# Bump or pimple on leg?



## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

Hi there. I have a 9 week female hedgie named Biscuit. We just noticed a couple days ago that she has a bump that looks like a pimple or something on her front leg. Its not inflamed looking or anything but I've heard a lot about tumors and cancer so I am worried. She is walking just fine and seems good otherwise...I will have my husband put pictures of it on here when he gets home..
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## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

I wouldn't worry so much about cancer at her age, but I would take her in to see a vet if it came up suddenly. She may have poked herself with a dirty quill and it may be a little infected area that a round of antibiotics would clear up quickly.


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## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

She has her 1st vet appt tomorrow. Now I have noticed the little pimple like bumps on her other leg and under her chin. She is eating, drinking and looping and peeing just fine, but for the past few nights I am not sure if she is running on her wheel!! The first couple nights there was plenty of poop on it...I may need to do the flour trick but sill wait to see what the vet says tomorrow. I have only had her a little over a week so I am not sure if the bumps were already there and we didn't notice or if they are new. I'm worried. My last hedgehog died of whs and we were just devastated and heartbroken, PLEASE don't let anything be wrong with our new little girl!

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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Hopefully its just a little infection that needs cleared, or an allergy.

What are you using to clean her cage/bedding with? With as short of a time as you have had her, and with as quickly as these are coming up. It could be a reaction to something in her environment.

We will keep our quills crossed here that it is nothing serious and just a little medication or lifestyle change will correct it quickly.


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## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

Lil...quills crossed...I love it! I will let you know what the vet says.

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## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

Well we went to the vet last night. After they scared us with cancer they determined it was some kind of infection. They sent us home with amoxacillin after removing the bumps. They said if they grow back right away it probably is cancer and if they don't then ya, its just an infection. We have a follow up visit in 2 weeks unless they do grow back. Came home and cleaned her whole cage and everything in it thoroughly and changed her to fleece! She didn't even trash it over night like I thought she would. Ran all night on her wheel and all her poop was on the wheel and the paper towels I had under it. Yay! So my breeder called last night and when I told her what happened at the vet she said that 50% of the time antibiotics will kill a hedgehog! But she seemed less concerned when I told her what kind of antibiotics they gave us. Any thoughts on this? I see people on here all the time talking about antibiotics for RI's and such...

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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I guess I don't know that much about antibiotics and hedgehogs, but I've never heard of them killing a hedgehog. Did she give any reasons for saying that? Antibiotics do upset their stomach, since antibiotics kill good bacteria along with bad. You can give her probiotics in between antibiotic doses to help restore good bacteria and keep her system from getting too upset. My Lily is on amoxicillin right now as well, twice a day. I give her a dose in the morning, one at night, and around mid-day I put probiotics in her food when syringe-feeding her. You can find them at a grocery store, in the pharmacy section. It's called acidophilus, and you want the highest count that they have. Just put a pinch in some baby food or wet cat food and let her eat it or syringe-feed it to her.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

If the bumps do come back, do not freak out that your hedgehog has cancer yet. Ask the veterinarian for a culture & sensitivity test first. It could be that the bumps are still caused by infection and that the antibiotic you were given isn't working to kill it off completely, meaning the infection is resistant to that medication. A C&S test can help determine what is causing the bumps and what medication will kill it.


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## Melanie (Jan 2, 2012)

Thanks Lilysmommy, I will do that. And thanks kalandra because I AM kind of freaking out and need to calm down. What the vet said is if they come back really fast and aggressive, then she would think cancer. She was originally planning to send whatever came out of the bumps to the lab for testing. But after she was able to just scrape 2 of them off and kind of lance the one on her chin, she thought it was looking more like infection. She looked at the stuff she scraped off to determine what antibiotics we should use and said she saw white blood cells in there so that meant they were trying to fight off the infection but needed a little boost from the antibiotics...

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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

I've been having similar problems with my boy, we put him on Clavamox drops and they didn't work, so we did a culture and sensitivity like Julie mentioned and found a different one that will kill the different things they found in the sample. He's only taken two doses so far but we're hoping it will clear him up. He had some pretty big angry sores, but they weren't cancer, if that's any comfort.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Just remember, stay calm, deep breaths. Hopefully in a few days you will start to see improvement and those bumps will go away.


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