New member with hedgehog q's

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hedgielover

New member
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
1
Location
Glenview, IL
I live in the northern Chicago suburbs and have a 2.5 year old hedgehog who is being treated for diarrhea which she has had for over 6 weeks. She is a very sweet hedgie who has lost quite a bit of weight with this illness; she went from 330 grams (small to begin with) down to 219 grams. Her bm's have been green, slimy and lumpy. The vet has done a fecal float and fecal culture and has not found anything in the culture, though based on the smell and float, thought it might be clostridium. My hedgie has been on Baytril injections with fluid because she would not ingest the oral antibiotic and stopped eating any of the foods we tried to mix with the Baytril. She stopped eating anything besides live mealworms and crickets for awhile, but will now eat some dry cat food and Hills a/d since being on the injections. She no longer with eat Bene-Bac, a probiotic.

Has anyone had a similar situation? What else should I be trying?
 
Hi and welcome! I wish you were here under better circumstances, that your hedgie was not sick, but you came to a great forum site to get some answers. I, unfortunately, do not own a hedgie, but there are a lot of members here who do. I hope your little guy gets better soon!
 
Given the weight loss, I'm glad you have the Hills A/D.

You can add a bit of acidophilus to what you're syringe-feeding her -- essentially the active ingredient in BeneBac. Pharmacies or places like GNC should have it - find the capsule version in the fridge, pop open the capsules, and sprinkle the contents into the A/D or on her kibbles.

I'd try offering sweet potato and butternut squash baby food. The gold standard for problematic poops, in general, is unseasoned pumpkin puree. But I find that harder to find and store... easier to have multiple jars of baby food around.

She may be rather dehydrated. Make sure you're syringing fairly wet A/D. Or just some water... carefully, of course. You don't want her to choke.

Ask your vet if treating the symptoms with Kaolin/Pectin (feline version) is okay. I've used that before. Do not use the human version... you know, like Pepto Bismol or what have you - they have added ingredients that aren't good for hedgies.

Get a water filter for hedgie's water -- just in case there's something coming through your pipes that's okay for humans, but not so good for hedgies... particularly a sick hedgie.

I've dealt with hedgie diarrhea... in our case, it was giardia. The key to that (in addition to meds) was to clean. Super-clean... insane clean. Here's some thoughts on that:

Every few days while she's being treated, clean her cage. Not just regular clean. Super-duper mega clean it. And everything she has been in contact with. If you have just the one cage, create a temporary cage out of something like a Sterilite tub (make sure it's roomy and the sides are tall enough that she can't get out). Scrub the new cage out one day (go ahead and use the harsh chemicals... like bleach), rinse it out, let it air dry; next day scrub with water, rinse, rinse, rinse, let air dry; third day, I usually wipe down with a babywipe, let dry, then fix it up with blankies and put hedgie in. Now she's in the temp cage, clean her regular home -- use the chemicals, rinse well, let air dry. Next day rinse, rinse, rinse, air dry. Following day, I'd wipe down with a baby wipe, let air dry, put her back in her original cage. Start cleaning the other one.

Meanwhile, do laundry like there's no tomorrow... Put her fleece in the wash all of it. Her towels, blankies, all of it. Even the stuff that's "clean" now. Use hot water; vinegar. Tumble dry on hot. And super-wash all the rest of her things - dishes, igloo, wheel... Dishwasher on hot is helpful. Let it all air dry. Anything that you can't wash/otherwise superclean (say, like a wood hidey-house) get rid of it. The shirt that you're using when you hold her -- that goes in the laundry too -- you'll want to choose your shirts carefully; else your favorite sweater is about to become very, very small.
 
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