Over the Rainbow Bridge

It's hard to have no hedgehog.

Ever since Poggles passed away, it is hard passing by his cage every day.  His linens are cleaned and I have piled them and all his belongings inside the cage.  I guess you could say the cage is full, but it seems emptier than it has ever been before to me.

I find it hard to go outside to look at his grave.  It is something I dread.  I cannot believe that my little friend is outside.  He was always inside before.  I think about how it must be cold outside.  When it rains, I think about how he is getting all wet.  It makes my heart break.  It does not seem right.  I want him inside where it is warm and dry.

I don't want to talk about how I miss my hedgehog to other people.  I don't think they will understand.  People say that it is okay to lose a pet, that it only matters and is irreplaceable when it is a person that is gone.  They are wrong though.  It hurts just as much to lose a pet.  In some ways, it hurts more.  Your pet is the perfect friend when you are sad, and now that perfect friend is gone when you need them most.  How do you tell your perfect friend that you miss them when they are dead?

Other people around me tell me about their problems and I am only half-listening.  I am sorry to say that I don't care right now.  I am sorry to say that I am going to be the worst friend ever in the next while.  Please understand.  I just need some time to grieve.  I just want to think about Poggles.

So please be patient with me for a little while.  I have lost a little friend that meant a lot to me, and I don't think I will be okay for now.  I just want to cry for a little while.

xoxo

Here Lies Poggy

Today marks the end of three and a half beautiful years with Poggles.  He passed away early morning. 

 He did not heal properly after the foot injury and the wound kept getting worse.  Despite our best efforts, he was suffering.  He could not walk anymore, he was weak, and he lost weight.  I fed him with a spoon for his last two days and he ate readily.  I had hope that he would recover.  

 Last night he appeared to be in pain or to be having seizures.  I gave him one last dose of pain medication and he settled down.  He licked towards me over and over again like he was thankful or giving me kisses and then settled down looking at me from the opening in his pouch.  

This morning, he was still in the same position looking out.  He didn't answer when I called.  He wasn't alive anymore.  I cried and cried all day long and wondered about all the things I might have done for him to save him.  

In the end, I am just thankful that he waited for me and that I was with him in his last moments.  He was a very good hedgehog and the best study buddy ever.  He was a great source of comfort to me all throughout nursing school.  

I wrapped him in thick paper towel and made him a nice biodegradable coffin out of layers of newspaper.  

Coincidentally, it says, "above & beyond" on the lid.  I thought that was kind of nice.  Like he's gone to heaven or somewhere in the sky.  I can't explain the red seedless grapes though.

We buried him in a lovely plot of the garden where English Mint and Lemon Balm grows.  I think he would have liked the smell.  My sweetheart sang a song and I said a speech for him.  We gathered little flowers from my garden and put them all about his grave.

Rest in peace, my little hedgehog.  I will love you and miss you always.  You will forever be in my heart.  Good bye, Master Pogglebee.

Poggy Healing

Since Poggy's last vet visit four days ago, the swelling has gone down significantly.  However, the wound has dried and it looks rather... appalling.  WHERE DID HIS TOES GO?!?

Poggy seems rather calm about this whole thing, but I have no idea what to expect in terms of healing.

  

It seems like he may end up with some rather unappealing looking toes or maybe missing toes in the end.  Sometimes I get the impression that he lost all the meat on some of his toes and that I am just looking at bones sticking out of his foot.  That worries me a lot.

I have been washing his feet twice a day with a chlorhexidine solution and that seems to have dried out the wound very well.  It seemed like the wound turned dark and stopped swelling overnight.  He must have responded very well to the antibiotic and antiseptic wash.

After his daily foot baths, I have been drying him on paper towels.  They soak up the moisture quickly without any rubbing necessary.

Poggy is rather unenthusiastic about this part of his new daily routine.

Does this look like a pleased expression?

I'm still giving him pain/anti-inflammatory medicine daily, but I notice that he's still guarding the injured leg and semi-dragging his lower body when he moves about the cage.  It's really sad  :(

I hope Poggy heals up soon.

Poggles' Third Vet Visit of the Year

Poggles is now three years old and in this single year, he has had 3 vet visits so far.  Old age sure isn't cheap!

I went to check on him one night before heading to bed and found him sitting in his litter box with blood all around him.  There were two full sized toe nails on the litter around him.  Ouch...  This is the photo after I washed all the blood off his fur and feet.  You can see how red his foot is from the injury. 

The next day, I found two large patches of blood on his linens.  He had removed two more toe nails and his foot was all bitten up.  There looked like a gash on the palm of his foot.  The wound was still oozing and his leg was quite swollen.

Poggy got a foot bath, this time in saline solution - twice.  Then I applied Polysporin original formula to his foot in a nice, thick coat.  I tried to create a bandage dressing, but he was not being cooperative at all and kept flinging it off.

Here he is flailing about.

He looks rather funny.

He kept stretching his legs out like this and trying to turn (unsuccessfully) onto his side.

