Hey guys. I posted this on another website last night and was recommended to come here. I'm gonna repost what I posted there and add a bit.
I checked on him when I woke up which was about 13 hours later. His little pile of crickets has been torn through, his water is mostly gone, he's pooped, and he may or may not have urinated. I startled him a bit when I lifted the blanket off of the box he's in, so I didn't get to see whether or not he was layed flat out like normal. But as I first touched him, he felt a lot more flexible as he balled up. This gave me confidence, but once he was fully rolled over I saw that he was once again curled into a ball, can't uncurl, and is smushed in like he was last night. I didn't notice if he was stiff or not, but it looks like some of the swelling and redness in his penis/back area has gone down, at least a bit.
I'm really hoping you guys can help, it's so frustrating because it doesn't seem like an immediate emergency anymore because he got out of his ball and was fine last night (assumingly, due to the mess of his box lol) but once he balls up, he can't get out (and is swollen/stiff), but something is still obviosuly wrong. The worst part is that no one online apparently has ever heard of this.
Hey guys. I'm having a real emergency right now, I've been panicking for a few hours and haven't been able to change the situation much. I really hope you guys can help me out. There are no available vets that handle hedgehogs in a 2 hour drive radius, and googling every symptom and every possible combination of words describing this hasn't helped. I have no idea what's happening, but the closest description to it is hibernation. But some things really aren't right.
I have a male hedgehog. I got him in June 2012, but I rescued him, so I don't have his birth date. However he was a bit smaller when I got him so I assume he was just about done growing. Since then, he's been fine. He's always been shy and touchy, but healthy, and active. Yesterday I saw him walking around his cage, somewhat slower, but nothing alarming.
Four hours ago, I went to go check on him since he's been sleeping behind his igloo for the past few nights, and he (appeared to be) sleeping like he always does, quills back, laying out on his side. I stroked his back to let him wake up before I grabbed him, and of course since he's really shy he went into a ball.
What was immediately alarming was that he was almost twice his regular size, balled up. He was also unable to completely ball up, because he seemed to be swollen. His body was extremely stiff. His fur was showing and his legs were packing in so far into his fur/belly that you could barely see his paws. His face is squished back too, and it looks dry and crusty around his nose and cheeks. There's also a large (almost an inch) sort of square patch of raised skin (which I think may be his penis or some related part) that's really swollen and red. I'm sure it was there before, but much smaller, and a very light pink. It's very swollen and in between that and his back quills (less than a quarter inch space) is a very weird looking red.. sore. It looks like ground beef, but very red.
I packed him up in my shirt and girlfriend's sweater and left him on my bed with her while I looked up everything that could be happening. I thought it may be a stroke, or WHS, or something I'd never heard of called "balloon hedgehog syndrome," but hibernation sounded most fitting.
About a half hour later, I concluded that he was likely hibernating, I kept him in the shirt and sweater, exposed him a little, and had a tiny space heater pointed in his direction. It was said that within an hour he should be active again. Within 10-20 minutes, he started sniffing, and soon after licking his nose, followed by sniffing around the air (although his eyes were still not exposed at all). A bit later (about 45 minutes) he stuck his leg out in the air, and a minute or two later pulled it back in. He did this again a few minutes later, and after that, he went back to his swollen, mushed in state. I gave him time and the space heater overheated after almost 2 hours.
So, almost 4 hours after the start of all this, I've gotten a small box and put a blanket in on the bottom, along with the shirt and sweater as a blanket. I left a small dish of water and a pile of crickets, in case he were to awake without me noticing, he could get some extra nutrition into him. I didn't want to put him in the cage or bring his igloo, shavings, bowls etc in because I wanted to avoid anything in the cage that may have been irritating him (I read of allergies).
He's been in the box for a half hour now, with a blanket over it so it's quite dark. I've heard some quills scraping against the cardboard like he's walking, but I don't want to lift the top blanket to check on him and end up scaring him back into that ball.
What do you guys think I should do? He was my first hedgehog and I'm terrified I've been crying and it's been really frustrating not being able to find anything online..
No updates, the moving sounds stopped after about 10 minutes.
Just checked on him on my way to bed. He moved over to where the pile of crickets is. I can't see if he ate them, but he appears to be stretched out laying asleep, quills are back. I'll update in the morning. I'd still really appreciate any advice or support, even though it's a little settling knowing that he's not stuck in a ball anymore.
I checked on him when I woke up which was about 13 hours later. His little pile of crickets has been torn through, his water is mostly gone, he's pooped, and he may or may not have urinated. I startled him a bit when I lifted the blanket off of the box he's in, so I didn't get to see whether or not he was layed flat out like normal. But as I first touched him, he felt a lot more flexible as he balled up. This gave me confidence, but once he was fully rolled over I saw that he was once again curled into a ball, can't uncurl, and is smushed in like he was last night. I didn't notice if he was stiff or not, but it looks like some of the swelling and redness in his penis/back area has gone down, at least a bit.
I'm really hoping you guys can help, it's so frustrating because it doesn't seem like an immediate emergency anymore because he got out of his ball and was fine last night (assumingly, due to the mess of his box lol) but once he balls up, he can't get out (and is swollen/stiff), but something is still obviosuly wrong. The worst part is that no one online apparently has ever heard of this.