I'm just tired.
That above was Gus.
I had a hedgehog I shared with Era I got in April. Name was Gus. I did everything I knew to make a nice home for it, but he mysteriously died on July 1. He was fine that Wednesday, here's video of him spinning on his wheel that day.
View: https://streamable.com/044kdl
Within 24 hours he stopped eating, slowed down, and I found him collapsed on the floor of his cage. He would barely breathe or respond to touch. I put him in his warm bed area, hoping he would come out at night like usual to run around his cage. Instead, I woke up to finding him frozen in rigor mortise.
The breeder, knowing that I had only had the hedgehog for 3 months, gave me a new one. This one was albino, 6 weeks old and a baby, named Shiro. He seemed to enjoy Gus' cage and Wednesday he saw the general vet at Banfield. They don't have the equipment to examine him but they said he looked fine. Thursday he started to decay like Gus, stopping to eat, sleeping out in the open parts of his cage. He stopped coming out at night. Today he is so slow moving he's responding to touch but just barely. Fearing Gus' fate, I called 10 clinics and found one open exotic animal hospital that treats hedgehogs and takes emergency visits. I've brought him to the hospital and they're examining him now. $160 but at least I'll have peace of mind in a diagnostic on what is killing my hedgehogs…
This is Shiro:
This is the cage. The green hooded area is heated.
I'm just exhausted. I feel helpless and like a bad hedgehog parent when I've done my best but they are just not doing well in my care for some reason. Hopefully I get some answers today. Hopefully Shiro recovers.
What I suspect is going on now is that the air conditioning in my house is triggering hibernation for hedgehogs, which can be deadly, because their metabolism grinds to a halt and they burn through all their fat and stop eating. The primary vet said that shouldn't be a concern though because some owners here in WA even keep them outside their house 🧐 but the internet says otherwise, that it's common and dangerous. I had a reptile heated mat under blankets and a hood in the 4th floor of his cage but he was too young to know/remember to sleep there, so it's possible his extended time outside the warm area triggers hibernation. That would explain Gus' sudden decay because it happened after I installed smart home automation to trigger our AC to get a couple degrees colder in prep for the summer. But our primary vet acted like that wasn't a concern. Then again he's not an expert in exotics so maybe these hospital vets will have better advice on what to do. I went ahead and bought a 150 W heating lamp pair to install on the cage to heat the cage so that even if he sleeps outside his hidey-house with reptile mat and blankets that he will stay warm. If this problem is AC and hibernation, it's really frustrating because the vet denied it was a problem and the breeder never mentioned it, and that's a pretty fucking important concern. We keep it about 69F in the house.
Just looking for a place to share this, my friends are busy and it's embarrassing to share that my second hedgehog in 2 months is dying…
That above was Gus.
I had a hedgehog I shared with Era I got in April. Name was Gus. I did everything I knew to make a nice home for it, but he mysteriously died on July 1. He was fine that Wednesday, here's video of him spinning on his wheel that day.
View: https://streamable.com/044kdl
Within 24 hours he stopped eating, slowed down, and I found him collapsed on the floor of his cage. He would barely breathe or respond to touch. I put him in his warm bed area, hoping he would come out at night like usual to run around his cage. Instead, I woke up to finding him frozen in rigor mortise.
The breeder, knowing that I had only had the hedgehog for 3 months, gave me a new one. This one was albino, 6 weeks old and a baby, named Shiro. He seemed to enjoy Gus' cage and Wednesday he saw the general vet at Banfield. They don't have the equipment to examine him but they said he looked fine. Thursday he started to decay like Gus, stopping to eat, sleeping out in the open parts of his cage. He stopped coming out at night. Today he is so slow moving he's responding to touch but just barely. Fearing Gus' fate, I called 10 clinics and found one open exotic animal hospital that treats hedgehogs and takes emergency visits. I've brought him to the hospital and they're examining him now. $160 but at least I'll have peace of mind in a diagnostic on what is killing my hedgehogs…
This is Shiro:
This is the cage. The green hooded area is heated.
I'm just exhausted. I feel helpless and like a bad hedgehog parent when I've done my best but they are just not doing well in my care for some reason. Hopefully I get some answers today. Hopefully Shiro recovers.
What I suspect is going on now is that the air conditioning in my house is triggering hibernation for hedgehogs, which can be deadly, because their metabolism grinds to a halt and they burn through all their fat and stop eating. The primary vet said that shouldn't be a concern though because some owners here in WA even keep them outside their house 🧐 but the internet says otherwise, that it's common and dangerous. I had a reptile heated mat under blankets and a hood in the 4th floor of his cage but he was too young to know/remember to sleep there, so it's possible his extended time outside the warm area triggers hibernation. That would explain Gus' sudden decay because it happened after I installed smart home automation to trigger our AC to get a couple degrees colder in prep for the summer. But our primary vet acted like that wasn't a concern. Then again he's not an expert in exotics so maybe these hospital vets will have better advice on what to do. I went ahead and bought a 150 W heating lamp pair to install on the cage to heat the cage so that even if he sleeps outside his hidey-house with reptile mat and blankets that he will stay warm. If this problem is AC and hibernation, it's really frustrating because the vet denied it was a problem and the breeder never mentioned it, and that's a pretty fucking important concern. We keep it about 69F in the house.
Just looking for a place to share this, my friends are busy and it's embarrassing to share that my second hedgehog in 2 months is dying…
