Sick Malnourished Hedgie

[Nikky.Werr]

I recently posted on the new owner forum, I adopted/rescued a sweet little hedgie that was going to be put down just because it wasn't sellable. She's extremely underweight, has an eye infection I've gotten under control though she's already blind in one eye (or at least I believe so because it looks milky). I'm giving her Baytril and Hartmann's subcutaneous and panacur orally. I'm feeding her with a syringe because she has ignored her solid food. I'm feeding her a mix of crushed royal canin kitten food, a/d canned food, meal worms, crickets, felovite, and water to make it mushy enough. She's had 9cc's so far (since yesterday) is that enough, how much should I feed her per day? I wonder if there's anything else I should be watching for, giving her or doing for her. Thank you for taking your time to read through my post. Merry Christmas everyone!!

[Lilysmommy]

I'm so glad this little girl found her way to you. She's clearly in good hands!

For food, the usual recommendation is to aim for 1cc/hour, so aim for 24-30cc each day. The only other big thing I can think of is to keep her warm - hedgehogs need to be between 73-80F and 75-78 seems to work well for most hedgehogs - and to make sure she gets 12-14 hours of light during the day. Both of these things are important to avoid hibernation attempts.

What substrate are you using for her right now? And I saw in your first post that she has an amputated leg, is that an old issue that's doing fine now?

[Nikky.Werr]

I'll start to aim higher on the cc's and I'll make sure about the light. I live in a tropic country so temperature isn't an issue. The amputated leg is old, she arrived to me that way. She was a pet store hedgie and they took her to me to treat or dispose of if she had "permanent damage" which was appalling. I'll make sure to increase the cc's. Would it be too stressful for her if I had to take her to work with me so I can feed her every hour on the hour?
Thanks so much for your reply!
Oh and right now I'm using shredded newspaper but I'm gonna switch to no pill fleece. What do you think?

[shinydistraction]

Rather than feed her one cc an hour, try to get at least a few cc's in her at a time and wait that number of hours before you feed her again.

Keep in mind, even though it's hot outside, if you have any sort of cooling system running in your home that's lowering the temperature and causing drafts. Even in a warm climate we still recommend having some sort of heating system to keep the temperature steady. Temperature fluctuations of more than a couple of degrees in either direction can cause a hibernation attempt just as easily as temps that are just simply too low.

[Lilysmommy]

Taking her to work would be fine as long as you have someplace quiet where you can keep her so she's not too stressed by movement/noise. Like ShinyDistraction said, if you get a few cc's into her in one feeding, you can wait a couple hours & let her sleep longer before the next time you feed her. But having her with you at work would be much easier than trying to get the full amount into her in only 2-3 feedings!

And switching to fleece for bedding would be a good idea. Newspaper tends to stay wet when it gets wet from water or urine & can chill a hedgie.

[Nikky.Werr]

Thanks ShinyDistraction and LilysMommy, I'm gonna divide the feedings into 5-6 times a day and I can keep her in a quiet place at work in the same cage I have her in now (a living habitat deluxe large). I'm making sure to give her a constant day/night cycle and I'll be careful of temperature fluctuations. I have a fabric lined heating pad that I can set the temperature and timer on, can I use this with her? I can set it to turn on if the temp lowers from 78-80 and turn off when it reaches that temperature. I've already switched to fleece, this way I can also monitor her poops. I saw her drinking water last night and I left half a tablespoon of mushy food in her plate to see if she'd have a go at it but she only ate half, however this made me feel very excited and hopeful that she's going to be okay specially since she also got on the large running wheel and gave it a go for a good 10 minutes (I made her a ramp to make her life easier). I'm going to keep syringe feeding her anyways because she seems not to mind (she's so docile and easy to handle). Today she had 20cc's, still haven't reached the 24-30 quota but getting there. She gets a little annoyed by the last couple of syringes. Her eyes are completely better now though I'll continue treating them to the 5 day mark and I'm going to weigh her again at the 7 day mark. What kind of weight gain should I expect per week? I can't thank you enough for your guidance, take care and have a good weekend!