# Frantic, Scratching, Shaking Head like a Dog



## starryeyedartist (Jun 11, 2014)

My hedgehog is around a year and a half old and is healthy. She is eating and drinking normally but has been acting strangely. Normally she is not easily startled and is pretty chill, but recently she has been acting very frantic, irritable, and jumpy. She isn't sticking out her quills and balling up very much though, mostly just huffing and jumping at every noise and movement. She also has been scratching herself, but it doesn't appear to be in the same place each time. She also is shaking her head like a dog a lot over and over. Another thing that I noticed was when I had her in her snuggle pouch she was kind of rolling around and rubbing herself against it. I thought maybe she might have an ear infection and she's trying to itch it and that's why she's shaking her head but her ear looks normal from what I can see. Her skin looks somewhat dry but not very unusual to me. Does anyone have any idea of what could be wrong?

Here is a link to a video where you can see her behavior:


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

I would check her for mites, on something black rub her down, watch the flakes after the fall see if any move on their own.

If you can goto your vet get a skin scrap to check and then get the treatment. Remember to deep clean her cage daily, wash all fleece she touched on a high temp, and any other material she has come in contact with needs to be cleaned. Keep her in one room while she has them/suspected to have them to make it easier for you with cleaning all the things

The way she was acting was like something is there on her irritating her and most likely to be mites if you cant see anything thats not normal.


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

The head shaking sounds like something going on with her ears. Just because they look ok doesn't mean there isn't something going on deep in the ear canal. A vet visit is in order.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

I'll echo Nikki. The jumpiness typically indicates irritation or pain. I've seen this before with a deep inner ear mite infestation. But I also had one do this from pain caused by an infection in her mouth. 



Other thoughts I have seen hedgehogs behave that way from something that was on them, like an 'unscented' lanolin/vaseline, or even a lotion that was on their owner's hands when they touched the hedgehog. While it was unscented it drove the hedgehog 'crazy' until it was cleaned off.


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