New hedgie owner. Mites???

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Lil'Monster lover4life

Active member
Joined
Feb 21, 2014
Messages
25
Location
CT
Well I will start from the beginning . My name is Becky and our newest family member is Lil' Monster as I call her in the sweetest voice ever I promise :) it's obviously a reverse thing but the name stuck and we love her to death. I didn't get her from a breeder but I think she may have mites. I've had her for little over two weeks now and this lil' gal has consumed my heart and most of my free time.
#1. So it started when I got her -the green nasty poop with mucus that I've already read about on the threads here, so I feel somewhat relieved that I am not the only one . I took her to the vet was given a probiotic for 10 days along with an antibiotic for 14 days.The vet basically said that maybe it was something she ate or possibly a parasite and we did bring the mornings droppings for testing ( the following week I called it was negative) yay
(The food I was given her was recommended by the breeder my mom had purchased her hedgie from as my moms hedgie never had any issues with her poop ever )royal canine kitty food -I was told by the vet to look into Mazuri or Zupreme which all needs to be ordered online and shipped and it won't be here for another two weeks ! So at the end of 7days of the antibiotic the poop is starting to look like a normal firm , brown in color hedgie poop !yay Well poop is on and off so today I decided to get actual hedgie food from petco that is suppose t to be good to hopefully hold her over and maybe help her digestive tract .I understand the weening and mixing of food could cause sensitivity that's why I'm trying to do it slowly a little bit more each day -also I will not add anything else because I want to ween out possible allergies or reactions .( I guess an update on this thread will be in order to see ow she does.). I assume that the hedgie food should be better than the kitty food I bought -most owners wont or don't use,I've seen the reviews and done my research but to each his own I suppose . I would rather try this for now it's filled with a diet of an insectivores needs . Anyhow
That's that. Her pee is normal-she eats,drinks,poops ,pees and I'm pretty successful with litter training her.
#2.dry skin--- The vet said WOW she is extremely mellow, friendly,and calm. She Said you don't see that much with hedgies this soon as I had only had her about 5-6 days at this point. That indeed is her temperament ,and she loves to just be in my hands and cuddle on my lap. --Although she seems kind of an odd ball at this time because she will not play,use her ball,or her wheel. If I out her in the playpen she runs and hides where she could,but if I put her on the bathroom floor she walks all around and just explores .her skin was dry at this point a little dandruff and the vet Said there was no concern for mites at this time and her skin was typical for hedgies this time if year. I said I didn't notice any black dots on her skin or around the quills which is what I read online. Her bedding is a microfiber towel for the floor and cut up fleece which I regularly wash with All non scented laundry soap which she has no problems with as of yet . I'm allergic to the shavings of all kinds so they won't be an issue , I do read they carry mites as well.
#3. I'm not 100 percent sure on her age. I assumed between 7 and 10 weeks because of the quilling and the vet agreed . Yes there are new quills coming in everywhere replacing the old ones . So no big spaces of quills are missing .
Ok- so that's about the gist of my first week it's definitely comparable to having an infant I swear it's insane the bond and attachment I do have .
So now after the first week basically her poops are not consistent still hit or miss. She eats,drinks,poops, sleeps a lot especially at night when she should be active . She has begun to get a little feisty and seems to have found her voice making all kinds of sounds. she loves the bath so far has had 2 regular baths good scrubbings and quite a few feet baths where she enjoys walking around the tub to clean her feet an bottom. I make sure she is warm during and then after I run qtips on her skin to thoroughly dry her skin to prevent more dry skin from forming. She loves it! She just chills out relaxed when I do this . I used olive oil on her skin as well as I noticed her quilling a lot and it seemed to help the big flakes of dandruff ( I'm assuming by her looks she almost done quilling and again no bare spots no crazy itching at all)
So tonight's bath I noticed black specs here or there and I'm not sure if it's mites. As I bathed her dried her as usual the specs were gone! yay. Now here's the weird thing. We went upstairs to put her away for the night and I noticed her tail looked dirty. I have noticed that same thing another time and she went in the foot bath and it was cleaned up. Ok so i wrapped her up and flipped her kind of upside down and looked through her quills and noticed by her tail there was a patch of this black spots and orange looking specs. I was grossed out !!! I'm assuming its mites or something because it didn't look at all normal and I took the toothbrush to her ,put a paper towel on the floor and gently massaged as much as i could off of her. So help me..what is this...??? And is it contagious or able to be passed to my dog ,what about humans ????? Well that's my whole story so far lol and my meet and greet for our newest baby Lil' monster !! Hope you enjoyed my book and I look forward to using this forum as I've pretty much read most of threads on here so far!!!!!! Thank u :) Becky
 
Congrats on your new baby! She sounds like a real sweetheart.

