# soo sad! please help!



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

so i went to the dermatologist again today and she told me that this thing on my hand is from my hedgehog because they are natural carriers for the fungus. i'm taking him to the vet tomorrow morning to see if they can take care of it. is there anything they can do to eliminate this fungus that he's carrying (he doesnt have a fungus he carries it and its normal for him but not for me). is there anything they can do that anyone knows of? i know for dogs and cats they dip them in something but the lady at the vet's office said they can't do that for hedgies because it would be toxic to them. is there a special hedgehog one? i'm so lost. if there's nothing that the vet can do i have to either give up my hedgehog or handle him with gloves for the rest of his life! i'm so sad and i don't want to give up my hedgehog, i've not only put in countless amounts of time and money into him, but i love him! would it be okay to handle him with gloves? thank you to anyone who can give some insight!


----------



## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

I've never heard of hedgehogs carrying fungus. They can get fungus same as anything else, but I don't think they naturally carry it. If they did, we'ed be hearing of other cases of it.


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

I wonder if your dermatologist is thinking of wild hedgies not domesticated ones...and you said that hedgehogs are one way to get it....what are the other ways?


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

i'm not sure; but she did say it was the African Pygmy hedgehogs. i know it sounds untrue but she said this was really rare only 4 (5 including me) people have gotten this in the last year.the last case was a girl in South Korea or something.


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

the medical name is:
_Trichophyton mentagrophytes_ var. _erinacei_
which basically means infection of the hedgehog fungus.


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Hi, I did a search on the fungus and came up with three case files of people who had contacted it....all were treated the same ...successfully so I thought this might interest you...

here is the findings from case 1
Case 1. A 28-year-old woman purchased an African pygmy hedgehog at a local pet store. Three weeks later, she noticed the development of a solitary, red, pruritic, annular plaque on the anterior thigh (Fig 1). Being a nurse, she immediately suspected tinea corporis and referred herself to our dermatology department. A potassium hydroxide preparation was markedly positive for organisms, and a culture sent to the hospital microbiology laboratory grew atypical Trichophyton mentagrophytes. The patient was treated with oral itraconazole, in a dosage of 200 mg daily for 7 days. The hedgehog was treated by application of a miconazole-containing veterinary lotion. No recurrence was noted during the following 6 months.

All 3 cases were treated the same sucessfully.

here is the link to the article
http://medgenmed.medscape.com/viewarticle/410639_print

I hope this helps


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

okay thank you so much nikki
i really appreciate that you took your time out to research that, i'm going to write down the name of what the hedgehog was treated with and see if the vet that i'm seeing tomorrow knows of this method. again thank you very much, at least i have some hope that my hedgie can be treated and i won't be faced with any very sad decisions.


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

You're welcome  I just hope it helps both you and your hedgie


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

so i went to the vet today and he said that there's an oral anti-fungal medicine i can give him and if he's too difficult with that then the last resort would be to dip him in lime/sulfur but it would dye his fur, so i hope my hedgie will be a good!


----------



## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Try and avoid the lime sulphur dip. It is HORRID stuff and can cause blindness if it gets into their eyes. They also smell for weeks after. 

Get some Hills A/D which is an easily syringed food and start syringing her the food. Once she catches on and decides she likes it, then you can put the meds in a bit of the food and syringe it to her. 

If she likes mealworms, you can also inject the meds into the mealies. That usually works for a few days until they catch on. :lol:


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

oh wow thats a really good idea with syringing the food. where do i get syringes and what kind should i use? what is the Hills A/D and where can i get it? should i feed him that instead of his kibble or both? what is it usually used for? sorry so many questions :lol:


----------



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

You might be able to get Hills A/D from your vet, call them and ask. It's a liquid food that is used to feed sick animals, it has lots of vitamins and good stuff. Continue feeding him his kibble, I think, just use the Hills to get the medication into him. I found small animal syringes at a pet store near me called Pet Supplies Plus.
They also have them at Petco, here's what I found on the site: http://www.petco.com/product/3301/Four- ... SiteSearch


----------



## HedgeMom (Nov 7, 2008)

Nicole said:


> the medical name is:
> _Trichophyton mentagrophytes_ var. _erinacei_
> which basically means infection of the hedgehog fungus.


Did the doctor tell you that name or did you find it on the internet? because after over 15 years of ownership of hedgehogs, including many, many rescues from all walks of life, I have never caught anything from them except salmonella, which was my own stupid fault.

Unless they cultured (which can take 4 weeks or more) there is no way they can pinpoint the variety of fungus from a normal scraping/exam.


----------



## Nicole (Mar 6, 2009)

yeah the doctor told me that name and she took a culture. it's a form of ringworm but it's really rare. it's only happened to five people in the last year. if there's something to get, i will get it :lol:


----------

