataract, took a blood and urine sample, then said she'd call me when they got the results. She also suggested adding some higher fat food into his regular kibble to bringhis weight up. Today I got a call from her saying he has high levels of glucose in his blood and urine, meaning he may have diabetes. Now im just waiting for some medicine to come in to treat his glucose level to see if that can solve it. What im wondering is, what does diabetes look like for hedgies? are there any warning signs I should look for or anything I should avoid? Any advice would be great. Thanks a bunch =)


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

I hope your little guy doesn't have diabetes. I'm stuck with it myself (had it since I was 3) so I definitely feel for him!
Diabetes in hedgies (like in humans) often features excessive thirst. Keep an eye on the water levels and see if he drinks more than usual. Pages 24 and 25 of this PDF article from HWS have more information. http://www.users.nac.net/hedgehogwelfare/newsletters/newsletter_11.pdf
Then this article is about the same hedgie, it's just the whole story of what happened. http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/hedgiesandus/TatterDiabeticHedgehog.html

Best of luck to both of you!


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Did she check the blood or the urine for glucose? Often they can give a false reading on urine tests because of the stress of a vet visit. I had a rehome one time that started to fail and the urine test was really high and the vet said it can give a false positive. When she checked her blood it was fine.


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## breenL (Nov 10, 2008)

Thanks to both of you for your help =)

The vet took both a blood and urine sample and said the glucose was abnormally high in both


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