# Pulling her stitches out !



## Mimosa (Aug 2, 2009)

Rosa is approximately 2.5/3 years old, she came to me as a rehome with other female Marie. 

Rosa was finally spayed three days ago. Hedgehogs are rare pets in my country and around here there is no vet that would spay her. Three weeks ago she got uterine bleeding and after a lot of vet visits we went to the division of exotic animal medicine at utrecht university where they took good care of her. Her huge uterus has been sent to the pathology lab, I'll get the results in a few weeks.

This morning when I administered her antibiotics she was fine, this afternoon I had an appointment to call the university clinic and let them know how she was doing so I decided to do an extra check on her first.
Even though she has subcutaneous sutures she had managed to get a piece of about 1cm out. 

The resident asked me a lot of questions about how everything looked and concluded the incision is fine for now (no redness, swelling, effusion or gaping) She advised me to cut off the piece of thread ourselves if we think we can. If we can't manage or if things get worse we will go to the vet, of course.

Is there any way I can stop her from messing with the incision ? You would put a cone or a baby romper on a cat but i can't think of anything like that for a hedgie ?


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Did they give you pain meds for her? Sometimes they bug at the incision because they are in pain. Sometimes they do it out of boredom. 

I've been lucky and none of ours have ever bugged at their stitches but I know a few people on here have had so I'm sure someone else will come along with some ideas.


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## Christemo (Oct 5, 2011)

I'm assuming that there's no version of the cone of shame for hedgies, right?


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## smhufflepuff (Aug 28, 2008)

No... no successful cones for hedgies that I've seen. We've been lucky too... mine's had stitches. Even had to leave a drainage tube stitched in her for a few days. Fortunately, she didn't mess with it. 

I'd do what Nancy suggests: make sure her pain meds are just right. 

Beyond that, I'd probably spend my free time snuggling with her - just holding her as she sleeps and distracting her whenever she starts fiddling with her stitches.


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## Mimosa (Aug 2, 2009)

Thanks for your replies.

Yesterday I cut the thread off and everything still looked OK this morning.

They put her on Metacam for the pain, they prescribed it for four days so today is the last day I should give it to her. 

I can imagine she might be a bit bored as she can't have her wheel back yet. I'll try to think of some extra activities to keep her amused, like getting her some grasshoppers, she loves hunting those.


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## Quills_&_Tails (Aug 28, 2011)

When my hedgie got an eye infection he kept scratching his infected eye. so my dad got a large water bottle, cut off the lid portion and main bottle part. so we were left with a natural cone shape. my dad covered the edges with a special thick tape. we sliped it over his head and it worked! i'll try to post pics soon! A Hedgie Cone!


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