Losing too many quills

[jcorey96]

I got a male hedgehog just over a month ago (now 7 months old), and about 3 weeks ago, he got mites. he was scratching alot, and I had a couple crawl onto me. So I sterilized his cage, bedding, and everything in it, plus put him into quarantine. I then put diatomaceous earth all over his quills, cage and bedding. After a week of this, he stopped scratching and was more active. But since then, I've noticed that he's been losing way too many quills a day (20 roughly), and has dry skin. I put flax seed oil on him, but I fear that I put way too much. He also has bald spots on him, especially on his butt. he also has a few small ones on his back. I can see some new quills starting to grow in, and the follicle at the end of the quills that have fallen out is still there. He also isn't scratching, his ears aren't tattered, torn, and his eyes are crust less. When I look at his bare spots, I also can't see mites running around. Any idea why this may be? and how I can help him?

[Lilysmommy]

My guess would be the quills that he's losing now are the ones that were damaged by the mites. If it doesn't slow down soon though, I"d schedule a vet visit. It's good that new quills are coming in, at least. The follicle at the end doesn't mean much - it can be there or not there whether there's mites or not. That's also good that he's not scratching though. I know I've seen other people bring up diatomaceous earth on here in regards to mites, but I can't remember if anyone's actually used it to treat them, or what the results were. Hopefully it's just damaged quills coming out & it'll slow down soon. Some other things to check with at the vet if you end up taking him - fungal infection, bacterial infection, or mites still causing damage or something. If the vet wants to treat for mites again, to be safe, make sure they use Revolution, not Ivermectin.

[jcorey96]

Could it be possible that he's going through a late quilling and losing a ton of quills all at once before new ones grow in? He eats/drinks a ton, and his poop is normal. This little guy just gets me so paranoid!