# MITES!



## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

hey, i just got my hedgie exactly now a week ago, she is now 9 weeks old. Everything seems to be good with her, except she scratches. Im really paranoid it can be mites! Its not like she goes crazy, but i have her in my room and i can hear her scratch away sometimes. How can i tell exactly if she has mites? There is no lose of quills, could it be like dry skin or something? I didnt even think a hedgie could get mites this early! thank you!!


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## connorshogs (Mar 24, 2011)

I would treat him just in case it can't hurt.


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Treat her for mites, or dry skin? And what would be the best way to do so?


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Don't panic lol...you can't get mites from the hedgie nor can your other pets...whew 

Scratching can mean many things...my Hedgie routinely has a shake and a good scratch every time she gets up from snoozing. They will scratch normally and for no reason but they will scratch for issues like dry skin, infections, quilling, something stuck on them..really it's not a big deal and may not be mites at all.

If they are scratching all wiggy-like and starting to cause red areas or wounds that is concerning.

Personally I would never put a parasiticide like Revolution on my Hedgehog unless_ I KNEW for sure _they had mites.

I would try a nice unscented Aveeno oatmeal wash bath to help with any dry skin or quilling issues. I'd get rid of the shavings...they are all just a mess to deal with anyway IMO. Keep close tabs on the scratching or any red areas. You'll know soon enough if what you are seeing is an issue or not. Each night while I have my Hedgie out I routinely inspect her with a magnifying glass/look her over real well so I know any changes asap and be able to act on it.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2011)

Just keep in mind that its not always easy to identify its mites 100% even if a vet does a skin scrap and as such its why most owners and breeders say its best to apply the safe dosage as it can be near impossible to be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt a hedgehog has mites until it is very bad.

With mites the longer you hesitate the more bald your hedgehog can become and longer they'll have to deal with new quills growing in.

With you having a young hedgehog odds are its quilling, however being exposed to wood elements can easily mean it is mites.

Even most vets when a skin scrap comes back negative will still recommend Revolution as a treatment just in case and know it is a safe treatment unless horribly abuse in administration.


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

I had a good experience with Revolution. I had a suspicion that it could be mites and the vet agreed it wasn't worth waiting for results to come back to treat when Revolution has had good success and been safe. Your hedgie is young so if he's quilling that may have something to do with it, dry skin could be a possibility too. But if it seems like there is a chance I'd just bring him to be treated to be on the safe side, it's not invasive like some of the other tests and if it proves not to solve it you can always go back in for additional testing and that will be crossed of the list of possibilities.

Hope your little one is feeling better soon


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Okay, well im going to wait it out a few days and see how she is doing. She has never taken a bath yet so im going to try an Aveeno Body Wash tomorrow. And i am going to switch out the aspen shavings with some Yesterdays News cat litter tomorrow. Sucks that i just bought a nice 30 dollar 30 pound bag of shavings lol I do think tho she might have dry skin, its really hard to see anything amongst her quills, but from what i can see her skin looks pretty dry to me, tho this is my first hedgie. Ill try the bath and see how it goes. If she keeps on scratching away should i just go for a mite check at the vet? thanks for the help!


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2011)

HdgetheHog said:


> Okay, well im going to wait it out a few days and see how she is doing. She has never taken a bath yet so im going to try an Aveeno Body Wash tomorrow. And i am going to switch out the aspen shavings with some Yesterdays News cat litter tomorrow. Sucks that i just bought a nice 30 dollar 30 pound bag of shavings lol I do think tho she might have dry skin, its really hard to see anything amongst her quills, but from what i can see her skin looks pretty dry to me, tho this is my first hedgie. Ill try the bath and see how it goes. If she keeps on scratching away should i just go for a mite check at the vet? thanks for the help!


You can just remember a skin scrape can come back negative and your hedgehog could still have mites


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

okay, well now i dont know what to do here. im probably just going to wait a few days and see how she is. If it seems like she isnt stopping or its getting worse ill bring her in and see if the vet can find anything.


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

HdgetheHog said:


> okay, well now i dont know what to do here. im probably just going to wait a few days and see how she is. If it seems like she isnt stopping or its getting worse ill bring her in and see if the vet can find anything.


