# hedgehog death - confused....



## angriesthedgehog (Nov 11, 2011)

last night I found one of my females hogs; Ripley dead after apparently choking on kibble. She was still with her 7 week old female daughter. This morning, her daughter was also found dead with no apparent cause. She was laying in the exact place I found her mother. Both hogs were healthy and showed no symptoms (I saw her mother walking as normal only 30 mins before finding her dead) has anyone ever heard of this? Is it at all possible that the death of the mother "upset" her daughter to her own ending? Or is there a chance the new biscuits are somehow contaminated? I have used a few of the new biscuits from the same bag to feed our cats, sugar gliders other hogs and tenrecs with no problems so far (fingers crossed) but naturally I have removed them as a precaution! So stumped and confused


----------



## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

I'd take them both for necropsy. Two deaths that close together is really unusual. 

I'm so sorry.


----------



## Lucy (Jan 13, 2014)

I'm really sorry... :-( 
I don't think the daughter died of sadness - it does happen but the animals usually deteriorate slowly - go off food, they just sit around or develop some habit they repeat and you can see they're obviously mourning.
And if both deaths were so acute with no symptoms before - I'd throw away the kibbles and put all your other hedgies into a different room and wash and desinfect everything that came into contact with the two dead girls. And make sure nobody fed them something unusual or they didn't come into contact with some chemicals, didn't your cats get some spot-ons or other anti-parazitical treatment...? A necropsy could find the reason but try to think if anything hasn't changed or theese girls came into contact with something that other hedgies didn't and try to take some quarantine precautions in the meantime. 
I hope your other animals will be fine.


----------



## akane (Jan 2, 2013)

Hedgehogs are not social animals. They don't really get upset over suddenly being alone. Even if they did as was said it's usually something slow. Animals upset over the loss of a cagemate will sit around, often hiding, and not eat well or at all for a week or 2 before death.

It sounds like poisoning. Check the bedding and all foods you use. A necropsy might help but they don't test for everything that could be in their system so they may find the final thing that caused their death such as a damaged organ but not why it happened. To be safe you should change up everything including different bedding or if you use fleece different detergent and sterilize that cage.


----------



## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

Sorry for your loss


----------

