# Meet Renny the Rescue!



## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

My boyfriend and I got a rescue boy just over a month ago. He's originally from a pet store, and about a year old. We found him through an ad on craigslist. When we got him, he was living in cat litter. He was in a tiny cage, and had no wheel, because he "didn't like wheels". He took a few days to figure out the wheel, and now he's a pro! He had impossibly dry skin and he was ridiculously jumpy. We decided on the name "Renny", which means small but mighty.

After about a week with us, we took him to see our vet to check for a possible URI. He wasn't very helpful at the vet, he bit a technician (which our vet said they're there for) and when the vet wanted to listen to his lungs, he balled up. After much coaxing, he finally let the vet listen to him. The vet reported that his lungs were clear, but considering his living conditions prior to being with us, he may suffer from long-term lung issues. We were also instructed to watch him closely for any signs of an oncoming URI.

During the following month, Steven and I struggled with Renny to get him to gain some weight. When Renny was first exposed to water, he gained nearly 30 grams over night. Turns out, he was dehydrated too. He weighed in at 336 after his "water weight" had been added. Over the next few days, he shed this weight, then went on a food strike. Steven and I were syringe feeding him every morning and night, but Renny was still losing weight. We didn't know what else to do. One day, while we were helping my grandparents move into a new house, our roommate came into our room to take the dog out, and turned off our bedroom light. I was so livid! By the time we got home at 8pm, both Houdini and Renny were up and running. Since Renny is always more difficult if he's been awake for a while, we decided against syringe feeding him that night, and check how much he ate in the morning.

Miracle of all miracles, Renny ate a reasonable amount of food, and actually gained a few ounces! We stopped syringe feeding him, and he's slowly gained a few grams at a time. We'll be happy when he gets back to him starting weight of 310. He's currently at 293, and this is the uphill from what he dropped to. We were so scared he was going to starve himself while we were trying to help him gain weight.

Last weekend, Renny went back to the vet for a progress check. The vet confirmed that he will likely have permanent respiratory damage due to the kitty litter, which was a huge blow to us. We were so hopeful that maybe he could get over his lung issues, but that's not how life is working out for him. Outside of that, the vet commented on how great his skin looks compared to when we started treating it. He also noticed a huge improvement with Renny's disposition. Yeah, he's still jumpy, but he's really outgoing and curious. He'd rather explore the world than cuddle, but he's very open to being handled. Sunday also marked the end of his 30-day quarantine.

After reading all that, I bet you're dying to see some pictures.  These were taken a couple weeks ago, so they're pretty recent.

The small blob of skin on the top of his ear was the result of his ears being tattered, and they were in the process of healing. That blob is gone now.









We like to joke that he wants to be a yoga instructor.









I recently got a compliment saying he looks like a model in this picture. You know who you are. 









He's always such a gentleman, he crosses his paws all the time when he stops moving. 









He's our gorgeous little Chocolate boy.  We love him very much.

Oh, and Houdini is doing great as well!


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## exoticfluffy360 (Jan 22, 2013)

awe hes so cute and he's looking great for the conditions you got him in .
sorry to read **** have those problems :/ but he's in a good home and maybe ,hopefully they may eventually clear up and surprise your vet. 
on the skin thing I've been told to put a tea spoon of olive oil in there bath each time and it helps with dryness. (ask around about that) but from experience (recently) it seems to work. 

um i know there nocturnal so the weight loss and struggling to get him to eat coulda been from leaving the lights on all the time(if thats what you war doing,just asking) it can cause them to be less active from what i read and they won't eat as much. I'm def not a pro at this just trying to give advice from the crazy about of research I've been doing. (any one is welcomed to correct me on any of this) and id def check with a breeder before taking this advice  

congrats on the new member of your family


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## Avarris (Dec 3, 2012)

Alex, he looks wonderful. I love his Gentlemanly Pose. It sounds like you're doing everything you can to bring him back around. I'm positive you'll do fine. Congratulations on your new arrival and the end of his quarantine time.


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## SouthernSweet (Jul 25, 2012)

Aw, fancy boy  I'm so glad things are improving with him and I hope they continue to do so!


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## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

Renny is just stunning! How lucky that you found him so he will be able to maintain his health now. He looks so happy and proud in his pictures; a bit bewildered in the first one; heeeeeeee. Looking forward to more pictures of and stories about both of your hedgies.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Renny is gorgeous and doing so well under your TLC. Great job.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

AlexONeil said:


> He wasn't very helpful at the vet, he bit a technician (which our vet said they're there for)


Haha, oh to be a vet technician 

I'm sorry to hear that the respiratory damage will be permanent.  But looking at those pictures, you guys are doing a great job turning Renny into a happy, healthy ball of sweetness! Please give him a tummy rub for me!


