[Mcliu]

Hello

My hedgehog vomitted while eating. she was acting normal before she vomitted and after she vomitted. This is the first time we have tried free feeding her. I have checked other threads, but nothing really suggests that she has food poisoning or an infection. She has been eating the same food (wellness and green pea and duck) for the past two weeks. Is it possible that she just ate too fast? Her vomit looked just like frothy wellness.

She is also having some hair loss, but not much. She used to scratch herself a lot, but now she does not since I have been giving her flax seed oil. I read that hairloss sometimes occurs in the spring (getting a new coat of hair for the new season?)

Her stools are fine, she has been drinking enough water and she runs on her wheel too much(all night for hours). She doesn't like fruit, but eats chicken and mealworms. She is about 6 months old

Cleaned her cage last night. No more vomit since she did it last night and seems to be her usual energetic self. She is also litter-trained (I'm so fortunate that she uses her litterbox religiously for pee and poo)

Should I be concerned about her vomit (it seems like a one time thing) and the hair loss?

Thank you forumers in advance

 

[Kalandra]

Were any of the pieces she spit up fairly sizable? Maybe she got choked on a big piece and vomited? When I have a hedgehog get sick I start watching them like a hawk. If it happens again, they go to the vet for a checkup. It does not take long at all for a hedgehog to become dehydrated if they are vomiting often.

 

[azyrios]

the hair loss could be attributed to a change of food. When did you first notice the hair loss? Are her poops at all stinky?

 

[Mcliu]

I know that shes not dehydrated because after she puked she started drinking tons of water. I don't have the vomit saved (i should have put it in a bag), but I do not recall any big pieces. I noticed hair loss a couple of days ago. EDIT: Her poop smells really bad, but its more of a light brown than a green tint. whats shockign is she didnt poo in her litterbox this time, but instead in her pipe which makes no sense to me...

she has not vomitted again since then

 

[azyrios]

she may be allergic to the wellness.
Wellness is very rich food and some hedgehogs cannot digest it fully, which is the smelly poop. It may also have an ingredient that is causing the hair loss.

 

[Mcliu]

I took her to the vet just in case. good thing i did too, she apparently had a really bad bacterial infection of her gastrointestinal tract. She peed blood when she was there so good thing i got her there in time. She's on some anti-biotics now so I hope for a quick recovery! Really worried though, shes not drinking as much water as I hoped but I believe its because they gave her fluids right before she left the vet!

 

[Lilysmommy]

I'm glad you got her to the vet! I hope your little girl gets better fast. Give her lots of love!

 

[LizardGirl]

It may also have an ingredient that is causing the hair loss.

Which ingredient is this? (just curious)

 

[Nancy]

Mcliu, I'm glad you found out what the problem was. As always, whenever there is a concern a vet visit is the best way to proceed. I wish everyone was as concerned and willing to get a vets diagnoses as you have been.

azyrios, I too am curious what food ingredient would cause hair loss?

 

[azyrios]

It may also have an ingredient that is causing the hair loss.

Which ingredient is this? (just curious)

Just like humans are allergic to peanuts, a hedgehog should be theory be able to be allergic to something weird as well. Where Wellness is to rich for one hedgehog, it is perfectly fine with another. Thus it leads me to believe if some hedgehogs are okay when eating a food, and others loose hair when eating it, they are allergic to an ingredient in it. Since there are so many ingredients he could be allergic to anything, possibly cranberries, possibly flax seed, possibly chicken. It is really to hard to say.

Even trace amounts of peanuts can kill a human, so it could even be one of the trace ingredients.

 

[Mcliu]

I talked to the vet, she said that hair loss might be caused by the GI infection.

She's doing much better now, drinking water and eating food on a regular basis. She is still on anti-biotics though since her poo is still tinted green. Oh and surprisingly she was slightly overweight at 305 grams! We have been feeding her a total of 14-16 kibbles a day too (thats 3/7 of a tablespoon on average)! I was surprised.

At least shes kind of back to normal though I'm sure she hates the clavamox (anti-biotic).

 

[Nancy]

I'm glad she's getting back to normal.

Most of my gang have loved clavamox after the first few days. I've even had a few that would get up and wait for me when they new it was time for their meds and would suck it out of the syringe. :lol:

 

[Mcliu]

clavamox actually doesn't taste that bad (I accidentally tried it, got some on my fingers its kind of sweet), but I think her aversion is the fact that she wont stay still at all no matter what I try so I have to flip her on her back to feed her. Her poo looks fine now, but I think she developed an ingrown hair on her chin. She looks like a hedgehog version of confucius right now except less philosophical.

 

[Mcliu]

UPDATE: She doesn't have the ingrown hair//bump on her chin anymore. Not sure what it was but it disappeared in a couple of hours. Her poop looks better than before and she looks more energetic. She unlitter trained herself so I have to relitter train her again (She pooped in her food dish after she ate the food....)

 

[azyrios]

she is just recycling =D
and technically i think pooping in a dish counts as litter trained. At least she knows poop goes in bowl.

 

[Lilysmommy]

Lol about pooping in her food bowl. Silly hedgie. :lol:
Be careful about feeding her on her back though, I've heard that they can choke a bit on food/water/medicine if they're on their back.

 

[Mcliu]

thanks for the advice lilysmom. I'm just feeding her how the vet showed me. She said that the amount of liquid (.06mL) is not enough for a hedgehog to choke on but I should still be careful. =)

 

[Lilysmommy]

Ah, yes, that does seem like a pretty small amount. Just thought I'd let you know. I hope she's doing better!

 

[Mcliu]

Oh she is doing much better now! We switched her to a larger bin and I'm working on attaching a second story to it. Hope she will have lots of fun in it =). Her poop doesnt smell anymore and the consistency of her poop is not green and mushy anymore. The only issue is is that its not as firm as it usually is but thats probably because of the lack of fiber in her current diet compared to a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to hold off feeding her mealworms and crickets just for a while because of the possible bacteria that are in mealies and crickets that may upset her GI even more. She will be back on insects on friday when I can go pick up some fresh ones!

PS: for some reason she likes sleeping with her food bowl. Just a while ago she just dragged her bowl from one side of the bin to the other side just to have the food bowl resting on top of her while she sleeps. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but definitely very funny to me =).

Also, her weight seems to be returning to normal now. Instead of being overweight 0.o she doesnt have anymore excess fat around her arms. I am really curious though, LizardGirls hedgehog is smaller than mine, but if I recall correctly she feeds her hedgie approximately 2 tablespoons of food each day. My hedgehog is 300 grams and I can only feed her around 16 kibbles (1/3 tablespoon) a day to keep her from being overweight. Should I try free feeding her so she can adjust or what? I still feel like I'm starving her even though the vet said I should cut back....(i should listen to the vet huh?) I feed her wellness and green pea and duck so you guys can have an idea of how big the kibbles are

 

[Lilysmommy]

Well, hedgehogs are kind of like humans. Some put on weight more easily than others. LizardGirl's hedgie, Inky, loves to run. He needs the extra food/fat because he burns it all up as he runs all night. Yours might not run on her wheel as much, or just might have a body type that is more likely to put on weight. So you can't feed her as much, or she'll put on more weight.

Sleeping with her food bowl on her... :lol: Sounds to me like she might enjoy one of Nancy's hats that she makes! A lot of hedgies like to sleep under them, they're nice and cozy.