# Putting him under for exam



## surfingthehedges (Aug 8, 2011)

So Sonics losing quill condition has gotten worse and I am sure it's not quilling at this point. He is losing upwards of 20 quills a night, all with balls attached but also yellow ends. His skin is also super dry and seems to be scabby and yellow at the base if his quills. Along with this he is losing fur, but most concerning is he had jelly like poo last night tinged green, with what seemed like mucus and a drop of bloody mucus at the end. Over night he hardly seemed to run, and his eating and drinking are down by about 75% overnight. Needless to say he us going to the vet in 3 hours. 

What I'm really concerned about is they said the might have to pit him under to look at him, and while they assured me other hedgehogs have been fine im super worried of him. Has anyone here had a hedgehog put under? How did they do waking up? Should I expect green pop again tomorrow as I am asuming this will be stressful? Anything else a paranoid first timer should know about a vet visit? 

Sorry if there are typos, writing from my phone at work while trying to not get to worked up


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## Rainy (Jul 27, 2011)

So sorry Sonic isn't feeling well. I've had Harvey in twice and Izzy in once and my vet didn't put them out. He has used a small amount of water in a dish to get them to open up. But again, these were just routine check ups and no kind of testing was needed. Feel better Sonic! Hugs!


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## Mushaboom (Jun 23, 2011)

My vet told me that the only way they could do a proper exam on Persy would be to put him under as well, but after reading up on vet visits on here I knew that was inaccurate. When putting a hedgie under there is a risk of death, just like any animal, and I would not allow my vet to put Persy at risk. HOWEVER, he was just going in for a check-up, while your poor little guy could be in some serious trouble 
But before the vet jumps on the sleeping gas I'd probably try to suggest another method to him/her first, such as putting your hedgie in a shallow dish of warm water so it can't ball up. 


I may be wrong, but I've very paranoid and weary of putting them to sleep. There's just too much of a risk from what I've heard, but then again it could just be my vet with the itchy sleeping gas finger, putting a bad taste in my mouth about it.

Just thought I would chip in, but I would wait on more opinions/advice from the good folks here.


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## surfingthehedges (Aug 8, 2011)

Yeah, the fact there is always a chance they won't come out is what has me worried, especially since he already seems off . I will be sure to suggest the water, might help to get him to use the bathroom to, but I have no idea what they will need to do to him .


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

Clémentine had to be gassed twice for x-rays. The first time she was perfectly fine. The second time, she (who is usually a very calm hedgie) got very hyper, running around in her cage and growling at nothing and she started biting herself. I had to keep her with me for a couple of hours until she calmed down to make sure she wouldn`t hurt herself. 

The shallow pan of water trick works great with both my girls for normal exams. Depending on what kind of examination your vets wants to do, that is something he could try first and do the gassing only if there are no other option.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

A good vet will work with a hedgehog and use anesthesia as a last resort. I have never had one anesthetized for a skin scraping. Even the one that didn't uncurl. Doc worked between his quills to get the sample we needed.

When Poptart had her x-rays, she was fully awake. We let her stay in her snuggle bag and we got perfect x-rays without knocking her out.

If you get into a vet's office, always remember you can say no. You can refuse treatment, you can tell a vet to not do something.


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## Rainy (Jul 27, 2011)

A good vet should always be willing to listen to you and your concerns, explain information and consider new ideas. If your vet is not willing to listen to your concerns, there are always other vets out there that will listen.

When I first got Harvey, I took him to the vet for his wellness exam and asked Derek (my vet) if he would clip his nails, since Harvey was so new to me and had a hard time unballing. Derek said that he would. He just picked him up and held him against his stomache, but so harvey's feet could touch the counter and started clipping away. I was more uncomfortable than either on of them. But when it looked like Harvey might bite him, I grabbed a tounge depressor and started playing defense (putting it under Harvey's chin) to keep Derek's fingers safe. Derek is an excelent vet, always willing to work with me and my concerns and especially with Harvey's attitude. A great vet is priceless and everyone deserves to be heard.

Hope the visit went well. Please post how things turned out.

P.S. Harvey now lets me clip his nails (one or two at a time).


