Ingrown quills?

[zoologist]

When I first got Cloud he had two large cyst type things on this side. Recently over the past month the two larger ones have popped and I *very carefully* removed the pus inside. Inside the larger one was pieces of very fragile quill that broke up, and inside the small long one was a fully intact quill, that was also very easily bendable and broken.

Now that Cloud is healing up, i'm wondering how common it is for a hedgehog to get ingrown quills like this? Did they get infected because of his poor housing at the petstore? is there anything else i need to look out for?

The larger cyst popped first and is completely healed up. Cloud has a little bald patch where it used to be (will the quills grow back?) and the second cyst was right along the quill and belly hair line.


the pic of the cysts.

[Hedgiepets]

Hedgehogs can get ingrown quills. It has nothing to do with poor housing.

[Kalandra]

I had one who was more prone to ingrown quills than any other I have ever had. She would get similar spots to the image you posted. Her's were pretty big and we had the vet lance a couple of the first ones to clean them out for us. Her's were actually encapsulated quills. Which typically contained a couple of quills and this nasty cottage cheese like substance surrounding them. She got them a couple of times throughout her lifetime. They never bothered her and doc told us that they way her body was encapsulating them that they would eventually reabsorb. We ended up leaving a couple of small ones that were along her skirt and they did eventually reabsorb. Took forever though.

[zoologist]

That sounds exactly like Cloud's. So i guess he has a problem with encapsulated quills, not ingrown quills? The stuff that was in Cloud's 'cysts' (if you can even call them that anymore) did look like slightly yellow cottage cheese.
Cloud also has a few minor ones on his skirt that were so small I wasn't going to worry about them. I am happy to know that they are not causing him any discomfort and should eventually go away. Thanks!

[Kalandra]

Well at least the small ones for Maui did reasorb. The largest she had contained 5 full size quills encapsulated in that yuck. I don't think doc had an explanation of why it might have happened... then again he may have and I may just not remember what he said... that happened about 5 years ago.

I never let any of the large ones stick around long enough to reabsorb. Doc always just lanced them and cleaned them out so that they could heal. If you take yours to a vet, I'd be curious to see what your vet thinks of them.