I was holding him steady from underneath so he finally gave up.

Here he is giving me the finger, er, foot.

He looks like a potato...

Afterwards, I held him on my lap tummy-up for a while so that the Polysporin could have a chance to do it's job.

He was kind of chill about it. 

Well, hello there! 

Look at those cute little feet.  The injured foot doesn't look so bad now that it's coated with Polysporin, but you can tell that it's more swollen than the other foot. 

I let him lie on his side afterwards and sleep.  When he tried to walk, I noticed that he keeps the injured leg tucked up against his body and his uninjured back leg kind of drags behind, weakly pushing him along.  He's basically dragging himself forward with his front legs.  It looks really sad.

I took out his litter pan and put two sheets of paper towel down so that he doesn't have to struggle to climb into the litter pan.  This caused him to poop outside the confines of the litter box area, but he still smartly peed on the paper towel only.

His vet was closed for the day and the emergency vets were unfamiliar with hedgehogs.  So I kept washing his legs with saline and re-applying Polysporin three times a day.  The bleeding stopped and the swelling went down a bit, but the foot still looked ugly.

He went to the vet today and the vet says that his foot is swollen and looks infected at the front.  I was thinking about how much worse it would have looked if I hadn't washed that wound three times a day and applied Polysporin.  I'm pretty glad that I have some nursing skills to attempt to apply to Poggy.  

Poggy got an antibiotic shot and something for pain and inflammation.  He also got some medicine to take home - little doses of anti-inflammatory/pain medication and some special chlorhexidine detergent to wash his wound in place of saline solution. 

I hope Poggy will be okay.  He has finally fully woken up from being put under (gassed) at the vet.  He was really groggy before.  The vet says that he is otherwise very healthy... although the vet did say that Poggy is a little bit fat now.  He gained an extra 30 g since his last visit.  Hee hee... maybe I overcompensated a little from the last time he was sick and didn't eat.

Poor little friend!

Poggy Bath Time

It's been a while since I have written on this blog.  So much has happened since then in my life.  One thing that has stayed pretty consistent though is Poggles.

Well, mind you, he's a bit more mellow than he used to be.  I can actually pick him up in the bath like this without him making a fuss.

Look at him sitting with his little paws on my hand like a champ!

Who switched out my grumpy little boy for this mellow fellow?

Who is this Poggles imposter?!?

Omg... he's been switched with this fuzzy teddy bear of a hedgehog!

This imposter is photogenic too.

Hee hee!

But when bath time is over, he reverts to his true self.

But even then it's kind of odd.  He doesn't even really care that he's on his back.

Look, he unraveled and just looked at me!

He was tired after bath and photo time.  He burrowed his way into his comfy fleece liner blanket.

I think it's time for a nap.  I love my new mellow sweet boy.  I think old age is making him calmer.  It's either that or he's FINALLY realizing that all good and tasty things come from his adopted mother.  I also gave him a nice bath on a super hot day.  I think he liked the water since he sat there with all this quills down and just enjoyed the bath.

Did you know that Poggles is three years old now?  We didn't have a birthday party on his birthday, but he enjoyed some pureed chicken in broth baby food plus some organic turkey and vegetable baby food with mealworms and his usual chicken, duck, and pea kibble.  I am happy he made it to three years old.  I always used to think he wouldn't be around until nursing school was done, but my study buddy is still happy and healthy.  I am so glad  :)

Have a happy day!

Poggy is Better

Poggy went to the vet on the weekend and he got the A-Okay from the vet.  Yay!

The vet says the tongue is healing well and it was not cancer-related.  I'm supposed to keep giving him the chlorhexidine mouthwash for 4 more days and then I can stop giving it.  He can also resume regular cat food.

 Poggy also gained weight!  The vet was sure he would lose weight from his liquid diet, but the vet was surprised to find that Poggles had gained 36 grams.  He went from 304 grams to 340 grams.  The vet says that this is a good new weight for Poggles and that I should aim to keep him around this weight.

So since he loves the baby food and cooked egg yolk mixed with water, I will continue to give it to him along with his regular kibble.  I mixed his kibble with the baby food last night so that it would soften and Poggles ate about half of the kibbles.   I tried to give him one dried kibble, but I noticed that he takes a very long time to eat just one.  Sort of messes it around his mouth over and over and spitting it out and eating it again.  Doesn't seem right.

 Today he is very tired.  He has started wheeling at night again.  Maybe he felt that he needed to work out after I told him that he gained weight (actually I called him a fatso... and then fed him some croissant).  He looks super cute with the extra weight.  When you look down from top view, he actually has some roundness instead of being sucked in on the sides.  Sucked in on the sides means he is malnourished.  And when I pick him up, he has some weight to him instead of being light.  It is very nice.

On the flipside, he was so heavy that he tipped over his food bowl when he put his paws on the ledge of the bowl.  I had to right it for him and clean up the mess.  Poor fellow.

I am very happy that Poggy is okay now.

Have a happy week!