# Green and grainy poop, swollen anus PDX



## zamxonk (Mar 6, 2013)

Poor little Ambrose! I brought him home on 6/15, and the first week he was huffy as heck and totally fine. He tried the four or five kibbles of my mix I put in his treat dish, tried some vegetables and baby food, sucked down mealworms and waxworms, and his poop was totally normal.

When I started the transition of 1/4 my mix, 3/4 LizardGirl's mix, he started had one green mucusy poop at night both 6/22 and 6/23. He hasn't had a normal poop since. They're mostly grainy and brown and sticky, sometimes soft enough to sink into a cowpie shape, usually hold the tube shape but are very grainy and sticky. At night he passes green mucus and sometimes clear mucus, definitely coming from his anus. I took him to the vet, who said it's probably an overgrowth of normal bacteria in his gut and to see if he can resolve it without stressing his system with antibiotics. He gave me some other advice that I disregarded completely (give him pretty pets hedgehog food or hills w/d) but that was mostly about preventing future obesity. 

The day after the vet visit, Ambrose ate less than usual (went from eating 0.5oz to 0.25oz to 0.20oz (14g to 7g to 5g, roughly). Still running and pooping on his wheel, eating mealworms, and peeing a lot (for the past 4 nights I've found three or four very tiny (less than 1mm in diameter) spots of urine crystals on top of the larger pee stain, don't know if this is normal for some hedgies). He's bright eyed and alert, explores and attempts to escape his playpen, and won't hold still for a nail trim. He's quilling and itchy, so I've given him 2 oatmeals baths in the past 2 weeks, and topically applied flaxseed oil. It helps for two days and then he is scratching consistently while awake.

He is eating a mix of Fromm's Duck a la Veg (part of LizardGirl's mix, I believe, so something he was already eating), Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck, and Royal Canin Mature 27. They were in equal ratio, but yesterday I noticed that he ate almost all the Royal Canin, more of the Fromm's, and left more of the Natural Balance than the other kinds of food. As he had reduced the amount he was eating, I added more Royal Canin to his food bowl last night, and he ate 0.30oz/9g (80 kibble, started counting pieces last night because I'm so worried I want as many data points as possible!). Since his poop problems started the only treats he has gotten are gutloaded mealworms, to increase the fat in his diet. His weight has been 246g (6/29), 250g (6/30), 256g (7/1), 258g today (7/2). (sorry about the oz/g thing. I started out with oz and then decided g was probably more accurate). 

Last night he pooped some more green mucus (with bubbles!). His second mucus poop was less green, but had little red flecks in it. I assume it was blood. As he was eating and drinking and running around normally, I decided to wait until morning and call the vet's office to ask for advice/schedule a visit (emergency or otherwise, as they recommended). This morning his poop is all brown and very grainy, typical of the past week, no blood flecks anywhere. His anus is slightly swollen right around the rim, so I went ahead and scheduled a vet visit for today.

I don't like this vet. He was extremely condescending to me on our first visit last week. However, he does have a lot of experience with hedgehogs (he cares for the zoo's hogs) and he saw Ambrose last week. There are two other vets I can try, but they don't look like they have as much experience with treating hedgehogs, and I'd rather not experiment with that until he is better. So to the condescending vet I go. I do think that he'll be able to correctly prescribe antibiotics and treatment - I don't think he has any day-to-day experience with hogs, so I'm disregarding his recommendations on that front.

Any advice? Has anyone had experience with Southwest Animal Hospital (the condescending vet)? Has anyone been to Northwest Exotic Pet Vet or Lapaw Animal Hospital (the other two listed on the Hedgehog Welfare Society list for Portland)?

Could Ambrose be having a reaction to one of the foods?

I will definitely update later today about the vet visit.  I feel like such a failure of a hedgie parent. Only had him home for two weeks and he's pooping blood, go me.


edited to add: I just called NW Exotic Pet Vet, and she trained under the vet I'm currently seeing and doesn't have any clinic hours today.


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## Gruff (Oct 23, 2012)

Sorry I can't help much but I just wanted to say that a few weeks ago one of the admins (can't remember which - sorry!) said that watermelon sometimes produces red/reddish poop. Have you given him any food that may have produced the flecks of red? Just trying to rule that out if possible. Good luck today.


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## zamxonk (Mar 6, 2013)

Thanks. Nope, since his digestive issues started he's been exclusively eating kibble supplemented by a couple of mealworms. No veggies or fruits or baby food at all.


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