P
Philogirl
Guest
I hope this story will be helpful to anyone who has the unfortunate experience of this happening.... it's long and epic, but has a happy ending 
One week before Christmas: I came home and noticed that Jack had not woken up and eaten and run yet- this was at 1 am, and he usually gets up around 8 pm. I had my boyfriend check on him and his eye looked like it had popped out of his head. It was severely swollen and clearly not *in* the socket. We ran him to the Emergency Vet. The vet there said his eye was proptosed and that they could try to put the eye back in the socket and suture it closed. Unfortunately, since I was not home that evening, I had no idea when the eye proptosed. The last time I saw it was normal was at 4 pm... we were at the vet with him at 1:30 am. That left us with a 9 hour window of when this could have happened. The vet told us that how long the eye was out and how much damage there was to the globe would determine whether the eye could be saved or not. This particular vet was not very experienced in exotics, but was an eye specialist and felt comfortable getting the eye back in. This whole procedure cost me $400. Medications: Gentamicin drops for the eye, Metacam for the pain, Baytril as an oral antibiotic.
Now, surgery to remove the eye would have cost the same... there are reasons I could not/did not do this. First, Jack only had the one eye to begin with. His other was removed before I got him. Second, the E-vet did not have the proper microtools to do the procedure on the spot, leaving me with no choice other than to attempt to save it.
Two days later, I brought Jack to his regular vet who inspected the sutures and confirmed that the procedure was done properly and the proper medications were prescribed. (At least the E-vet wasn't a *complete* amateur.) There didn't seem to be any pus or other drainage occurring, so all looked well... for now. However, Jack was officially blind at this point, so modifications needed to be made in the cage: we lined the bottom of his wheel and the sides with fleece so that he wouldn't hurt himself if he bumped into something. Although the eye was put back in, there was no guarantee that the globe was not damaged- this meant that there were numerous possibilities of how this could end: A) globe intact, retain vision, B) globe intact, lose vision, C) globe damaged, lose eye. We were rooting for choice A, but this was apparantly a low probability....
One week later, right before New Year's, we brought him back to get the sutures taken out. Luckily, there was no damage done to the globe when the injury occurred, but there was some serious edema and ulceration on the globe. It was apparent though that he still had vision in the eye. We kept Jack on the Gentamicin and finished the Baytril. The level of edema was bad enough that there was a significant chance that the eye could proptose again. Vet anesthesized Jack to do a corneal stain and see the ulceration. Vet also added Flurbiprofen (anti-inflammatory) to get the edema down.
Another week later, another recheck. Edema slightly better- cloudiness not better at all. Two more weeks of meds.
Two weeks later, another recheck. Not looking great. Edema still bad, ulceration still bad. Vet changed medications- took us off the Flurbiprofen and Gentamicin and switched to Tobramycin.
Two weeks later, FINALLY!!! Some improvement!! Edema is waaaaay down, ulceration looks better, but still some cloudiness. It's a freaking miracle that the eye has stayed in and he still has vision. Need to get rid of the ulcer before we can deal with the cloudiness. Funny story: so the vet wanted to do another corneal stain... which would involve putting Jack under for a bit. I asked her what was involved... basically, put a drop of dye in the eye, wash it with saline, look at it under a black light. I asked if I could just do it myself without the anesthesia and she said I could try. Got the stain in on the first try, got the saline in on the first try. Jack stayed unballed to have her check it. Whole thing took 5 minutes- she still charged me $40 for the procedure *I* did. There was still a thin line of an ulcer, so we did the Tobramycin for another two weeks.
Today, he went back. Eye looks great. *I* did the corneal stain again... he was soooo well behaved (I brought mealies with me.) And there's no ulcer!!! So we're using some steroids to try and get the cloudiness cleared up.
As of today, Jack's eye has cost me over $1000 dollars. It has taken almost two months to get his eye back in shape, but we did it. He still has vision, and his eye is staying in.... we hope.
This is a perfect example of the types of freak occurrences in hedgehogs that can be quite costly. Serious hedgie owners I know will praise me for my diligence, others will criticize the expense. I returned Christmas presents for people to pay for this... I canceled Christmas presents altogether in fact- one week before the holiday. I say, if you're contemplating getting a hedgie, but can't see yourself going this distance- don't get one.
