# Erin smells like baby sick



## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

Hi everyone,

I've noticed that Erin's had some dry skin lately. I went into her cage this morning and there were flakes everywhere, poor thing 

I'd planned on giving her a bath tonight to try and ease the itchiness and when I went to take her out she smelled different. She smelled like baby sick or gone off milk. Kind of sour. I checked her cage and couldn't see any vomit or weird poo and I'm not sure what it is. 

The only thing I could possibly think of is that I gave her her first live mealworms last night. She didn't seem interested at first so I just left them in her cage over night. They were gone in the morning. Could she have possibly annointed with them and then the warm temperature made it smell bad? Or made her spit smell bad if she did annoint?

We have our first vet appointment on Thursday 29th, but if anyone thinks I should get her seen to sooner please let me know. I don't want her to have any kind of infection. I know that dry skin and skin infections can sometimes go hand in hand.


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## shmurciakova (Sep 7, 2008)

*could be many things.*

You can try giving her a bath. I took in a rescue last winter and when I first got her every time I would bathe her she stunk so bad that you could not even hold her. It was not like baby vomit though, it was more like poop. Anyway, it turned out that she had a yeast infection on her skin....she did not have flakes though, that sounds more like mites but it's hard to say for sure.
I don't think one more week is a huge big deal though either way..Please let us know what happens! Meanwhile, you can give her a little bit of children's Benadryl in a syringe to help with the itching...lots of people here also use colloidal oatmeal in the bath water. Don't rinse it off, just leave it on the skin.
Good luck,
Susan H.


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## MomLady (Aug 14, 2010)

You might want to check the bottom of the cage for the escaped mealworms. 

I found one alive about a week later when I changed liners. I swear, I looked all over for it. 

Did you gut-feed the mealies first? Maybe it was something THEY ate?


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

This is going to sound weird and I haven't done my research yet but I have heard that Natural Balance causes hedgehogs to smell like vomit. I read this on HWS facebook. I am currently going to switch my hedgehog (who also smells like vomit) off of NB very soon. I will let you know if the smell goes away. All of my hedgehogs are on NB and only one of them smells. 

Of course if you don't feed NB than it doesn't matter. And it's just a theory.


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## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Erin seems much less itchy after the bath I gave her on Thursday. I used Aveeno and put flaxseed in the water I used to rinse her off. There weren't any skin flakes on Friday morning or today either, so hopefully that's helped a bit. I also put a big bowl of water in her room near the radiator to try and help get some moisture into the air. I heard that dry air can cause dry skin.

Mom Lady - I changed the liner and all of the fleece in her cage on Thursday when she was smelly, just in case. Didn't see any escaped mealies and I don't think they would have been able to climb out of the bowl they were in. The sides were quite high for them, but of course I could be wrong. I will keep an eye out.

Desiree - I don't feed her Natural Balance. I use Orijen and Lily's Kitchen. If it had been down to the food, do you think she would have started to smell sooner? We've had her for 3 weeks now.

The smell went away after we bathed her on Thursday and as I said, I changed the liner too, just in case. She doesn't smell this morning and I've not given her any mealies since Thursday. I thought she might be a bit constipated and didn't want to make it worse. She seems fine now though. I will probably give her some tonight and will let you know whether she smells again tomorrow morning. Maybe she just needed a bath though. We didn't give her one last week because I didn't think she needed it and didn't want to irritate her skin. Maybe I was wrong.

Susan H - I will let you all know if the vet has any ideas about what it might be. Hopefully it was just a one off though 

Thanks everyone


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I'm not sure. It took maybe a month or so after Rose's switch to start smelling like that. It's weird too because I always thought it was her running and getting urine and poop on her, so I started wiping her down with a paper towel daily and bathing her a little more often but then she stopped wheeling for a little while and still smelled the same way. Then one day I saw the Natural Balance thing and wondered if that might be what caused it. There is a whole issue with NB anyway just like Blue Buffalo so I'm just going to switch them off it anyway. 

I also noticed a decrease in smell after bathing but it always comes back.


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## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

I just gave her some more mealworms tonight and they were gone within seconds :lol: No chance of them escaping at all.

She didn't anoint with them but I will let you know if the smell returns.


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## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

Update: she didn't smell this morning and she didn't smell this evening either. I did notice that there was a smell to the mealworms when I opened their tub though. I guess that's normal?


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## rodanthi (Feb 7, 2014)

shmurciakova said:


> You can try giving her a bath. I took in a rescue last winter and when I first got her every time I would bathe her she stunk so bad that you could not even hold her. It was not like baby vomit though, it was more like poop. Anyway, it turned out that she had a yeast infection on her skin....she did not have flakes though, that sounds more like mites but it's hard to say for sure.


 If it does not turn out to be a one off then I'd consider the yeast explanation - I rehomed a hedgehog 2 weeks ago and she was very itchy and she smelled really weird. Anyway we went to the vets Friday 'cause she was itchy and Hector had a runny nose and it turns out she has a skin yeast infection (which she is being treated for now).


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## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

Thanks Rodanthi. We have a vet appointment on Thursday and I was going to ask for a skin scraping to be done. She has dry skin at the moment and used to be really itchy so I do want to make sure she doesn't have a skin infection


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## rodanthi (Feb 7, 2014)

CashmereSkeleton said:


> Thanks Rodanthi. We have a vet appointment on Thursday and I was going to ask for a skin scraping to be done. She has dry skin at the moment and used to be really itchy so I do want to make sure she doesn't have a skin infection


No worries, good luck!


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## CashmereSkeleton (Nov 28, 2014)

Quick update:

Had our vet appointment today and he was very happy with her. I actually forgot to mention the smell because I was a bit overwhelmed with all the questions he was asking me, but I did mention the dry skin. He had a look with a magnifying glass and he said there were no signs of skin infection. He did recommend using Yumega cat oil instead of just flaxseed oil though. He said the 'blended oil' is more effective at treating dry skin as it had Omega's 3 & 6 as well as some other stuff. Has anyone tried this before?

Other than that all seems well and he was very happy with her. Can't say that she was very happy with him though :lol:

Also, she's really loving all the live mealies but she hasn't smelled again since last week, so maybe she was just due for a bath


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