# Loss of back footing, arthritis or something more?



## ALM (Jul 19, 2010)

Scribbles turned 3 in July, recently he started losing balance on his back feet when he walks or runs. He has lessened in his amount of running about a year ago. He hasn't lost or gained weight. It's never his front feet that he'll lose footing, it's always back left or back right at random. I have watched videos of WHS (so sad  ) and he doesn't shake at all like they do. His overall demeanor is normal, he's eating and drinking as he always has. I have read up on some things that are often mistaken for WHS and none of them really fit with his lack of symptoms. Is it possible that this is just old age setting in or is it something beyond that?


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Do you know anything about his background/lineage? Did he come from a breeder? Did the loss of balance start all at once (a distinct change) or did it start subtle and is slowly worsening?

Hedgehogs with arthritis are much like dogs (or people) with arthritis - they decrease activity and tend to move about slowly, gingerly. It sounds like your hedgehog is trying to move around as normal and getting tripped up.

From the way you describe it I wouldn't rule out WHS - the reason being that WHS starts small and most often (though not always) begins in the back legs. Pretty much all the videos I've seen on youtube show hedgehogs with moderate/severe WHS. The early stages, not so much. My fiance's first hedgehog developed WHS and he has early videos when it was just starting - it's much more subtle. What I would look for in a hedgehog with possible early stage WHS would be that it moves around as normal (or tries to) but stumbles, drags its feet a little, or even just seems off balance in an unspecific way.

Hopefully that's not what this is. There's no way to know for sure while a hedgehog is alive, although later stages (if combined with gradual worsening of the condition) are fairly obvious. You can try to address the possibility that it's arthritis. Our mentor uses an OTC powder sprinkled in the food to help her older hedgehogs with arthritis, though I don't remember the name of the one she uses. If he's willing you can try to get him to swim a little, or just warm baths might help the pain if that's what's going on. Moderate, low-impact exercise is always important for animals with arthritis, so try to encourage him to walk around - give him plenty of time to explore outside his cage and maybe have him chase crickets around the bathtub or a large bin, if he likes those.

Fingers crossed that it's something else. If it does seem to be worsening and WHS seems likely, there's a great website about WHS care and things to do (like daily massaging) to improve the quality of life. http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/comemeetmy ... lyhs1.html


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## shawnwk1 (Jul 8, 2011)

Vet visit soon is probably a good idea. It could be anything from a pinched nerve to whs or cancer. When a hedgie starts losing use of limbs its usually not good, but sometimes can be helped. At least if you have a correct diagnosis you will know how to help him better and ease any pain.


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## ALM (Jul 19, 2010)

Thank you both! We're bringing Scribbles to the vet tomorrow morning, bringing Oscar too just to get his vitals checked since he's never had to go. No matter what it is, I think going 3 years without a major health issue is pretty good for hedgies  Will let you know what we find out!


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Good luck! Glucosamine, by the way, is what I was thinking for the possible arthritis. Not sure what brand she uses, but I'm pretty sure she uses one of the kinds for dogs and grinds it into a powder. Either that or it comes in a powder.


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## ALM (Jul 19, 2010)

Completely forgot to answer your questions!
We don't know much about Scribbles, he was a Craigslist hedgie we took on from a 17 year old girl who said she had 3 hogs at the time, one being his sister so I assume she had a litter of them. He had mites when we got him we later found out. It seems it was gradual, we didn't notice it at first. The girl we got him from said they checked and he didn't have WHS (who knows if that''s true) he's always been kind of a waddler so at first him tripping would have seemed normal.The way hedgies warm up to you, he really never did, anything we do startles him, it was much more apparent after we got Oscar that Scribbles is just really stressed, all the time. He does like to explore thankfully, so we can keep that up. 

Today when we put him in the bathtub he fell on his side and was kicking all legs with no luck getting up on his own, which had never happened before. Poor guy


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## shawnwk1 (Jul 8, 2011)

falling over in the bathtub like that and not being able to get up isn't a good thing. is there any way you can get him in to the vet today? is he able to roll in a ball completely? could it just be he is overweight and can't roll himself over? idk just something that came to mind since you said he was kicking his legs (if he's able to kick his legs imo it doesn't sound like a paralysis issue which is good, but i'm not around him either).


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## ALM (Jul 19, 2010)

We spent the $300 to run blood tests and everything. All came back in excellent shape. We have an anti-inflammatory medication to try for 5 days in case it's a nerve issue, and if that doesn't change anything, his vet thinks it's WHS. She said otherwise to just make sure to let him explore as much as we can to keep his musculature in good shape, and if it comes to a point where he is in pain and unhappy that we'd know. She said he could very well live 1-2 years still if we continue proper diet and exersize. His weight is back to what it was when he was a year old, 233 grams. At least we have eliminated a lot of possibilities!


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