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C

Courtney

... and the Dynamic Duo!
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
642
Location
Edmonton, AB
Kismet is a diva, through and through. She thrives on attention and if she doesn't get her opinion of "enough"... let's just say I've become quite used to being glared at. These pictures were taken tonight, during 2 hours of cuddle time.

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"I just love my life." *sigh and stretch* "It's so quiet and peaceful..."

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"Hey! She's moving. My bed is moving! I'm not ready to go back to my cage! Nooo!"

Kismet3_June509.png

"If I just curl up down here, maybe she'll forget I'm here. Hmm. This is much harder to do in this position."

Kismet4_June509.png

"NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY! You'll wake me up!"
 
Awwwww my little angel. She should have everything she wants Courtney. If she wants to sit on your lap for 48 hours, well then, so be it!!!!!! My perfect little doll!!!!!!!
 
Aww, look at that indignant little face in the last pic! "How DARE you move me before I'm good and ready?!: :hilarious:
 
Just a quick note to anyone who may be perusing this thread: Kismet is going back to the vet today. Her jaw is swollen again after being off medicine for 2 weeks. Her tooth will be extracted, and I'll be requesting a second blood test to make sure it's still an infection and not something more serious. Her eye on that side has a touch of discharge, which wasn't there the last time. My mother took a look and said that can be a sign of sinus infections in humans - do hedgehogs even get sinus infections? She was outside yesterday, so it's possible she got a bit of a draft in her eye or a piece of foreign matter.

Keep her in your thoughts. Her face is a little bit sensitive, so she wasn't exactly cooperative when I tried to open her mouth to check. However, she obliged a quick look and I didn't see anything resembling a tumor or lodged food. Her gums on that side are pretty red and inflamed, and she made the most pathetic noise when I accidentally brushed the plastic syringe against them (that's how I got her mouth open).

Poor girl, I feel so badly for her.
 
Thanks! I was feeling so bad for her yesterday. We were a sorry sight... poor Adam didn't know what to do. Kismet was snuggling on my lap, just crying (or making noises that sounded like a dog whimpering) and I was petting her, apologizing and crying. The poor thing wanted nothing to do with the warm cloth I held to her face, even though she seemed less "puffy" afterward. It also seemed to draw the goop out of her eye, so that was looking better today.

On a positive note, we discovered that Eagle Pack Duck and Oatmeal moist food works fine with her sensitive tummy. I gave her some of that instead of dry kibble and she ate a fair deal. We had no green poop today and normally, she gets horrid loose poop about 20 minutes after any kibble that doesn't agree with her.
 
Update on the visit: Kismet's tooth is abscessed, but he couldn't pull it today - he didn't have a tube small enough to fit in her throat to sedate her. He tried the mask sedation today, but couldn't get the tooth out before she started to come around. Rather than risk hurting her, he put an order in for a smaller tube which will arrive within the next day or two. If I don't hear anything by Wednesday, I'm to call them. In the meantime, she's back on the same medicine she was on before, just to take the swelling down and provide a little bit of comfort for her.

The plan for the day of: Adam will drop the Diva off on his way to work. Kismet will hang out at the vet (and be the victim of numerous snuggles, no doubt) until the vet has 20 minutes between surgeries. The tooth extraction should take no more than 15 minutes from start to finish, he said, and he'll probably throw a stitch or two in there. I didn't catch the exact reasoning for that. When he's done with her and is sure she's A-OK, the vet office will call my mom and she'll pick the Diva up. Kismet will hang out at "Granny's House" until I get home from work and can pick her up. I'll just pay over the phone so no one has to carry cash.

I'm so very pleased with that vet office. I called them at 8:15 this morning and if it was possible to get from work, to home, and across the city to the vet in 15 minutes, I could have had an appointment at 8:30 this morning. Since I couldn't manage that, they squeezed me in at 3:40. This is the 3rd or 4th time we've seen this vet, and I'm always extremely pleased with him. Kismet is scared of vets after one experience we had, but she's never showed signs of fear toward this one. He takes the time to pet her and talk to her before doing anything, and will stop and wait if she has a moment of fright. He talks softly to her and even my mom had to comment on how gently he carried her from the back room after she was sedated.
 
That's great! Once that tooth is out she'll feel a lot better. I know when my cat had some teeth taken out they put in a couple of stitches... my impression at the time was that it was to keep food etc from getting into the place where the tooth used to be, but I'm not sure if it would be the same for hedgies. I'm so glad you found a good vet for the Terrible Trio. :thumbsup:
 
Right now it looks like she got in a fight with a door. The site is a little bit bruised, it looks like. LOL.