It sounds like she is settling in. For the food Royal Canin is a good food and so is the Mazuri. My vet recommended Mazuri food as a part of my mix too. It is recommended to have a mix of food so a good high quality cat food and the high quality hedgie food would be good together.

If she is not scratching a lot I wouldn't worry to much about the dry skin unless it looks irritated, especially since she is quilling. I have no idea what to say about the orange spots. Is there anything new on that?
 
Nothing new on the orange like gunk around the backside just above the tail. It was weird she had a bath then after she was all dry we went up to where her cage is and I noticed her tail had a brown spot when I put her down and then I looked closer and wrapped her back up head covered and around her belly with her butt mainly out and flipped her over.She didn't mind at all. Then looking closer found this gunk there and used a new tooth brush and gently kind of massaged it off (I guess u would describe it.) her bedding is fleece and I have no idea what it was at all ,kind of gross actually. Now - Today at playtime after work I noticed her fur(the baby fine pieces like) was on the microfiber towel I used as the base floor Under her igloo. Does she lose those baby fines along with the quills at times?? I inspected it under the light ,it doesn't look unhealthy and there is a follicle on the end as well like the quills. Since it's only been a few weeks she definitely has me nervous. I know they have very sensitive personalities and temperament like due to stress,warmth ,diet and all. I'm just trying to get to know her ,like you would your infant ! And you have no idea how grateful I am she stopped pooping green let me just tell you! . Crazyyyyyy. And so nasty. I was worried because she was so friendly to me from the get go --that I did not want to have to give her back because she was sick:( I had a week pretty much to figure it all out. They took a sample of poo,but that didn't come back until the following Monday as negative for parasites so that was a relief phew. I'm telling u she defiantly keeps me up and stressed worrying. Doing my best as I love her to death. Thanks for replying:)
 
#1. So it started when I got her -the green nasty poop with mucus that I've already read about on the threads here, so I feel somewhat relieved that I am not the only one . I took her to the vet was given a probiotic for 10 days along with an antibiotic for 14 days.The vet basically said that maybe it was something she ate or possibly a parasite and we did bring the mornings droppings for testing ( the following week I called it was negative) yay
(The food I was given her was recommended by the breeder my mom had purchased her hedgie from as my moms hedgie never had any issues with her poop ever )royal canine kitty food -I was told by the vet to look into Mazuri or Zupreme which all needs to be ordered online and shipped and it won't be here for another two weeks ! So at the end of 7days of the antibiotic the poop is starting to look like a normal firm , brown in color hedgie poop !yay Well poop is on and off so today I decided to get actual hedgie food from petco that is suppose t to be good to hopefully hold her over and maybe help her digestive tract .I understand the weening and mixing of food could cause sensitivity that's why I'm trying to do it slowly a little bit more each day -also I will not add anything else because I want to ween out possible allergies or reactions .( I guess an update on this thread will be in order to see ow she does.). I assume that the hedgie food should be better than the kitty food I bought -most owners wont or don't use,I've seen the reviews and done my research but to each his own I suppose . I would rather try this for now it's filled with a diet of an insectivores needs . Anyhow
That's that. Her pee is normal-she eats,drinks,poops ,pees and I'm pretty successful with litter training her.

Perhaps the mean greenies were stress-related. Moving away from momma hedgie and everything she knew to a new home. That does happen with some hedgies. Glad she was on probiotics. And glad that the fecal didn't turn up anything bad. Hopefully, things are going in the right direction.

I'm not a big fan of Sunseed, but it's an okay food. I'd suggest making sure you have another good kibble or two in the mix. You always want a blend of foods as there doesn't seem to be any one food that fills all the needs. Also, if something goes awry (you run out, the store runs out, the company issues a recall, hedgie decides "I don't like this anymore"), then you have other kibbles to fall back on until you figure out a replacement for the one that ran out, was recalled, etc...

