# Puss



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

Hello! 

My 2 month old hedgie has a little puss pocket on her tummy and today had some puss on her back leg. I drained the puss from her back leg.

Was that the right thing to do? Should I just leave them be so they heal themselves?

On a related note, is it normal for hedgehogs to get their legs beaten up pretty bad? Mines front legs seem to have scabs around the elbows on identical places each side.


----------



## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

No it is not normal for them to have wounds that are healing on their legs. What type of bedding and cage are you using for your little one? It is also possible that she may have a skin infection which could be causing the open wounds. If they itch she may be chewing on her skin and causing damage.

If she has pus, she has an infection. And if it is pustules in more than one location, it sounds like she has a spreading infection. I recommend taking her in for a veterinary visit as she will likely need antibiotics to prevent the pustules from returning.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

Fleece liners, and no itching no


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

I think she might just be being a little rough on her wheel, I'm going to take it out tonight to see if things heal at all after. I drained the puss and put some polysporin on it so we will see.


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

What kind of wheel do you have? Puss pockets, which are really abcesses, can often heal over but the infection will continue under the skin and go internally. This can be fatal. Any infection should be checked out by a vet.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

nikki said:


> What kind of wheel do you have? Puss pockets, which are really abcesses, can often heal over but the infection will continue under the skin and go internally. This can be fatal. Any infection should be checked out by a vet.


I use a 12 inch comfort wheel

After draining the puss she looks a little better. I'll give it the weekend and see how she is

Her food intake, water intake, and energy levels haven't changed so I am not tooo too concerned yet


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

I looked at her again and it seems she has a bunch of tiny 'pimples' under her chin as well. I'm going to call tomorrow and make a vet appointment. Any idea what it could be?


----------



## kieah (Feb 23, 2015)

Okay - not an expert - only had my hedgie for 2 weeks...but I got her from someone who didn't look after her and she has huge problems. One being infection which has caused bits of her to drop off. 

DISCLAIMER: TOTALLY NOT SAYING YOU AREN"T LOOKING AFTER HER!!!

My little girl had issues that looked like scabs by the time I got to her which turned out to be poor circulation due to poor diet. I was a tiny bit skeptical coz 1) I had a kid here and Doctors pissed me off with their stupid ideas, and 2) it looked honestly like scabs, nothing more. No turns out it was dead bits on all of her feet and her tail (which has since dropped off). As I said Im not trying to say you aren't looking after your hedgie, but how is her food? My vet put her scabby feet and tail down to poor nutrition and housing which caused the infection and now that bits of her have dropped off and others cleared up after he has been giving her shots every day I can see that it really was an infection, even though it didn't look like it to me. Just looked like scabs from injuring herself of the crap wheel she had. We checked the food she was getting and even though it is for hedgehogs it has very little nutritional value at all. 

So what I am trying to say (poorly sorry...was beering with friends before opening this page) it may look like a sore but could really be an infection. 

I am so glad Kaya's tail dropped off...weird I know...but it means that the vet was right and he caught the infection and the s**t he was giving her has worked and the bad bits are falling off rather than coursing through her system and doing damage someplace else. We also know that her food was craphouse and we have gotten her better stuff - her poo is a normal sort now, rather than a dried shriveled up little dot of a thing. 

Anyway good luck with the vet appointment. Hope she is good and it turns out to be nothing serious at all!!! Cross fingers!


Okay re-read that after posting...it's rambling at best...sorry. Hope it makes sense. Just mean it as a cautionary tale not an accusatory one. Good luck.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

kieah said:


> Okay - not an expert - only had my hedgie for 2 weeks...but I got her from someone who didn't look after her and she has huge problems. One being infection which has caused bits of her to drop off.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: TOTALLY NOT SAYING YOU AREN"T LOOKING AFTER HER!!!
> 
> ...


I use Vita Prima Hedgehog Formula

All of her bowel movements are pretty big and good colour too

Is that food ok? I made a vet appointment for Monday


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Hedgehog food isn't actually good for our domesticated hedgehogs. If you look at the ingredients of the food you are feeding you'll see that the first ingredient is wheat. Also the protein is actually higher than what is recommended for hedgehogs. It would be a lot better if you fed your hedgie a high quality, corn and grain free cat food.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

nikki said:


> Hedgehog food isn't actually good for our domesticated hedgehogs. If you look at the ingredients of the food you are feeding you'll see that the first ingredient is wheat. Also the protein is actually higher than what is recommended for hedgehogs. It would be a lot better if you fed your hedgie a high quality, corn and grain free cat food.


Is there a specific kind/brand you recommend?


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

If you look in the food section of the forum here you'll see threads on the recommended foods.


----------



## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

montdyla said:


> I looked at her again and it seems she has a bunch of tiny 'pimples' under her chin as well. I'm going to call tomorrow and make a vet appointment. Any idea what it could be?


I'm still leaning towards a skin infection. I'd expect a veterinarian to want to do a skin scraping to look for mites, bacteria, etc. Your vet may want to do a "just in case" treatment for mites, if he does, ask that they treat with Revolution and not Ivermectin. Revolution is far safer. Next, I'd also expect antibiotics to be prescribed.

The next step is that if this doesn't start to clear up, or it clears up and comes back. Take the hedgehog back to the veterinarian and ask for a culture and sensitivity test to find out what is causing the infection and what medication best treats it.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

Kalandra said:


> I'm still leaning towards a skin infection. I'd expect a veterinarian to want to do a skin scraping to look for mites, bacteria, etc. Your vet may want to do a "just in case" treatment for mites, if he does, ask that they treat with Revolution and not Ivermectin. Revolution is far safer. Next, I'd also expect antibiotics to be prescribed.
> 
> The next step is that if this doesn't start to clear up, or it clears up and comes back. Take the hedgehog back to the veterinarian and ask for a culture and sensitivity test to find out what is causing the infection and what medication best treats it.


Yeah, thanks a lot. We will have to see what the vet says. Crazy how much they charge for just the appointment lol.

On another note, how does this food look?

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/dry-foo...d-zid36-356/cat-36-catid-200028?var_id=36-356


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

That food does look good.


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

Just wanted to post an update 

The vet thinks it might be an allergic reaction to the detergent I use on the fleece or the soap I use to clean her wheel - So I will be changing those to a hypoallergenic brand

She also thinks it might be mites, so she gave me some revolution to apply. If these changes don't lead to an improvement she will probably implement antibiotics.

Still eating and drinking and running though


----------



## montdyla (Feb 7, 2015)

Posting another update

Alice hasn't gotten any better, and still has scabs popping up around her legs, and now has two masses on each of her front knees, clearly filled with puss. It is very frustrating that the vet didn't just give me antibiotics when I first went, as I now have to dish out more money to get an actual fix to my hedgehogs problem.

She is still eating and drinking and running


----------