That makes sense about the food thing, Sandi. She'll be on some soft food for a while after and I can see it being necessary to shoot water back there to clean things out.

I'm so glad I found him as well. If what the vet's website says is accurate, he's a very new vet. He finished his apprenticeship/practicum thing in 2004. My mom could not stop commenting on how gentle he was when he was bringing Kismet back to us. He was cradling her against his chest, just talking quietly to her so she wouldn't be scared. Normally she struggles with strange people, but she was just laying there, completely relaxed and focused on his face. She just loves him -- I guess it could have something to do with the fact that he calls her "sweet heart".
 
Your poor baby, she is so adorable - she doesn't deserve an absessed tooth! At least she has a good reason for a lot more spoiling coming her way as she gets better!
 
Update again: Kismet has had two doses of medicine and she's fought hard both times. Both times, she's flailed like mad, foamed at the mouth and refused to sit still, which is very unusual for her. When I tasted the medicine, I found out why. Reading the prescription receipt made me slap my forehead and go, "duh!". The pharmacist reduced the sugar in the medicine so, while it's still bright pink, it tastes very much like Baytril. It has a very sharp flavor and I can understand why Kismet puts up such a huge fight. It's gross! The last time she had this medicine, it tasted exactly like a strawberry milkshake - very yummy and exactly like the amoxi that doctors prescribe for children. Normally, she takes her medicine like a champ. I'm not sure why the pharmacist made the decision to reduce the sugar in the medicine (the vet didn't specify on the prescription and this has never happened before), so I'm going to give her a call and see if she'll remake the prescription, but with full flavoring. This morning, it took me just under half an hour to get 0.4mL of medicine into the Diva... normally, she sucks this medicine back and is looking for more 30 seconds after I started the process.

*shakes head* At least the look I got when I scruffed her was funny. She looked at me like, "Really? Honestly? You're going to scruff ME? Yeah right, I'll show you."
 
I wonder if the vet suspects more than just an abscess? Tooth removal takes about 30 seconds and if she started to wake up another quick wiff of the gas would have put her back under for the few second required to finish.

Poor little girl.
 
He actually wants to throw a few stitches in there. He wants to put her under with the throat tube because the tooth was not coming out as easily as he thought it would, and she was waking up fast. He said he probably could have done it, but he didn't want to risk causing her too much pain. He said it was a very bad abscess, so he wants to take his time cleaning and sterilizing the area. A trach. tube would make it possible to do so without trying to rush around the mask and stopping every so often to put it back on and put her back to sleep. He mentioned that the entire process, including gassing, extraction, cleaning and waking her up would take about 15 minutes and given the position of the tooth (it's one of the very back ones), he didn't want to have to work around the mask and rush around if he didn't have to be. It makes sense to me, and I'm glad he's showing that compassion for my little one. He also said that he wouldn't be 100% sure until the procedure, but 2 teeth might have to come out. She was pretty swollen and the area was filled with pus, so he couldn't get a perfect look at the area. He cleaned up the area with some sort of antibacterial thing, and the medicine will alleviate some of the swelling so he'll be able to see just how many teeth are involved in the abscess.

Looking back, I see that I forgot to mention that he did take blood from her again while she was out. The blood work came back with an abnormal white blood cell count, which he said is a sign of infection. It was the same last time and he doesn't seem worried about it, but I imagine he'll know more when he gets in there for the procedure.

Edit: I'm pretty sure some of my explanation sounds garbled and the terms are probably confused. I was trying my best to follow along with everything he was saying, but this is a new thing for me and I was feeling pretty relieved that he didn't come back into the room and tell me, "We found a tumor back there and it's not looking good". I'm feeling pretty confident that he knows what he's talking about, and Kismet is already looking a little less puffy. She's definitely less ouchy - she let me pet her face today. Yesterday, she wanted NO part of that.
 
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Wishing the best for my little angel. Extra cuddles, kisses, pets and treats. I love my little Kismet!!!
 
We're about to try sweetening the medicine with a touch of brown sugar. I got home today and noticed that her face is pretty much completely free of swelling, aside from the spot where the abscess is. She has a teeny little bruise there too, but it doesn't appear to be sensitive. She was running all over the apartment today too. She finally figured out how to walk on linoleum!
 
I was just outsmarted by a hedgehog.I mixed a bit of brown sugar with her medicine and tried to get it into her. Nope.

I mixed the concoction with wet food. I mixed it like 10:1 and she still turned her nose up. At one point, she was spinning in circles to get away from the food.

So I played bad cop with her. I scruffed her and did it the hard way while she glared and frothed at the mouth.
 
Don't you love it when they beat us at our own game? I'm glad she's feeling well enough to fight you. :thumbsup: :laughitup:
 
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