Hello all,
I am looking for a bit of advice.
I have another thread going here where i keep a medical log of my hedgehog's health issues, but this topic is different, and i would like to get answers.
First of all, medical history. We got our little girl at 7 month old (so the shop told us). shortly after we got her, she developed a bump on her back, that we had removed. turned out to be sarcoma. we've been taking her to regular check-ups since and nothing so far. Then after about a year, she developed pyometra, so operating table again, and we had to spay her. She got over that quite well.
Lately, about a month ago, we saw some small spots over her body, vet initially said they are fat spots, but as they seemed to get bigger, we insisted to have a sample taken in for analysis. last time 2 of them on her front paw turned a bit bloody so the vet said infection, and prescribed antibiotics we are administering now. we also cleaned her paw with betadine, and they healed right up in 3 days. we are still waiting on the results for the sample.
Now what i wanted to talk about, her activity levels and weight. This is not a new issue, did not happen 2 days ago, this is something that has been increasing steadily over the past year, and we have no idea what to do..
She has not used her wheel for some time. only to poop on it. We thought she got bored, so we let her roam around her room. which she did. if we would take her out for 2~3 hours, she would be walking around for the whole time until she would crash in a corner to sleep. lately that has not been happening lately. she just does 2~3 laps around the room, then finds a corner to stop in. does not curl up, just sits there, but if you look at her, you can see her eyes closing slowly, and she starts to slip as she falls asleep. if i take her out, she either just lies on my lap and doses off, or does a lap of the room, then finds another corner and the process repeats.
I have a camera set up at night, so i keep track of what she does. if i leave her alone (do not take her out of her cage) she will get up to eat, drink. maybe heads down to her wheel to poop, spends about 30 mins there, then comes back, eats and drinks again, and then sleep. this happens 2x a night TOPS. there are nights (we were away for 3 days on a weekend break) when she will not even go down to pee and poop. just eat, then back to sleep. during the day, it's all sleep. she is awake at about 13:00 14:00 from what i caught, but she just digs in her little cube, finds a good spot, then back to sleep. does not step out, does not eat.
Her weight has been steadily getting higher since the spay, she was 470g after the operation, then went up to 490. has been steady there for a few months, but then went up to 500, after our 3 day holiday, when i weighed her, she went up to 520! yesterday, she was at 528!
We did switch to lower fat food after the spay, as we saw the weight going up, we even portioned it out, but she does not seem to eat THAT much. last time i remember leaving 15 kibble, and finding 3 there in the morning.
Now to make her take the antibiotic orally, we had to resort to chicken (we make a chicken soup, take a bit of meat, and put the pill in). we are afraid the weight is going to go up again.
Does anybody have a clue what we can do? aside from the presumed skin infection we are treating, vet sees nothing in xray, ultrasound, even listened to heart and breathing, said it's normal.
it's like she is always sleepy. and lazy...
is it her age? she is almost 3. should we expect this? is she officially old now?
Any advice or ideas are welcome.
I am looking for a bit of advice.
I have another thread going here where i keep a medical log of my hedgehog's health issues, but this topic is different, and i would like to get answers.
First of all, medical history. We got our little girl at 7 month old (so the shop told us). shortly after we got her, she developed a bump on her back, that we had removed. turned out to be sarcoma. we've been taking her to regular check-ups since and nothing so far. Then after about a year, she developed pyometra, so operating table again, and we had to spay her. She got over that quite well.
Lately, about a month ago, we saw some small spots over her body, vet initially said they are fat spots, but as they seemed to get bigger, we insisted to have a sample taken in for analysis. last time 2 of them on her front paw turned a bit bloody so the vet said infection, and prescribed antibiotics we are administering now. we also cleaned her paw with betadine, and they healed right up in 3 days. we are still waiting on the results for the sample.
Now what i wanted to talk about, her activity levels and weight. This is not a new issue, did not happen 2 days ago, this is something that has been increasing steadily over the past year, and we have no idea what to do..
She has not used her wheel for some time. only to poop on it. We thought she got bored, so we let her roam around her room. which she did. if we would take her out for 2~3 hours, she would be walking around for the whole time until she would crash in a corner to sleep. lately that has not been happening lately. she just does 2~3 laps around the room, then finds a corner to stop in. does not curl up, just sits there, but if you look at her, you can see her eyes closing slowly, and she starts to slip as she falls asleep. if i take her out, she either just lies on my lap and doses off, or does a lap of the room, then finds another corner and the process repeats.
I have a camera set up at night, so i keep track of what she does. if i leave her alone (do not take her out of her cage) she will get up to eat, drink. maybe heads down to her wheel to poop, spends about 30 mins there, then comes back, eats and drinks again, and then sleep. this happens 2x a night TOPS. there are nights (we were away for 3 days on a weekend break) when she will not even go down to pee and poop. just eat, then back to sleep. during the day, it's all sleep. she is awake at about 13:00 14:00 from what i caught, but she just digs in her little cube, finds a good spot, then back to sleep. does not step out, does not eat.
Her weight has been steadily getting higher since the spay, she was 470g after the operation, then went up to 490. has been steady there for a few months, but then went up to 500, after our 3 day holiday, when i weighed her, she went up to 520! yesterday, she was at 528!
We did switch to lower fat food after the spay, as we saw the weight going up, we even portioned it out, but she does not seem to eat THAT much. last time i remember leaving 15 kibble, and finding 3 there in the morning.
Now to make her take the antibiotic orally, we had to resort to chicken (we make a chicken soup, take a bit of meat, and put the pill in). we are afraid the weight is going to go up again.
Does anybody have a clue what we can do? aside from the presumed skin infection we are treating, vet sees nothing in xray, ultrasound, even listened to heart and breathing, said it's normal.
it's like she is always sleepy. and lazy...
is it her age? she is almost 3. should we expect this? is she officially old now?
Any advice or ideas are welcome.