# Difficulty walking



## beforehands (Aug 29, 2013)

Hello! I have a sweet hedgehog named Oliver (about 3.5 years old) who started exhibiting some concerning behavior. I'll be contacting the vet first thing tomorrow when the office opens, but in the meantime (while I worry myself sick...) I thought I'd see what everyone here says.

First of all, Oliver went to the vet a couple weeks ago because I noticed a sudden dip in weight and appetite. The vet said the cause was likely his teeth, which are in quite bad condition, and prescribed an antibiotic and a pain reliever and also advised switching him to a wet food diet. It's a week now since he's been off the meds, and even though we're still switching his food (going slow so as not to cause any tummy upset), his appetite has gone back to normal, and I thought everything was fine.

The last two days, I noticed Oliver was moving a little more stiffly than usual. Tonight when I got him out of his cage, he was not only moving stiffly but also...oddly. When I lowered him into the water for his foot bath, he sort of splayed his legs out and then acted like he couldn't figure out how to get them back under himself to stand.

Then I put him on a fleece and tried to get him to walk a bit. I took a video and made a low-quality gif from it which I'm attaching here. Mostly he just ends up turning in a slow circle and maybe shuffling backward. When he tries to move forward, he lifts his back left leg high and shakes it as though something's wrong with it? Or at least that's what it looks like to me.

He's also sniffing A LOT more vigorously than usual. Like in the gif/video, you can see him shaking a bit? Most of that is him sniffing so hard his whole body is shaking.

Like I said, he's going to the vet as soon as I can get him in, but in the meantime I'm going out of my mind with worry. I don't think it's WHS, but I'm not sure if it's an injury, a slipped disc, a stroke, or something else. Thoughts?


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

I agree that it doesn't look like WHS but I'm not sure what it could be. Doesn't really look like a spinal issue or a stroke either. Has he gained any weight back? I wonder if he's just weak from not eating as much. Another thing is sometimes when they are not feeling well they need the temperature bumped a bit or they get chilled. You could try that for now and see if it helps at all.


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## beforehands (Aug 29, 2013)

For the sake of closure and for anyone browsing the forums in the future, Oliver was put to sleep today. In the ten days that passed from when I first posted, he went from the movements in the gif, to general wobbliness, then to dragging himself on his side until he developed a sore and bled, and finally to just lying there staring at the side of his cage. We didn't get an official diagnosis, but the vet suspected a brain tumor. I'm still in shock at how it seemed to come out of nowhere and how quickly it progressed. At least he's no longer suffering now, though.


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## Pixel101 (Dec 11, 2016)

I'm sorry for your loss I lost my previous hedgehog to a tumor. Tumors grow unaturaly fast. I hope you feel better soon.


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## Quillys_Mom_Punky (Apr 19, 2017)

So sorry for your loss, beforehands. RIP, Oliver.


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