Some things you can try while you are waiting is a nice gentle oatmeal bath. Since she's still new and you aren't sure if she likes water you can put her on a small square of fleece in the sink and gently pour the water over her back being careful of her eyes, ears and face. You can soak some oatmeal in the water before hand. If you have a fleece blanket around you could always fold it and take out the other bedding too. Those two things might help you out a lot to determine the cause and you will be able to cross them off as possibilities. 
I was picking up that you might feel overwhelmed so I just wanted to add that in. Hope all goes well


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Yes very, so many possibilities! But i am definitely going to give her a bath tomorrow. When you say oatmeal bath, are you talking about just straight oatmeal? Or an oatmeal wash or something? I have fleece for the cage and i am using aspen for her literbox, but im probably going to get Yesterdays News cat litter tomorrow. thank you for your help!


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

HdgetheHog said:


> When you say oatmeal bath, are you talking about just straight oatmeal? Or an oatmeal wash or something?


You can use either  I use straight oatmeal now, and will put it in a sock or just let it sink and I'll be careful when I'm pouring that the oatmeal stays in the cup. I've used Aveeno bath powder before too but I always have real oatmeal around so I've been using it instead when it ran out.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

HdgetheHog said:


> , but im probably going to get Yesterdays News cat litter tomorrow. thank you for your help!


If her litter box is below her wheel you can just put a paper towel down. I use the news type litter too just cause I have 2 levels but she never uses it she just uses the under-wheel box. Paper towel is way easy


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## connorshogs (Mar 24, 2011)

I would treat with revolution its hard to overdose a Hedgie. I know a lot of breeders use it as a preventive against mites. The way I personally do it is open the container and put one drop between sholder blades. Its awsome


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Well today while she was sleeping i got a chance to look under her quills, and her skin is all grey and cracky, looks really dry! Im definitely going to give her an Aveeno bath than put a little flax seed oil on her. If nothing changes after that than i will bring her to the vet, see what they say, than go with Revolution treatment. Her skin actually looks so dry, i hope its not to bad for her


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

GREAT! When she woke up today i went to clean out her igloo which is where she scratches a lot and i found 7 of her small quills in here, so im guessing its mites now? How much roughly does it cost for a vet check and revolution if it is mites? Even though she is loosing quills is there anything it could be other than mites still? Should i even bother with a bath and flax seed oil or should i just go straight for the vet now? Any advice is appreciated, im very worried i've only had her for a week!


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2011)

HdgetheHog said:


> GREAT! When she woke up today i went to clean out her igloo which is where she scratches a lot and i found 7 of her small quills in here, so im guessing its mites now? How much roughly does it cost for a vet check and revolution if it is mites? Even though she is loosing quills is there anything it could be other than mites still? Should i even bother with a bath and flax seed oil or should i just go straight for the vet now? Any advice is appreciated, im very worried i've only had her for a week!


Some hedgehogs do scratch if they're quilling which as mentioned is highly likely for your young hedgehog.

Theres no way to really tell you how much it'll cost cause each vet varies some don't charge for a visit fee for revolution and others charge for both revolution and visit fees it could range from around $20 to close to $100 depending on how the vet wishes to charge.

To save some money avoid the skin scrap you'll pay for potentially a negative result because that flake of skin does not have mites on it.

Mite signs once bad are excessive scratching yellowing orange gunk on skin and quill bulbs and scabbing.

During quilling they can lose a good deal of quills so it could be quilling, as previously mentioned its hard until its pretty bad to 100% confirm mites or not


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

I read that they start quilling around 3 months, shes only 9 weeks. Is it still possible? And what do you mean by quill bulbs? Im probably still going to go with a bath and put some flax seed on her just in case its just dry skin. Im going to wait and see how she goes, ill watch if she looses any more quills. As for the vet the only one i could find on here near me is an hour away! (Dr.Munn at Greenwood Prk. Animal Hospital) But my parent wont drive that far for a vet check. Could i just go to any veterinarian? thank you for your help!!!


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2011)

HdgetheHog said:


> I read that they start quilling around 3 months, shes only 9 weeks. Is it still possible? And what do you mean by quill bulbs? Im probably still going to go with a bath and put some flax seed on her just in case its just dry skin. Im going to wait and see how she goes, ill watch if she looses any more quills. As for the vet the only one i could find on here near me is an hour away! (Dr.Munn at Greenwood Prk. Animal Hospital) But my parent wont drive that far for a vet check. Could i just go to any veterinarian? thank you for your help!!!


The white bulbs at the end of the quill, same you'd find at the end of a hair follicle.

Quilling can vary and there is a 8 to 9 week quilling usually before the 12 week quilling, some are early quilling hedgies others are later quilling and some quill very slowly.

