[AAdict]

Hiya all,
I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who is worried over her 15month old hedgie.

Her hedgie started wobbling and being a bit stilted in her walking on the thurs/fri and then over that following weekend she started falling over she took her to our exotics vet on the Monday who treated her with Septrin 0.1 ml twice daily and Metacam half the dose of Septrin once daily. She has been on this medication since the 16th Nov shes currently due back at the vets on monday coming - the hedgie has stabilized in this time and stumbles from time to time and has fallen over about 3 times but picks herself back up quickly. Shes lost approx 11g in a week. Obv my friend is very concerned that this is the beginning stages of WHS but realises there are other possibilities such as stroke or vestibular syndrome. Here is some video footage:

http://img109.yfrog.com/i/whs.mp4/

Please can you comment/make suggestions over if you think it could be the start of WHS or if you think there is anything more my friend should be asking the vet for - our vet is great and has some experience in APH but no-one in the UK is 100% familiar with WHS or similar symptoms whereas you guys have a lot more experience -so please help/advise if you can.

 

[Nancy]

She looks pretty much fine to me. The video would be better though if it wasn't such closeups of her.

The first bit on the hardwood, she doesn't look so much wobbly as it looks like she has her back legs stuck up under her skirt. That can happen sometimes especially the larger hedgies that have lost a bit of weight their skirt at the back gets loose and if they start to ball up the looseness of the skirt can get their legs kind of stuck. The rest of the time as she is walking on the hard surface and you can see her legs, she looks fine.

She is having difficulty with the carpet but that is typical sometimes especially with a shag type carpet as that appears to be. They don't get sure footing and the carpet can sink as they put weight on a leg and that can throw them off.

See if she can take some photos of her walking on just the hard floor and make sure that they show all of her walking.

It could be the beginnings of WHS. Sometimes it has very subtle symptoms to begin with and unfortunately the symptoms can come and go. She also may have had a ear infection or vestibular and is getting better.

 

[AAdict]

oh brill thanks for that reply Nancy -thats very useful I will get her to video from a bit further away too - the hedgie was a bit overweight when she got her and has put her on a diet so the lost weight thing could be relevant too