One week before Christmas: I came home and noticed that Jack had not woken up and eaten and run yet- this was at 1 am, and he usually gets up around 8 pm. I had my boyfriend check on him and his eye looked like it had popped out of his head. It was severely swollen and clearly not *in* the socket. We ran him to the Emergency Vet. The vet there said his eye was proptosed and that they could try to put the eye back in the socket and suture it closed. Unfortunately, since I was not home that evening, I had no idea when the eye proptosed. The last time I saw it was normal was at 4 pm... we were at the vet with him at 1:30 am. That left us with a 9 hour window of when this could have happened. The vet told us that how long the eye was out and how much damage there was to the globe would determine whether the eye could be saved or not. This particular vet was not very experienced in exotics, but was an eye specialist and felt comfortable getting the eye back in. This whole procedure cost me $400. Medications: Gentamicin drops for the eye, Metacam for the pain, Baytril as an oral antibiotic.
Now, surgery to remove the eye would have cost the same... there are reasons I could not/did not do this. First, Jack only had the one eye to begin with. His other was removed before I got him. Second, the E-vet did not have the proper microtools to do the procedure on the spot, leaving me with no choice other than to attempt to save it.
Two days later, I brought Jack to his regular vet who inspected the sutures and confirmed that the procedure was done properly and the proper medications were prescribed. (At least the E-vet wasn't a *complete* amateur.) There didn't seem to be any pus or other drainage occurring, so all looked well... for now. However, Jack was officially blind at this point, so modifications needed to be made in the cage: we lined the bottom of his wheel and the sides with fleece so that he wouldn't hurt himself if he bumped into something. Although the eye was put back in, there was no guarantee that the globe was not damaged- this meant that there were numerous possibilities of how this could end: A) globe intact, retain vision, B) globe intact, lose vision, C) globe damaged, lose eye. We were rooting for choice A, but this was apparantly a low probability....
One week later, right before New Year's, we brought him back to get the sutures taken out. Luckily, there was no damage done to the globe when the injury occurred, but there was some serious edema and ulceration on the globe. It was apparent though that he still had vision in the eye. We kept Jack on the Gentamicin and finished the Baytril. The level of edema was bad enough that there was a significant chance that the eye could proptose again. Vet anesthesized Jack to do a corneal stain and see the ulceration. Vet also added Flurbiprofen (anti-inflammatory) to get the edema down.
Another week later, another recheck. Edema slightly better- cloudiness not better at all. Two more weeks of meds.
Two weeks later, another recheck. Not looking great. Edema still bad, ulceration still bad. Vet changed medications- took us off the Flurbiprofen and Gentamicin and switched to Tobramycin.
Two weeks later, FINALLY!!! Some improvement!! Edema is waaaaay down, ulceration looks better, but still some cloudiness. It's a freaking miracle that the eye has stayed in and he still has vision. Need to get rid of the ulcer before we can deal with the cloudiness. Funny story: so the vet wanted to do another corneal stain... which would involve putting Jack under for a bit. I asked her what was involved... basically, put a drop of dye in the eye, wash it with saline, look at it under a black light. I asked if I could just do it myself without the anesthesia and she said I could try. Got the stain in on the first try, got the saline in on the first try. Jack stayed unballed to have her check it. Whole thing took 5 minutes- she still charged me $40 for the procedure *I* did. There was still a thin line of an ulcer, so we did the Tobramycin for another two weeks.
Today, he went back. Eye looks great. *I* did the corneal stain again... he was soooo well behaved (I brought mealies with me.) And there's no ulcer!!! So we're using some steroids to try and get the cloudiness cleared up.
As of today, Jack's eye has cost me over $1000 dollars. It has taken almost two months to get his eye back in shape, but we did it. He still has vision, and his eye is staying in.... we hope.
This is a perfect example of the types of freak occurrences in hedgehogs that can be quite costly. Serious hedgie owners I know will praise me for my diligence, others will criticize the expense. I returned Christmas presents for people to pay for this... I canceled Christmas presents altogether in fact- one week before the holiday. I say, if you're contemplating getting a hedgie, but can't see yourself going this distance- don't get one.
