[Sela]

I have a question regarding my Quillamina. She has been dropping just a few more quills than usual since the warm weather started, and I've seen a few new ones poking through her skin, poor thing. I've examined her skin as carefully as she will allow, and aside from a little bit of dander, which she always has, I've seen nothing odd. No moving white things, and when she was last at the vet (about two weeks ago, I think) to be checked out, the vet didn't see anything concerning, either. No fungus, no mites, seemingly no rhyme or reason to it at all.

So, due to all this, I feel the need to ask: do hedgehogs shed more quills during the spring, as many animals shed their fur/hair? That's really the only thing I can think of to explain it, but I can't be sure, especially since Loki doesn't seem to be doing it. Then again, it's much harder to examine him than it is to get a good look at Quilly, since he's such a little brat and likes to wriggle. <3

Any insight would be much appreciated, thanks very much.

 

[LarryT]

How old is your girl? Is it possible she's just quilling?

 

[Sela]

She's almost two, I think. Quillamina was a rescue, and even though they SAID she was almost nine months old, I have no way of knowing for sure. I brought her home in March '09, and she was definitely full grown then, since she hasn't gotten any bigger. Or, if she has, it wasn't enough to be noticable. So no, she's too old to be quilling now.

 

[SnufflePuff]

How old is your girl? Is it possible she's just quilling?

That's exactly what I was typing when Larry posted :lol:

Don't forget some hedgehogs do go through a last quilling at 1 years old. My Chloe is having her last one currently and she just turned one.

 

[Sela]

But if Quilly is almost two, isn't it a bit late? It just seems strange to me, especially since she's not losing a whole lot, just maybe two or three more than her usual sporadic quill shedding. I'm not hugely concerned, since she's not acting sickly or anything, I just find it strange.

 

[SnufflePuff]

Sorry for some reason it didn't tell me you had posted before I posted mine.

2 years old would be too late, that's true. So I have no idea. If new quills are coming in, then I wouldn't worry about her having mites or fungus. It really does sound likes she's just having a super late quilling - if that's even possible!

 

[Sela]

'Super late' is right, maybe she just doesn't want me to miss out. I got her long after she would have had her first quilling, so I guess she didn't want mommy dearest to have to go without her precious baby having a little quilling. Looks like she doesn't think I had a hard enough time with little Loki when he was quilling. x3 I figure it's nothing to worry about, I was just curious as to why this might be happening.

 

[kurai18]

Could it be possible she has ringworm?
My Pineapple had quill loss and dandruff too. I thought it was just quilling since she was only 14 weeks at the time, but I took her to the vets just to be sure.
They ruled out mites and did a lamp test for ringworm which she tested negative for.
But they did a scrape test to do a fungal culture just to be sure and her test came back positive for ringworm.
For a whole month and a half the only symptom she showed was losing quills and nothing else but just recently she's started to lose a lot of fur and the skin behind her ears has turned red.
It takes several weeks for the fungal culture test results to come out and the symptoms aren't very obvious in the beginning so you might want to get her tested early just in case.

Not trying to worry you though and I'm no expert Ringworm does seem unlikely since your hedgie is growing new quills. Just bringing up a possibility.

 

[LizardGirl]

I wouldn't worry about it. If she seems perfectly healthy otherwise, losing a few more quills than normal isn't a huge red flag. It's pretty common for hedgies to continually lose quills, and as long as her back doesn't start to look sparse, she should be fine.

 

[Sela]

Thanks a lot, Kurai, now I'm going to panic. xD Seriously though, I don't think she has ringworm. Her skin is normal-coloured, and she's always had a bit of a dander problem, this is nothing new. If any of the symptoms you mentioned show up, though, I'll be sure to get her to the vet stat.

Her back looks good right now, no bald patches except for the normal reverse mohawk on her little piggy head. She's also acting normal, still huffs at me whenever I do the smallest little thing that she doesn't like, she's bright and alert, and, as always, uber bratty. Thanks for the information, all, I appreciate it greatly. <3