#2.dry skin--- The vet said WOW she is extremely mellow, friendly,and calm. She Said you don't see that much with hedgies this soon as I had only had her about 5-6 days at this point. That indeed is her temperament ,and she loves to just be in my hands and cuddle on my lap. --Although she seems kind of an odd ball at this time because she will not play,use her ball,or her wheel. If I out her in the playpen she runs and hides where she could,but if I put her on the bathroom floor she walks all around and just explores .her skin was dry at this point a little dandruff and the vet Said there was no concern for mites at this time and her skin was typical for hedgies this time if year. I said I didn't notice any black dots on her skin or around the quills which is what I read online. Her bedding is a microfiber towel for the floor and cut up fleece which I regularly wash with All non scented laundry soap which she has no problems with as of yet . I'm allergic to the shavings of all kinds so they won't be an issue , I do read they carry mites as well.

Sounds like she has a wonderful temperament.
Glad she's on liners.

#3. I'm not 100 percent sure on her age. I assumed between 7 and 10 weeks because of the quilling and the vet agreed . Yes there are new quills coming in everywhere replacing the old ones . So no big spaces of quills are missing .
Ok- so that's about the gist of my first week it's definitely comparable to having an infant I swear it's insane the bond and attachment I do have .
So now after the first week basically her poops are not consistent still hit or miss. She eats,drinks,poops, sleeps a lot especially at night when she should be active . She has begun to get a little feisty and seems to have found her voice making all kinds of sounds. she loves the bath so far has had 2 regular baths good scrubbings and quite a few feet baths where she enjoys walking around the tub to clean her feet an bottom. I make sure she is warm during and then after I run qtips on her skin to thoroughly dry her skin to prevent more dry skin from forming. She loves it! She just chills out relaxed when I do this . I used olive oil on her skin as well as I noticed her quilling a lot and it seemed to help the big flakes of dandruff ( I'm assuming by her looks she almost done quilling and again no bare spots no crazy itching at all)
So tonight's bath I noticed black specs here or there and I'm not sure if it's mites. As I bathed her dried her as usual the specs were gone! yay. Now here's the weird thing. We went upstairs to put her away for the night and I noticed her tail looked dirty. I have noticed that same thing another time and she went in the foot bath and it was cleaned up. Ok so i wrapped her up and flipped her kind of upside down and looked through her quills and noticed by her tail there was a patch of this black spots and orange looking specs. I was grossed out !!! I'm assuming its mites or something because it didn't look at all normal and I took the toothbrush to her ,put a paper towel on the floor and gently massaged as much as i could off of her. So help me..what is this...??? And is it contagious or able to be passed to my dog ,what about humans ????? Well that's my whole story so far lol and my meet and greet for our newest baby Lil' monster !! Hope you enjoyed my book and I look forward to using this forum as I've pretty much read most of threads on here so far!!!!!! Thank u :)

In this situation, many owners (with help from their vet) will treat with Revolution. If you're seeking specs, combined with the flakes you mentioned, you could be looking at mites. Keep in mind that the test for mites can come back negative even when there are mites. It happens because, say, the vet scrapes on the rump, but the mites are hanging out by the shoulders. Stay away from "Ivomec/Ivermectin" - that has shown to be deadly... even with vets who say "I've used this for years..." "it's only if you overdose and I would never overdose..." etc... So, really... Revolution is the way to go.

My understanding of mites is that they tend not to cross species. But if you are worried about your dog, ask your vet. With Revolution, it's a small tube of liquid. Hedgie only needs one to two drops depending on her size. You could easily use the one or two drops on hedgie and put the rest on your dog if need be. But I think dogs generally have their own schedule of flee/tick/mite prevention... so I think it's probably a non-issue.

If mites, you will also be fine.

It's also possible there is something else going on... could be bacterial, viral, or fungal. Your vet can help diagnose what it is.

As you're sorting out what's going on, be sure to keep up good animal husbandry practices. Change out her fleece as it gets messy. Wash in hot water; add vinegar to the wash cycle; dry on high heat. Wash your hands before and after picking her up. Change your shirt for hedgie-time -- you can pick a hedgie shirt and keep in with her and change in and out of it; wash it along with her stuff (with the hot water, vinegar, etc...).
 
Hey there thanks so much for replying ! I am sure I can say that everybody that owns a hedgie can see the STRESS in it! I mean really ,I'm glad to get responses on here as well ,although I don't check my email often it's hard to keep up with the posts, on what I posted and looking for answers or responses. Time flys and I forgot to check on the forum. I talk about LIl monster all the time at work ,I waitress and bartend so it's convo to have with people who are naturally animal lovers:)

Anyhow I read read read a lot basically all hedgie related articles till 3 am or better. I'm trying to educate myself on them to understand everything that's going on with her. I love this gal so much but every day lately something new with her. I feel the vet should have just treated her for mites since I questioned it and I was already there ,our exotic vet is an hour away ! An mostly I read there's no additional side effects if she actually doesn't have them. I do have a dog as well As a hamster so I worry about them getting mites as well as us . I'm not sure we could get them but who knows lol I don't at this point.

