Sawdust making my hedgehog sneezy!

[Melly moo]

I think the sawdust is making my hedgehog sneezy, as I hear it can effect their respitory systems. I took him to the vet and she said he had a head cold. she gave him some antibiotics and they worked for a little bit. I think she didn't really know what she was talking about as she suggested feeding him fish, which would make him seriously ill.

I'm not sure what else I could line the bottom of his cage with, as i think he would just burrow under a cloth cage liner...and he isn't potty trained and poos everywhere.

Would the stuff they use to line the bottom of snake tanks be any good? the large wood chips...
I'd be really appreciative of any suggestions as to what I can do.

Thanks!! x

 

[LovinHedgies]

I would go with liners. My little lady burrowers under hers every night, but I really don't care - whatever she find comfortable is fine! Also, neither of my hedgies are "potty trained" however they usually keep their feces and urine on their wheels. Changing fleece liners every other night or every night is super easy, and a little bit of vinegear in the wash makes the urine smell disappear.
What antibiotic did your vet give you? And how long did you give it? Respiratory infections can be hard to get rid of.

 

[Melissa]

Sulfa should be what was prescribed.. If you keep on it a URI isnt hard to get rid of. When it advances to pneumonia is where you have to start to worry.

Liners are going to be your best bet. You can just take fleece and cut it to the specs of the cage. When you are ready to clean them take it outside and shake it out and then throw it in the wash. You can also take just a plain pillowcase in the mean time to line the cage..

If you are worried about digging under the liner you can put several layers like I do. My boys havent seen the bottom yet. Or you can get a tissue box and make a dig box for him. You can get fleece strips and stuff it in there for him to dig in.

 

[tacotac]

How about CareFresh? I used to use that before I went to liners.

 

[charlie]

CareFresh may be linked to impaction, I know we had a hedgie pass that had came to us with an impaction and had been kept on care fresh by the SPCA. It was the only thing we thought could have caused it. Unfortunately we did not get a necropsy, so we cannot be sure. But I believe there have been other suspected cases (maybe someone else on this board can recall?).

 

[Christemo]

Carefresh is terrible... if something's so dusty to start off a reaction on a human, imagine what it could do for a hedgie's lungs?

Also, fleece liners are the least expensive way to go. For the price of two bags of care fresh, you can get a liner that can be washed and reused over and over again.

 

[Rayne]

I use dog crate matting with fleece over it, seems to be working great for me. it has a little more weight to it then just fleece so even if tucker happens to crawl under the fleece, the matting has a little more weight to it so he can't get under that. I will take a picture of it tomorrow so you can see, everything can go straight into the washer. Do you have a tray under his wheel? that might also help with getting him litter trained.