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

Thank you all for the kind words.  We are baffled at how such a sweet boy could be so neglected. He will not hold still at all, he _loves_ exploring. Our roommate doesn't understand our love of hedgehogs because she doesn't even think they're cute, but after seeing a soggy/grumpy Renny fresh out of the bath, she admitted that he was at least kind of cute. I'm gaining ground on this battlefront. 

I will definitely be posting more on Renny, it's been killing me to not talk about him! But I wanted to wait until he got a positive second check from the vet before I made an "official" announcement.  If it weren't for the fact that Renny has stolen my boyfriend's heart, I think my mom would have hedgie-napped him the other night. 

Renny gets more admirers than Houdini does, which is astounding. But that's okay, Dini is my man.


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## JulieAnne (Sep 3, 2012)

He is soooo cute!!! I looovvveee the pictures and am not sure which I love the most lol. Adorable!


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Renny was a rescue we took in and decided to pass on to Alex to work with - glad to see him doing well!


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Aw, Kruze!  I remember him from when he was first brought to LG. Great to see that handsome face again!


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> Renny was a rescue we took in and decided to pass on to Alex to work with - glad to see him doing well!


You would be surprised. He barely acts like the shy little man you knew!  I can't wait to bring him back down to show you his improvement!



moxieberry said:


> Aw, Kruze!  I remember him from when he was first brought to LG. Great to see that handsome face again!


Yup, that's him. He's been my little secret on here.


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## momIImany (Oct 14, 2012)

I love his long, fluffy belly fur. Beautiful. Good luck with him.


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

Here's a quick little update on Renny. A few days ago, he hit 300 grams again! He hasn't been 300 grams since January 31st. This morning, he weighed in at 303. We're so stinkin' proud of him.

We were getting a little concerned, because he had more or less stopped using his wheel for a couple weeks. He'd do a couple laps, and call it quits for the night. Courtesy of my insomnia, I was able to stay up one night and investigate. His cage was backed up to the mirror on our dresser, and he had apparently discovered the sexy-hedgie in the mirror. Needless to say, we were constantly cleaning up boy time for those couple of weeks. :roll: Boys will be boys. A few nights ago, we moved his enclosure away from the mirror, and he seemed to be a little distraught over the loss of his sexy-hedgie. But he quickly got over it, and we had a poopy-wheel to clean for the first time in a large number of days!

Renny has been full of lessons for us. His respiratory system is still a little weak, he still sneezed a lot (which I actually find to be adorable) and his huffing sounds more like wheezing, but he sounds slightly better with each passing day. If he keeps up this trend, then he _may_ be in the clear by mid-summer or shortly after.

Now that the sun is out more here in Oregon, we'll be getting more pictures of Renny, Houdini, and our newest addition Cinder!


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

AlexONeil said:


> We were getting a little concerned, because he had more or less stopped using his wheel for a couple weeks. He'd do a couple laps, and call it quits for the night. Courtesy of my insomnia, I was able to stay up one night and investigate. His cage was backed up to the mirror on our dresser, and he had apparently discovered the sexy-hedgie in the mirror. Needless to say, we were constantly cleaning up boy time for those couple of weeks. :roll: Boys will be boys. A few nights ago, we moved his enclosure away from the mirror, and he seemed to be a little distraught over the loss of his sexy-hedgie. But he quickly got over it, and we had a poopy-wheel to clean for the first time in a large number of days!


This is just fantastic :lol: Totally made my day. And yay for hitting 300 grams! I'm glad he's doing so well!


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## Ille (Jan 9, 2011)

Oh my goodness, reading that gave me my first big laugh of the day! And what an extraordinarily handsome fellow he is!


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

Wanted to post an update on the wonderful hoggie we call Renny--

He weighed in at 338 this morning! This means he has officially passed his starting weight, and his water weight! He is still a little under weight, but he keeps improving with each day! I think 350-370 would be an ideal weight for him, so we're working toward that. He is so active, and so curious. Sitting still is not something he's capable of doing. If we're a few minutes late turning off the light for the boys, he gets up and starts eating anyway.

On the downside, his respiratory improvement has come to a halt. He is maintaing the wheezing when he huffs, and he still sneezes often. But he'll only sneeze 5-15 times a night (instead of 5-15 times an hour), and he only wheezes if we wake him up before noon. We're thinking the wheezing correlates to his activity level, and the longer we wait between when he goes to bed, and when we check on him for the day, the better he sounds.

All in all, he's a happy and relatively healthy boy, and he is a loved member of our household.  We're planning on taking pictures of the crew this week, since it's so nice out, and I'll post some new ones of Renny on here.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

Yay! What great news!  Can't wait to see the pictures!


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