You'll really want a vet with hedgehog experience, most unexcperienced vets won't even see a hedgehog, you can call and ask however they will not have any information and if you do that do not let them treat with intervectim


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## whitlp (Sep 24, 2011)

Hi there, I noticed my boy Hemmingway was quite the itchy fellow as well, similar to what you're describing. The way I figured out that it was mites was by gently rubbing his quills (like petting him) with a dark colored hand towel, if there are tiny white flecks on the towel then your baby probably has mites. I completely freaked out when I found these on Hemmi, I take immaculate care of him and felt like a terrible hedgie mom. My boyfriend had to reassure me that it was nothing I did, so don't feel bad! Anyways, I started by doing loads of research and decided the best choice for me was to try the kitten flea/mite shampoo. Make sure you choose an all natural one that uses Pyrethrins which is considered safe and gentle. I put some of this in Hemmi's bath water and gave him a normal rub down, then rinsed him off with clean water completely. The next thing is to completely sanitize their entire house. Don't put her back in before you do, or the mites will jump back on. I found that they can live in bedding, and realized that he contracted them in his carefresh bedding (that is what turned me from carefresh to aspen - boo carefresh!) Anyways, I used a lysol disinfectant spray and soaked everything in his house then completely rinsed out everything after. Threw out the old bag of bedding and got the aspen, and hes been great ever since! Hemmi is also 2.5yrs old, so not sure if that makes a difference for anything, but this worked perfect for me. Hope you figure it out!  Good luck!


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

yeah i see, every quill that comes off has a bulb on the end of it. is that good?


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## Guest (Oct 1, 2011)

HdgetheHog said:


> yeah i see, every quill that comes off has a bulb on the end of it. is that good?


@HdgetheHog

Possibly, they scratch for quilling sometimes and especially for mites the bulb will be there for quilling and almost always for mites, once mites gets worse you'll see excessive losses of quills, scabbing, and yellowish-orange gunk on the skin/quills.

@whitip

Aspen bedding can harbor mites as well but is by far the safest wood bedding for hedgehogs if I am not mistaken


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Well she is scratching a lot, and it wasnt gunk but i noticed just a few days after i got her there was like dark yellow kind of crust on her quills. Only a few tho at the end of them. I am thinking she has mites tho just by how much and hard she is scratching. I hear her at night scratching all the time. thank you!


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Sorry i also should say that she isnt loosing a lot of quills still. Around 2-5 each day, and it looks like its all her really small quills that are coming out tho, and every single one has a bulb on it. But i havnt noticed any bald spots yet


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## shawnwk1 (Jul 8, 2011)

Actually although rare it is possible to get mites from your hedgies. I actually had a rescue a few years back so severely infected that even though I had treated him I didn't think he had been next to my clothes and skin for a few hours that day before treating and long story short ended up at the er at like 3am with a bunch of little bites and my body itching extremely bad and after some tests they found out that's what it was so it can happen, but its highly unlikely. For dry skin flax seed either on their back, in bath water, or in their food, vitamin e on their backs or food, and a hhumidifier are all good things to help along w the aveeno bath. If it is mites I agree revolution won't hurt and it will also get rid of any worms or other internal pestisites the hedgie may have. My vet was also one of those that didn't bother with the skin scrape since it was just more money and not always accurate and figured best route was just to treat with revolution to be sure and he's been treating hedgies for years, but thats a choice for you and your vet to make if you choose to go that way.


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

well i think im going to have to go with a vet and probably revolution, i gave her an oatmeal aveeno bath, put the oil on her back, but im not sure exactly how much i should put. So her cage is in my room and i can always her what shes doing, and last night i heard a lot of scratching, i cant really tell if its as much as she normally does but i went to see her this morning when i woke up and there was about 30-40 quills in her cage!!!! So i am now convinced she has mites, like people have told me it does look like she is scratching like she is annoyed. Like every 5 seconds she'll just wind up than start going nuts Thank you for your help!


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

shawnwk1 said:


> Actually although rare it is possible to get mites from your hedgies. I actually had a rescue a few years back so severely infected that even though I had treated him I didn't think he had been next to my clothes and skin for a few hours that day before treating and long story short ended up at the er at like 3am with a bunch of little bites and my body itching extremely bad and after some tests they found out that's what it was so it can happen, but its highly unlikely.


Yikes bummer...yes I suppose scabies is one that pets and people can readily share :lol: If a pet has that one tho and you have had any contact YOU KNOW IT FAST lol


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## HdgetheHog (Sep 21, 2011)

Okay, so if its mites the bulb will always be there? because every quill thats come off her has had a bulb on it. Also for the revolution when you say a few drops between her shoulder blades, do you mean like on her back a little lower than her neck? Do i have to spread ot or anything or just a few drops there, does it spread or something? thank you


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