# My god-- Please help! Pussing & Bleeding!



## Littlefootsmama (May 23, 2010)

I was cleaning Little Foot's condo and I turned around to talk to him and I was like Buddy why does your head look so red? So I was investigating around his quills and I saw a weird bump, so I put my finger on it and all of sudden puss and blood started gushing out of it!! I freaked out and cleaned it up the best I could, I tried calling an emergency vet, but the only one in town doesn't see exotics. I put humans neosporin on it for now hoping that will at least do something until I can get a hold of his idiotic vet. I'm so scared, does anyone know what it could be? Now it just seems to be bleeding and the puss is gone.. :|


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

How much blood?
How big an area?
Don't forget to breathe: I'm sure the neo will do the job until you figure out what's going on.


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## Littlefootsmama (May 23, 2010)

The blood is like if we were to pop a pimple and that is almost what his bump looked like. He has a lot of dead/dry skin, so I thought this was a chunk stuck in his quills, but when I touched it, it started bleeding and then pussed. After I cleaned it up and put oinment on it, it was just bleeding some, but it seems to be clotting.


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

I'm sure it will be fine with the neo...most of North America is in bed, methinks, since it's 11:30 mtn...I would keep an eye on it and try to get him to a vet ASAP. 

Sorry I can't help more...


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## Alastrina (Sep 18, 2009)

This sounds alot like the puss pockets that popped after Charley started getting treated for mites. He would shimmy an shake, a quill would drop, and if I touched the small bump under his skin, this sicky yellow pus would come out, with a little tiny amount of blood at the end. Polysporin did help clear the spots up.

I hope you can get your little one in to the vet in the morning *hugs to both of you*


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## rivoli256 (Mar 1, 2009)

Herman had something similar when the nimrod got matted quills ( :shock: had no idea this was possible!)...he somehow mushed 2 or 3 quills together with a singular mixtures of fleece fuzz, spit, kibble crumbs, & god knows what else. it just looked like this horrible lump on his head. thought it was a tumor - couldn't see well b/c it was at the base. so the vet knocked him out & voila! she unmatted & took out the quills...& from being pulled together & irritated, they were inflamed & had pus. 

could it be possible it is/was an ingrown/irritated quill? i like that option better than something more serious...as i am sure you do. 

please keep us posted.


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

Alastrina said:


> This sounds alot like the puss pockets that popped after Charley started getting treated for mites.


You will be happy to know that you're the first person who comes to my mind when someone mentions 'pus & blood'.  :lol:


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## Alastrina (Sep 18, 2009)

MissC said:


> Alastrina said:
> 
> 
> > This sounds alot like the puss pockets that popped after Charley started getting treated for mites.
> ...


*facepalm* Oh well, at least it's not for running starkers down the middle of the street singing "Freebird" and flapping my arms...


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## I<3Hejji (Aug 29, 2010)

It sounds like an ingrown quill to me as well. I would still follow up at the vet to see if he needs antibiotics because there is often staph bacteria in ingrown hairs/pimples. Wash your hands really well when you touch him so you don't spread the (possible) bacteria to any open areas on his skin. And let us know how the vet goes  I hope Little Foot is ok!

Also, when I first saw a post by you many months ago I instantly became jealous of how awesome the name Little Foot is for a hedgehog! The Land Before Time = best movie ever (minus the million sequels) and hedgehogs have adorable little feet!


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## ThePliny (Jun 3, 2010)

It sounds a lot like the ingrown quill Pliny had last year. It was on the top of his head,just above his visor. I was looking at him one night and noticed an angry red lump, and when I poked at it all sorts of puss and blood came out (along with much panic on my part!) then a teeny broken quill popped out. I took him to the vet the next day and she gave us some antibiotics to clear up the infection. They also took a tissue sample to see how infected it was - quite a bit a actually. The quill never grew back, so he has a little bald spot there. If he had continued to get ingrown quills in that spot we would have needed to remove the follicle or something like that.


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## Littlefootsmama (May 23, 2010)

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. I stalked the vet today and she called him in Intraconazole for ringworm. He was in last week for a fungal culture and it came back positive, so we are treating him for that and then when I explained the bump to her she also said that it sounded like an ingrown quill. We don't think it is mites because when trying to figure out his skin issue we did a skin scraping which came back fine.

I'm hoping this medicine works and things start looking better because I am just completely freaked out and worried at this point.



I<3Hejji said:


> Also, when I first saw a post by you many months ago I instantly became jealous of how awesome the name Little Foot is for a hedgehog! The Land Before Time = best movie ever (minus the million sequels) and hedgehogs have adorable little feet!


Thank you! =) It took me a week and a half to name him. Lol


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