We miss you Bibitte

2201 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Syker, Aug 15, 2009

Syker

Discussion Starter · Aug 14, 2009

Here is Bibitte, the little albino hedgehog that passed away on Sunday, August 9th. We think it was either a stroke or a heart attack from his last moments (suddenly weak, unstable, started agonal breathing + seizures). It all went so fast. At least he was with us when he went.

http://s673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95 ... a/Bibitte/

I'm looking for more pictures of him, I'll update this post when I find them.

Here are two videos from when he was still pretty young:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrhY6vKm ... re=channel He loved to explore and run around. He was so fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsC5ExB ... re=channel He was very huffy when he was younger and quilling, but he slowly came around and became a sweetheart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_fWu4Bj ... re=channel A video I made a couple of weeks after we got him. Similar to the exploring one above, but it had music (youtube removed it...)

He was a healthy little boy of 2, with plenty of attitude. He knew what he wanted and he got it. He loved to run around, but after a good exploring sessions, would contentedly snuggle in a blanket on our belly. He was our first hedgehog, we got him from Nancy. We gave him all we could, and tons of love. He became very attached to Alex (my boyfriend), since he was the provider of the stinky socks he loved so well. He was a good eater, loved his superworms, and wheeled like a maniac every day. We miss him so much. Two years was just too young.

We are getting another one though, because he got us hooked on hedgehogs. It'll be a little girl coming from Mika, and I'll post all about it when we get her. But for now, we remember Bibitte, and we hope he had a full and happy life with us.

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Syker

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 15, 2009

The way hedgehogs eat, there is no way a worm would be able to bite from the inside. In this case, it is just a myth. Maybe with some bigger lizards it might be a concern, but not for hedgehogs or average to smaller lizards.

It was pretty obvious from... how he went... that it was something like a stroke, or maybe a tumor suddenly bursting since his father apparently had a tumor at some point in life. He was absolutely fine the night before, no signs that anything was wrong at all. No changes in past few days or weeks, no falls, no weird things ingested. Same food, same warm temperature. He was up the next morning, which is not usual, so we picked him up to see what was up. He looked incredibly weak and couldn't stand properly. He just started convulsing and gasping and suddenly he was still. In all it took less than five minutes from picking him up to him passing.

I'm sorry, it's hard to explain it, it still hurts to think about it. We decided against a necropsy after thinking and discussing it a lot. We just said our goodbyes and we're now trying to forget those last few moments and remember the sweet, funny guy he was during his life.

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Syker

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 15, 2009

Huh, that's strange. I'm a member on this bearded dragon forum and it's been proven over and over again that they don't. I just did a bit of research and the only case I could find is the one you stated (they used it on another webpage). Hedgehogs and bearded dragons are the same in this matter: they chew their food before swallowing, and their stomachs contain acid that will break down food. IF the worms survive the chomping, they will die by either drowning or being broken down. I've tried cutting a super in half, and letting it crawl over my hand to see if it would bite - it didn't, it just curled there agonizing. (I repeated the experiment to make sure it wasn't a fluke). I also left a couple of supers in a dish with very little water and they all drowned pretty fast. You should be careful if your animal is already sick or weak, since then he might have more difficulty swallowing and the 1 second trip down the esophagus would take longer (I would feed only soft food to such an animal but that's just me), or their stomach enzymes might not be working properly.

It's just very strange, since everything I can find tells people it is a myth that petshop employees keep around, but then you're probably the person I trust the most about health stuff for hedgehogs so now I'm unsure. I'll do more research about it.

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