Sudden onset WHS or what?

[thistlesmom]

Hi,

Some of you may be familiar with my poor Thistle's ongoing health crisis. You can take a look at this post for the tale of her amputation.

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11715

So, it turns out they misdiagnosed her in SEPTEMBER and it was cancer afterall. So that was 4 months of extra medical costs, spreading cancer and basic torture of my hedgehog. Not impressed.

So she was getting around great on 3 legs, adapted just like everyone reassured me. Until last Friday...

I picked her up and she was just laying on her side. She couldn't walk she would just fall over. But other than this she was acting completely normal (if that makes sense). She still has strength in her legs and would kick and what not and could push me with her 3 feet. I basically thought she was going to die but by Saturday night she was normal again. Now again last night she was in this same state, but she managed to eat and poop and pee and drink last night despite this.

She is almost 4 years old. What could it be? She has never had even the slightest sign of WHS before. I don't know what to do. It's heart breaking to watch but other than the fact that she can't stay up right she is still acting like herself.

Help?

 

[Truffle]

I am so sorry to hear this! Thistle's been through so much, and she's really a trooper. I'm a brand new hedgie owner, so I can't give advice, but I wanted to send you both my good wishes! Hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along soon.

 

[Melissa]

I dont know alot about WHS but from what I understand it does not come on suddenly. How is the temperature in her room? Hopefully someone with experience with it will come along shortly to help you out.

 

[shetland]

Prayers for precious little Thistle. She is just so brave.

 

[Kalandra]

There are a lot of things that people immediately assume are WHS which are not related at all. WHS does not typically come on suddenly. Hibernation attempts, tumors (depending on their location), inner ear infections, strokes, injury to the back or legs, nutritional deficiency are a few that can cause wobbliness.

With the description you gave, I'd call the vet and tell him what you have here. I'd hate to speculate as to what happened.

 

[thistlesmom]

Thanks. It's definitely not a hibernation attempt, I certainly know what one of those looks like. I've been hoping it's a simple thing like an inner ear infection. Her 3 legs all seem normal, I've inspected them to her displeasure and they don't seem hurt, she can move them all fine. She had a full x ray in December during the amputation and nothing came back, but who knows.
A stroke has been my best guess so far.
She is back to normal for now. I find taking her to the vet can be really frustrating as I'm charged a ton of money (after my 4 month ordeal I have literally spent thousands) to be told to "keep an eye on her" or "I don't know, could be anything".

 

[smhufflepuff]

Sorry you and your little one have been on such a roller coaster.

The closest I've seen to that is in a cat I was taking care of - stroke; did not regain function. And one of my guinea pigs - heart condition, recovered, was "good" for a couple months, same thing happened, okay for another few weeks, then crossed the rainbow bridge.