# Urgent help needed, hedgehog won't eat.



## hog_hedge (Oct 26, 2015)

Hello, I'm looking for some advice regarding my African Pygmy Hedgehog, Russell. 

Russell is four and a half years old, so we are aware that he is getting to be an elderly hog, but recently he has stopped exercising and eating. 

Two weeks ago we realised that he hadn't had any of his food, and that he hadn't been in his wheel all week. He has always been a fussy hog (only eating premium cat food, and loving a few meal worms as a treat) but when he started spitting out meal worms we knew something was wrong. We took him down to our local vets thinking that he had tooth ache and couldn't crunch his food. The vets had him in, x-rayed his mouth and had a look. He was missing a few teeth but apparently this is normal at his age, and they couldn't find anything else wrong with his mouth. He had an abnormality on the vertebrae in his neck, but they didn't think that it was causing him any pain. They thought that it could be issues with his kidneys, and gave us painkillers, antibiotics and rescue cat food to feed him using a syringe. This had no effect, and he was returned to the vets last Wednesday, where they injected him with water containing minerals. He picked up a little bit after this but still wouldn't eat on his own. 

By Friday he had deteriorated again and he was back into the vets, where they gave him another injection. The vets don't get many hedgehogs in so are currently treating him like a cat, just altering the amount of medication proportionately. We took him in again tonight as he is still losing weight and can't eat on his own, and doesn't seem to be picking up at all, and has started waddling when he walks. He had a steroid injection which the vets are hoping will increase his red blood cells and his appetite. If this hasn't had an effect within 72 hours they say that there is nothing else that they can do and he will have to be put down. 

If there is nothing that can be done to help him then we will obviously make this decision, but we wanted to make sure that we had explored all of the options before settling on that one. 

Russell has lost over 100g in weight, and is now weighing 333g. 

Any advice will be much appreciated.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

A couple of questions about his environment first: What temperature is his cage? Do you have any kind of heating set up for him & if so, what? And does he get a light schedule of 12-14 hours of light during the day (not dependent on natural light)?

How much are you syringe-feeding him per day? Are you giving him additional water along with what he's getting in the food?

Before he got sick & stopped eating, had there been any change to his environment (cage or outside of cage)? With his food, had you just gotten a new bag or were you getting to the end of a bag or neither? 

Sorry for a lot of questions & not much help! But answering them may give us some more ideas for what could possibly be going on with him & maybe we can give some more suggestions for what you guys can check & do to help him.


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## hog_hedge (Oct 26, 2015)

Hello Kelsey,

We keep him around 22 degrees C, and yes he has a heat mat which is controlled by a thermostat and a thermometer in his enclosure. He has his own room and the curtains are left open to provide his with a natural light cycle and he has been fine for four and a half years with this setup.

We feed him around 2ccs of the liquid cat food every 4 hours or so and through the night, this is keeping him going but he is making not effort to eat on his own. We started off by giving him a drink of fresh water via syringe but he is drinking on his own still and when as his water bowl he will drink for a good few minutes so I believe he is getting enough fluids.

He is halfway through his food bag and there has been no change in food before he started to become ill and his enclosure was moved around 6 months ago to the other side of the room because it was summer here and I didn't want him in direct sunlight throughout the day because it makes his enclosure overheat.

I have searched endlessly throughout the internet and have found nothing relating to his symptoms, I just wish he could talk and tell me what he needed.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

It really would be nice if they could do that! It's so difficult to watch them feel crappy & feel like we can't help.

Two things I would really suggestion doing - bump the temperature up by a degree or two. Hedgehogs can become more temperature sensitive as they get older, and it's possible that he stopped eating & moving around due to being too cold to get out of bed, and then it snowballed from there. Even if that wasn't the cause, with how hard it is on his body being sick, being a bit warmer might help him out with trying to fight off whatever's going on.

The other thing I would really suggest doing is up how much you're feeding him. He's not getting enough - we usually suggest 24-30cc of food in a day, with a general guideline of 1cc per hour. So if he eats 2cc, he should be fed again 2 hours later. If you can get him to take more, 3-4cc, he can be fed again 3-4 hours later. More food might give him more strength and help slow the weight dropping. That's good that he's still drinking on his own, but I would recommend still syringing him some water each time you feed him. The fact that he perked up after getting subcutaneous fluids makes me think he's still at least a bit dehydrated and dehydration can be extremely draining on the body, especially when it's already weak from not eating properly & from being sick.

I'm afraid I'm not sure what else to suggest to have the vet look for, though.  I wish I had more suggestions for what the actual cause might be. But keep us updated on how he's doing, especially if you implement any changes, and what you guys decide. I hope he starts to improve for you soon!


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