# Hedgehog died Sunday



## CaylaHedgehog (Jul 5, 2012)

I bought a hedgehog about 4 months ago from someone who had her for about 1 year 2 months, so she was about 1 year 6 months old. From the day I had her there was a little blood in her urine. I thought it was just a uterine infection and was just going to wait until I had the money to take her to the vets to get it sorted. But last Sunday it suddenly just got bad, very bad. there was a lot of blood in her viv, and she felt weak, i gave her a warm bath to wash the blood off her fur and when i picked her up i noticed she had lost a lot of weight and was very light.
Due to this i decided to have her wrapped up in a blanket and on my lap for a few hours to spend time with her. (must have been instincts)
after a while she was dragging herself on the sofa away from me, i picked her up and there was a little blood on her backside, then wiped the sofa and there was a light trail of blood from where she was dragging herself.
I held her and she was very limp, she couldn't hold herself up
about 10 minutes later she passed away. Right next to her bum there was a large very hard lump bulging out after she had died, and i'm guessing this is what caused her death, but i don't know what the lump is. was it a kidney stone or tumor or something else? I don't want to take her for an autopsy as i don't want her to be cut open, shes buried now and i'm glad shes at least out of pain which im guessing it must have caused her some. The lump was a little smaller than a golf ball.

any thoughts on what could have caused her death? 
I would like to know as i'm devastated that she's died and would like to know the cause of it
thank you


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## njdepietro (Jul 21, 2012)

sadly i don't know the cause of the lump, but i am sorry for your loss. It was nice you got to spend some time with her before she went though.


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## Tym4myself (Jul 17, 2012)

I'm so sorry for your loss.  No idea what the lump was but my first guess would be cancer.


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## CaylaHedgehog (Jul 5, 2012)

njdepietro said:


> sadly i don't know the cause of the lump, but i am sorry for your loss. It was nice you got to spend some time with her before she went though.


Yeah my parents said that too, I had a chance to say goodbye


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## CaylaHedgehog (Jul 5, 2012)

Tym4myself said:


> I'm so sorry for your loss.  No idea what the lump was but my first guess would be cancer.


Thank you  Yeah that's what i thought when I saw it, and due to the fact she had lost a lot of weight. She's in hedgehog heaven now and out of any discomfort so i'm happy for her in a way. It's still hard to have lost her, as she was my first pet.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

I'm sorry for your loss. 

Just for the future, if you ever notice blood in urine or poop, it's an emergency. There's no telling how long she may have been in pain for, no way of knowing if she was bleeding with previous owners too. Our little ones hide illnesses really well, and prompt treatment is best. Even if the prognosis ends up being bad, helping them pass when quality of life is no longer there is better than just waiting. 

Again, I'm sorry for your loss. I just wish she could've had vet care to ensure she wasn't in pain.


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## Hazesti (Jan 19, 2010)

I'm really really sorry for your loss.

My Quinn was operated today for the same symptoms. Although she was very strong the whole time and didn't get too thin. Over the course of a week, I noticed a few drops of blood in her urine, got her to a vet, who prescribed antibiotics to see if it'd work on a UTI. Then on Saturday she lost an alarming amount of blood and I noticed she had bled where she slept, indicating it wasn't from the urine. Then the bleeding stopped, but by that point I had already decided to get her fixed. The vet found a tumor in her uterus.

I don't know if it could have ended up bulging like that if it had been allowed to carry on... But I know now that a tumor doesn't always bleed, since the bleeding stopped but obviously the tumor hadn't gone away.

Again, I am sorry, but please, before you get another pet, be sure of having a little money aside for that sort of emergency. It will save you a lot of stress if you are prepared.


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## MurE (Aug 29, 2011)

I am sorry for your loss. It's not always possible to be prepared before you get a pet. Sometimes you don't know that you're unprepared until something happens. I am glad that you took good care of her and was there when she died, and I'm glad that she's in hedgehog heaven now. My thoughts are with you.


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## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

I'm so sorry for the loss of your little hedgie, Sprinkles. She is at least now free of pain and at peace.


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