Question:
This is not a "dire" urgent emergency ... but an emergency nonetheless.
Heres the scenario:
Our hoglets and her mom were cohabitating quite nicely in their cage with there aunt and step-sister ... all related one way another. No fights broke out after the introductions and no evidence of fights were noticed and its been about 2-3 weeks now. The hoglets are all over a month old now. The aunt and step-sister have been moved out within the last couple days.
One of the holgets, female, seemed to be walking slightly odd when I just checked her out. Upon further inspection ... which was quite difficult to check ... her lower area around her anal seems quite bare. There is no fur at all and in fact there is no tail either! There seems to be no evidence of her reproductive orifice just above her anal either. She keeps her legs tucked in as if untucking them would cause pain. By the looks of her stools, their is no blood, but evidence of diarrhea has been noticed, although now she is having solid stools, but still having the distinct smell.
Now here comse the tricky part ... in order for her tail to come off ... and within a month we would of noticed something like that missing if it was a birth defect ... we should of seen signs of blood by our estimates ... and were pretty sure something like that would cause her to shreik ... and THAT can be heard anywheres in the house definitely.
Her temperement is lovable, and her actions are that of a healthy hog, diet wise and energy wise. She has trouble at times walking and occasionaly falls ... but that could be due to her not wanting to stretch her legs out ... or lack of balance due to lost tail.
Were going to make a vet appointment ASAP ... but the vet is not a hedgehog expert ... they may give proper medications, but as too why or how this could of happen, I doubt they would be able to answer that.
Has anyone experienced this ... or something related to this ... or could give some good advice? Like I said ... she seems fine now ... so its not a dire urgency ... but before anything worse happens ... we would like her to be treated as best and quick as possible.


Answer:
One safe antibiotic for hedgies is Trimethoprim sulfa. The site below (which is an excellent site for vets expecially) recommends a dose of 30 mg/kg twice daily.
http://netvet.wustl.edu/species/exotic/hedgehog.htm
To me, it sounds like something is wrong with her and the tail injury may be a result of her trying to "fix" the problem herself. I hope that she is okay. I don't have much hog experience...sorry.


Answer:
Oh, that is so odd, I have never heard of anything like that. I hope she is okay and the vet can figure something out for her.


Answer:
My suspicions are she was sleeping on top of a pool of urine ... the nest box has linners that we clean weekly ... unless we check and see its quite dirty we will clean earlier ... I think maybe she just very recently urinated on the linner and slept right on top of it for maybe a day or two ... or even someone elses urine ... and it was a lot more acidic and it burned her ... it looks a lot like if she was burned ... no fur ... no tail ... smooth skin ... white/red in color ... looks quite mutilated ... the fur around the bald spot is also yellow ... which could be evidence of this happening or she is having problems urinating as well ...
We checked the linners and there is not wet spots or anything of the sorts ... so Im not too sure if my suspicions are sound ... and we checked all other hogs and they all seem fine as well with no yellow stained fur.
We were able to make a vet appointment for her for today for 5:45pm. I'm glad my town is small and they wern't so busy today. There starting to know me quite well down there too ... the secretary ask my last name when I said I was bringing in a hoglet ... and they said they should of known since im probably the only who does bring a hog in


Answer:
wow.. that is wierd!! I sure hope the vet can get her taken care of.. let us know what the vet says... not to alarm you but some animals seem just fine but they realy arent... I hope the vet can get you in ASAP!!! good luck!!


Answer:
Oh im pretty sure she's in pain ... if she is in as much pain as it looks bad ... poor little girl ... im getting her in for 5:45pm for a vet appoint. ... I doubt she'll be able to tell exacly what happened ... but hopefully shed some light on the scenario. I have my digi cam with me so I'll try to take some pictures ... explaining it is very difficult ... and collective opinions might just do the job.


Answer:
Rob, I just posted on CnQ about this...nothing exciting but I said I would post any info I find over there. Do you want me to post here (or email you maybe?) instead? I will keep looking...


Answer:
I hope you get good pictures and that someone here or your vet can help you out!


Answer:
Rob, maybe you could do a phone consult with another vet if your vet is stumped. Here is a listing of vets that includes Canada.
http://hedgehogcentral.com/care/vets.html


Answer:
The CnQ forum got kinda scarey ... we've emailed a few vets for possibilities.
Our vet wasnt too sure about the injury ... saying it could possibly be a burn ... but to what she's not 100% sure. She gave some antibiotic cream to help in healing and said if it doesnt heal up then a fecal examination will have to be done in PEI ... and a new set of medications given ... which could take a while.
Here are some pics of the poor girl: