# Please Help, Really Worried About Hoglet



## snaily (Mar 6, 2010)

Hi everyone, I have a big problem, and I am extremely worried and concerned, so am hoping anyone can offer any advice.

Firstly I will say, that I will be taking him to the Vets tomorrow (emergency).

I have posted a post about Roly, a baby hedgehog I bred...

He will be 6 weeks old tomorrow.

I seperated him at just over 5 weeks old.

He was the only baby in the litter, and at 5 weeks old he was over 250g! He was a huge baby, as he had all his Mums milk to himself!

He has been extremely difficult to wean.. and after trying 5 different brands of food, he finally decided he will ONLY eat Go cat kitten food (dried). He doesnt eat meal worms, chicken, wet cat food, or anything else.

He has been used to living on newspaper, with a bed of fleece and paper wool bedding, with wood based cat litter for his litter tray.

Since he has been seperated from his Mum, he has lost a little weight, which is to be expected on the first night away from his Mum. He has now dropped to 220g and is staying at that weight, plus a gram or two every day. He is not eating enough to put weight on.

I always routinely treat my hogs against mites- as I keep hays etc in the same room, and have guineapigs, and other animals too. He was treated for mites a week ago..

Tonight I noticed that he had lost a few quills.. and I looked and they were right from the root, but were covered in a flakey skin coating at the base of the spine. After looking at his quills, he has developed extremely dry skin, which would be associated with mites (from past expereinces), but I am 95% confident he has not got mites.. On closer inspection, when I was parting his spines, a couple more adult quills fell out (he has already quilled most of his baby spines).. and I noticed a couple of little lumps near some of the bases of his quills. I moved his spines out the way, and at these lumps, unfortunately by me moving his quills, the quills fell out, and out from the lump came pus.

Looking even more closely.. he has a fair few little lumps at his quill bases, all filled with pus.

I am devastated.. I dont know what this could be, other than an allergic reaction possibly,fungal infection (although have never seen this in my hogs before) or some other sort of mite possibly, or I dont know what else.

The things different from when he was in with his Mum, are his food.. as he would not eat her food.. and nothing else.

I have taken out the cat litter pellets and have lined his cage with paper towels, and he has a brand new fleece for his bed.

The problem with his skin gives me reason to believe this is why he has not put on any weight, and has not been acting as he should..

Does anyone have any clue as to what this could be?

I have bathed him in warm water, but havent applied any thing to his skin..

The pics are taken after I had been looking at him.. so look a little worse than when I first looked at him (with the pus globules).

























http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/4407/dscn1720hb.jpg[/img
[img]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4439/dscn17210.jpg


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

The quilling he has just gone through is is 5-6 week quilling, not his adult quilling. What he is loosing is still baby quills. Sometimes they go straight from this quilling into the final one. 

The brownish crust at the base of the quills looks like mites but infection is also a possibility. Does he have any sores or red spots on the furred parts of his body? 

Is he able to crunch the kibble easily? Perhaps you should also offer him some that is dampened with a bit of warm water and also break some of it up. Sometimes their little jaws aren't strong enough yet to crunch full sized pieces, even if it is a kitten food. 

Good luck at the vet.


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## snaily (Mar 6, 2010)

No sores or any sign or irritation at all on his furred parts of his body. Just flakey skin, and what I can only describe as infected follicles. Sigh 

I tried moistening his food- he wouldnt even look at the dish.


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## snaily (Mar 6, 2010)

Im putting his kibble into a blender to make it smaller and he does prefer it that way, although he is eating the full kibbles too


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## EmJ (Oct 6, 2010)

I don't know about the quilling, but I either hid new foods in my baby's kibble or put it on the side of his mouth until he'd lick it. At first he wouldn't even look at mealworms, but after hiding them in his bowl he decided he loved them (must've tried one accidentally)! There was one point where he was really down and wouldn't eat anything, so I tried a little tiny bit of honey to get his appetite up. He LOVED this (just licked it off my finger), and he started eating other foods + having more energy really soon after that. I hope things go well at the vet tomorrow- good luck!


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## mtnwmn (Nov 25, 2010)

How did the vet visit go?

Is there a possibility this guy is suffering from ingrown quills?


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## snaily (Mar 6, 2010)

Apologies for not getting back on sooner to update you all. Roly is doing much better.. He is on oral anti biotics for 5 days, and he is respnding well. I have been bathing his skin with cotton buds around the infected sites, and there is virtually no redness or infection remaining now. He has also started putting on weight again, and is eating his IAMs kitten as opposed to the go cat kitten. Really really pleased with his progress.

Thankyou all so much for your advice and concern,

Sarah and Roly


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

So glad the little guy is doing better! Thanks for the update.


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## prickleypair (Jul 9, 2013)

My adult hedgehog is experiencing this same thing and he's not responding to meds!


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

This thread is over 3 years old...You'd be better off starting a new thread and explain your problem.


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