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## Mushaboom (Jun 23, 2011)

Rainy said:


> A good vet should always be willing to listen to you and your concerns, explain information and consider new ideas. If your vet is not willing to listen to your concerns, there are always other vets out there that will listen.
> 
> When I first got Harvey, I took him to the vet for his wellness exam and asked Derek (my vet) if he would clip his nails, since Harvey was so new to me and had a hard time unballing. Derek said that he would. He just picked him up and held him against his stomache, but so harvey's feet could touch the counter and started clipping away. I was more uncomfortable than either on of them. But when it looked like Harvey might bite him, I grabbed a tounge depressor and started playing defense (putting it under Harvey's chin) to keep Derek's fingers safe. Derek is an excelent vet, always willing to work with me and my concerns and especially with Harvey's attitude. A great vet is priceless and everyone deserves to be heard.
> 
> ...


That's awesome. I asked my vet if she could clip/show me how to clip Persy's nails when the time came and she said yes, but she would have to put him to sleep for it. Needless to say, I declined.


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## Rainy (Jul 27, 2011)

Mushaboom said:


> That's awesome. I asked my vet if she could clip/show me how to clip Persy's nails when the time came and she said yes, but she would have to put him to sleep for it. Needless to say, I declined.


Oh, I'm sorry. There are a few vets that are itchy with the gas finger. If you have a university in the area with a vet school, they may be willing to show you how to clip persimmon's nails. I'm just throwing out ideas.


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## Quinn (Apr 24, 2011)

Sasha had to be gassed for a proper exam and when he woke up he was a little groggy but fine.


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## surfingthehedges (Aug 8, 2011)

*edited to say sorry again for typos, typing on my phone again and I cannt scroll down to fix them all :s) 

Thank you for all the replies! And sorry for not updating sooner, seems like the only place I have free time this week is at work .

So they didn't have to gas him at all as it turns out. The vet took a few of the quills he lost on the way there and some if the yellow flakes on his skin and came back saying that although hd doesn't see mites he looks like every other hedgehog he has ever seen with them. He didn't test for a fungal infection but the internal parasite test came back clean as well. So here is hoping it is just mites that were not seen *fingers crossed*

We did try the water trick so ghat he could get a look at him but rather then unball sonic tried to drown himself so we rescued him and scrapped that plan rather quickly. I did learn that he weighs a hefty 547 grams, but can ball up completely ( I had never seen him ball so tight, even when I first brought him home) but the vet feels like since he can ball and doesnt seem to have fatty legs that he is just a very big boy. 

As long as the mite treatment works though (he's on revolution) I can join that list of people who didn't see scratching, movement, and still had the balls on the quills. If it doesn't work I guess we will go back and look into fungal infection. 

So, here are my new questions:

1) how long before I see signs of improvement and what will they be? I know their quills can still fall out for up to a month so how will I know if it's working? 

2) how much longer should he grow for? He's 19 weeks old now that weight, I cannt imagine he would get much bigger. I wouldn't care if he grew to rabbit size, as I would force him to cuddle, but just curious. 

Thanks again guys!


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## Rainy (Jul 27, 2011)

I'm afraid that I can't answer you questions. I've never had a hedgie with mites. And the other one is relevent to that particular hedgehog. A hedgehog is usually full grown around 6 months, but sometimes you have slow growers too. Also weight is very subjective. If your hedgehog is a big runner, he will look like, "a twinkie on stilts" :lol: (I stole this from someone else -- I love it). If he's a low to moderate runner, he will look like a teardrop. As long as he doesn't look like an hourglass, he's not too skinny. And as long as he can ball up, does not have fat rolls on his legs and doesn't have a double chin, then pretty much he's not overweight (or at least over weight by too much). You can search the health thread on weight and there will be tons of great information there.

so glad that he didn't sedate him. He probably would have been fine, but the fewer times they have to do that, the better.


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2011)

1A) Usually a month of quills still falling out, signs will be you shouldn't see yellow gunk on the quills as much anymore and a lot of quills should be regrowing in places.

2A) A hedgehog is a hedgehog and each hedgehog is different in weight your hedgie could grow and weigh up to 1000G and be completely healthy if he can fully ball and does not have fatty front legs. Its impossible to say before a year cause some do grow a bit slower or just have late growth spurts.


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