Swollen eye area- Please help!

[beachy_keen]

My hedgehog seems to have red, swollen skin on his whisker area and around his eyes, espescially his left one. I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow but wanted to see how serious this is before hand. It is not seriously swollen, but it looks irratated. I heard him scratching last night but I don't know if he was scratching his eye or something else.
One thing that might have caused this is that I've been putting a blanket over his cage (since it was so cold out) to keep him warm. It covered the back, top, and the front (at night) and I don't know if this could be related to his eye or not. And the funny thing is is that my eyes have been irratating me too, could he have allergies?
Thanks for your help!

 

[Melissa]

Do you have any pictures? It would help us better understand what is going on.. From your title I immediately thought "oh no a proptosed eye" and started to worry but your description do not sound like that. I dont think the blanket caused anything. Especially if he wasnt snuggled IN it.

 

[beachy_keen]

Well ,I went to the vet and they gave my some medicine (revolution in case of ear mites, that was irratated too, and too others and I can't remember the name of but it's for his eye). So the eye mystery is pretty much fixed, BUT I've never given a hedgehog medicine before and I need some techniques! He takes the other two medicine orally and I've been having a lot of problems there. I tried coating 3 mealies with one the of the medicines, but he only ate two of them and I think some got rubbed off. How do I get the medicine tube thing into his mouth? He doesn't like to stay on his back for long either =/
Thanks for your help!

 

[Kalandra]

First, when trying to syringe medication to a hedgehog, always approach them from the side of their mouth. Hedgehogs have lots of tiny hairs on their face that will often cause them to react, and in case you syringe it too quickly you don't shoot it down the back of their throats causing them to aspirate.

Depending on how friendly your hedgehog is will determine which techniques to use.

With those that won't curl up on me, I hold their back against my chest, using one hand to steady them and the other to syringe them the medication.

You may find that you need to "burrito" the hedgehog. This is basically where you roll them into a blanket with their head sticking out so that they cannot curl up, then you syringe them the meds.

Another option is to try to mix it in food. One down side of this is that if they don't like the meds, they may stop eating that type of food (negative association). When I have used this before I used gerber chicken baby food and mixed the meds in.

And remember patience pays off. Don't rush it.

 

[beachy_keen]

Thanks! This has helped tremendously.