Well now I see spines with a red circle around the base ,I read before something like this could happen ,it said to pull out as it could be or get infected because the thickness of the new spines coming in. I see her scratching above her eyes and now I checked her after work she has def scratched a lot ,her underbelly is def looking a diff shade of color pink but not red. I have not changed anything, I use a bucket separately for her laundry,I use All non scented laundry soap and wash in the bathtub and hang to dry . I have extra while it's drying do I rotate out. I will not put in my washer cuz I use softener and bleach and even though it's separate I feel like I don't want to upset her any more than she needs to be. They are so temperamental and she doesn't need much more stress ( my female dog thinks she is her baby so she tends to sit and whine at her cage ) ugh the worries I have when I go to work I swear!
Well her skin has been looking a lot better because I was using olive oil on her skin ,pretty good for a bit to help clear up her skin. It was nasty dry but she was not scratching at all! I started to put a few drops a day on her food and I seriously believe it's helped her! her skin looks amazing compared to before. The only red per say is above the eyes where I have seen her scratch yesterday and today It has red spots .i put antibacterial cream on it for now so she don't get infected. So now my question seems to still be does she have MITES? Is that inflammation around the bottom of the spine just that it's irritated ,or is it mites? I did try and pull out the spine as I read and I wasn't sure what to expect ,but the spine just practically fell out with no bulb on the end either ( I read mites chew that)??? So I think tomorrow I'm calling my doggie vet to ask to see if she will give me revolution , so I can treat her otherwise the hedgie vet can't happen till Wednesday on my day off(grrrr see like I said always something) I'm feeling frustrated cuz apparently I'm reading a lot and then it happens to me lol but it's all good info usually .
I trim her nails often so that's not an issue with the redness above her eyes. Her cage is immaculate , it's a bigger tote half is lined with the microfiber towel and then her igloo sits on that , I have cut up fleece inside the igloo for her to snuggle in . I actually poked holes in the side of her cage and I bought her bird feeder cups because they have metal hooks that I fed through the plastic ( the other ceramics were just getting tipped or pooped in and vice versa lol ). I bought a hamster cage that had a small water bottle but the bottle didn't have a ball inside where she would lick ( I read those are no good either it could break a tooth) I put another set of hole to mount that as well , much cleaner and healthier for my LIl monster no poopie water . So the part that's without the microfiber towel and no fleece is exactly where she poops(4 times or more a day to be exact) we pick out the poop and wipe down with a non scented baby wipe at least once daily to keep the cage cleaner and less smelly.
So my questions were after all that lol-#1 do u think its mites and am I right about the spines swelling around the bottom? Do I pull them out and dab antibacterial on the spot?when the spines came out here was no bulb!
#2 do u know if the mites are transferable to humans and dogs? I think yes but def askin in the am.
#3 the difference in shading of her skin from pink to a def heightened color change but def not red is this ok ? I mean it's been 3 weeks and she was quilling to start with,her quills were smaller with bulbs on the end and there is definitely replacement ones coming in on constant basis
#4 the fur that I seen on the towel or fleece had bulbs on them but are they suppose to fall out or not? I've not found one article on that at all
Again thanks for answering and reading my short stories I know it's a lot and we all tend to have busy lives but I appreciate eh fact someone responds .i will be taking my dog to vet in the morning as she occasionally gets an ear infection , and now is now different other than I'm concerned she can have ear mites! Her ears are diff looking this time but I know there infected as in both of them. One has raised red bumps on the inside while the other one is bright red in the canal and flap. Now u see why I'm concerned about the mites to begin with. And then I'll ask my vet assistant about revolution for hedgie maybe she will sell me some without seeing lil monster. If not I'll call the new exotic vet Monday for a script maybe she'll fill it and let me pick it up.otherwise hedgie has been doin good. Her poops have been consistent ever since I gave her the new insectivore food( which I will be changing to the Mazuri the more I read on that they say it's better then the sun seed . Who knows all trial and error and a definite learning experience. I tell everyone that having this hedgie is like having an infant no doubt!!!! Very stressful in beginning and a lot to know learn ect... They can't speak so all I can do is watch observe and determine myself when something is not right! Thank again hope to hear from you soon :)))))
 
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