Kimm
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Mites, Hookworm, discomfort - 2008/05/10 15:31
So i noticed one night while giving my 1 yr old hedgehog, Quaid, a bath that he had a lot of buildup on his skin around his quills. i assumed dry skin, but this hedgehog is also underweight and downright lethargic, so i decided to take him to the vet. He was infested with mites and hookworm, so now he's being treated for both at once over a 6 week period. I have had a huge amount of problems with Quaid because over the past year, handling him has caused me to get hives and have asthma attacks, which have now all but disappeared with his mites treatment and my own treatment with steroids and an allergy medicine. Now that i can handle him often, and hes being treated for his own health issues, i have been seeing a little bit of a turn around in his attitude. But not enough. I'm still concerned. A lot of times when we bring him out he'll run toward our pant legs or some place he can hide and that we're pretty used to, but lately when we take him out and put him down, he'll just stand where he is and stare off. Sometimes we'll notice weird movements in his lower half, kind of like a spasm. As a college student, i've been up at pretty much all hours of the night over the semester and i've noticed he'll get up for maybe a half hour to an and hour once or twice during the night but he sleeps at least 20 hours a day.
Especially during the period where handling him was causing health problems, we considered getting rid of him. I pretty much felt like an awful person, but we felt like maybe this wasn't the best environment for him and he'd do well with someone who knew what he needed better. Now that health isn't an issue, supposedly for each of us, and the fact that me and my fiance really do have a lot of time to spend treating him and playing with him since we dont have any kids of our own yet, i want to keep him. i just don't know what to do with him. I've never been able to figure him out. And i'm starting to think that maybe there's something else medically going on that is causing discomfort and maybe even pain...
can anyone relate or advise?
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If they do not have a way to exercise, they will sleep more sometimes.