# Persistant dry skin/losing quills



## chixwithtrix

First off, I took my hedgehog (~ 8 months old) to the vet already for his skin problems, but nothing was really found wrong with him.

His problems:
-has had flaky dry skin for a while
-looses lots of quills

At the vet they:
-did a fecal
-skin scrape
-a dose of Revolution
-bacteria culture plate

That was about a week and a half ago, nothing was found wrong. Not sure what to do next.
He still eats, drinks, wheels, etc, but continues to lose his quills and have really dry skin. Occasionally he has really dry spots that he scratches and they get bloody, I put some Neosporin on the area and watch it until it goes away. I bathe him in Aveeno oatmeal bath and add some olive oil to the water. His food is the organic cat dry food recommended on this website from www.petfooddirect.com

What could be going on and what should I try to do?


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## sagesmommy

Well , many things can cause quill loss. Quilling (which CAN happen at 8 months!) stress from being re homed or moved to new cage , ect , change in food. 
Also for the dry skin , try taking Flaxseed Oil , the gel tablets and breaking them open and letting it dribble on there food. This usually helps with dry skin and can be done once a week


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## Lilysmommy

As sage said, the quill loss could be stress-related. However, dry skin is most likely caused from dry winter weather. If you're bathing him too often, it could also be from that. They shouldn't be bathed more than once every two-three weeks. As sage suggested too, you can put flaxseed oil in their food, or put a few drops on his back. Those should help clear up the dry skin. If he's scratching that much, it could be from mites. Revolution will take awhile to work, and he might need another dose a month after the last one, to catch any remaining. If he's on wood bedding, there's a good chance that he has mites.


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## silvercat

I can't help you out but I can definately relate! Sylvie has very dry skin & at 9 months she's still quilling. I can see the new quills growing in. As for the dry skin, I'm at a loss. I do add flax seed oil weekly to her food & have her on high quality cat foods. When she does get a bath it's with Aveno Oatmeal & I put some olive oil in the water. Following baths & for a couple days her skin does look a lot better & she doesn't itch. & then it starts back up again.

I've had her into the vet a number of times & she's gotten Revolution even though he didn't find anything. She's on liners & no wood in her crate. He's thinks that it's a matter of controlling over treating the dry skin (kinda like some people always have dry skin or excema, controlling over treating).

If I learn anything I will let you know though!


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## Mika

I had a problem with one of my hedgehogs. He was loosing his quills too and we did a lot of test and it was all negatives.
()


I tried a product for birds.



That product is closely the same as the revolution but some active ingredients are different. A vet told to a friend of mine that, this active ingredient (she can't remember the name of it), it's the ingredient that works better on hedgehogs than the revolution. (Not sure if you can understand me  )

Talk to your vet about that product. Bring the picture if you want to show him!!

That product helped my hedgehogs.


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