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!

Getting Better and Cute Visitors

Poggles seems to be getting better now that he is eating the baby food.  

Yesterday he ate probably 5 or more spoons of the baby food in addition to bits of soft croissant.  As a result, pooping is back.  It's almost black, which makes me wary, but I know the dark green would make it blackish too so I am just going to keep an eye on it.  He's also peeing again.

The vet office called yesterday and I gave them an update.  They didn't seem too concerned about the strange foods I have been feeding Poggles, but they said they would let the vet know and he could call me if he was worried.  They were more concerned that he was not really pooping and peeing much, but I think we can say goodbye to those worries today.

Here is Poggles burrowing around his toilet.  I cleaned it yesterday so it's still pretty clean.  Otherwise I would be cringing as he runs his way around the toilet head down like a bulldozer.

He stopped in this corner when I called his name.

He peeked up.

And looked like this.  The little dork. "Pogs, there's something on your face..."

He has eaten very well today, but I gave him some cooked egg yolk mixed with water on top of the baby food anyways.  He really liked it and had about 1 and a half spoons of it.

He also made a big mess of it.

"Do you want a kiss?"

"No, no, Poggy, no kisses!  Aaagh!" 

I think he looks pretty content now.  I saw him yawn yesterday and his tongue was red, but no longer all ugly with patches of dead skin.  I am hoping it is much better.

One new habit that he has developed is that he wants to eat when I am eating.  In particular, he wants to eat what I am eating.  Funny Poggy...

My niece came over today to visit her cousin, Poggles.

 She really likes him. 

Here she is delightedly pointing at him.

She also really likes his toys.

Have a happy day!

Poggy Getting Better

Who's this white mustached fellow?  Oh, it's Poggy EATING WHIPPED CREAM! 

 Ever since finding out that Poggle's tongue was injured, I have been trying to find something that he will eat instead of his hard kibble.  

At first it was Ensure, then it was milk, then it was crushed cooked egg with water, then it was EGG TARTS, and now it is FRESH MANGO CAKE AND WHIPPED CREAM.

Poggles is very pleased with the recent menu changes.  He even had bits of the soft part of  a croissant.  He's moving up on the food chain!

 I think the vet would be horrified that I am feeding my hedgehog such unsuitable foods.  However, the good news is that Poggles will readily eat these "junk foods" despite his injured tongue.  This is a good thing since he really needs to be eating.

 Thanks to these yummy foods, Poggles is starting to poop and pee again.  It is still very small amounts and still dark green, but still better than nothing.

However, I decided that it was probably not such a good thing to be eating so many junk foods.  A lovely reader suggested baby food so I picked some up today to test it out. (Thanks, Sherry!)

Poggle's regular kibble is chicken and pea or duck and pea so I bought one small jar of chicken with broth and one of peas.

You will be pleased to know that Master Pogglebee ate all of the baby food on those spoons and licked the spoon almost perfectly clean.  I have since refilled those spoons for the night.  I was amazed.  I think that's the most I've seen him eat in one sitting since he got sick.

I think his tongue is starting to heal.  I gave him some Masago to taste yesterday and he started to annoint with it.  When he first hurt his tongue he stopped immediately after attempting to annoint.  This time, he didn't stop right away, but didn't do it for very long either.  He is clearly starting to eat a little more every day, and he only occasionally rubs his face on the ground or leans it against side of the litter pan like his face hurts.  Whenever I see him do that, I gently rub his chin and he seems to like it as he doesn't move away.  Then I offer him cold milk.  I think the milk helps as he always drinks quite a few sips/licks once he agrees to drink it.

Sometimes when he is eating, I hear crunching sounds even though he is not eating anything hard or crunchy.  I stop him when I hear that sound since I worry that he is biting his tongue or grinding his teeth on a weird angle.  Usually rubbing his chin gently will encourage him to stop.

I am hoping that Poggy will continue to heal and get better soon.  I think the baby food will help since it is so close to his usual kibble.  Hopefully his pooping and peeing will go back to normal and he can gain back some weight.

Have a happy day!

Operation "Make Poggles Eat"

Poggles had a rough day yesterday.  I think his tongue hurt a lot so he wasn't eating very much at all.

 I tried to feed him with a syringe, but he hated it.  I think I got maybe only 2 ml of Ensure/powdered lizard food into him.  Most of it ended up all over his mouth since he clamped his mouth shut towards the end. 

It seemed like the best way to make him eat was to offer him tempting foods in small quantities throughout the day.  I tried soft cooked egg yolk mixed into a custard with water, lizard food mixed with water, lizard food mixed with milk, Ensure, cow's milk, cheese mixed with milk, tiny bits of cheese, mashed up kibble with water... basically anything that I thought he might like to eat. 

 The most appealing food to him was cow's milk.  I know he's lactose intolerant, but the vet said to just feed him whatever he will eat since he will probably starve otherwise.  He would take the occasional few sips.  Better than nothing I figured.  He also put in a good effort trying to eat the egg yolk, but died out after a few attempts.

 The good thing is that he seems to like the chlorhexidine antiseptic mouthwash.  Maybe it feels minty good?  He doesn't like being fed it on his back, but he sort of smacks his lips like it's tasty afterwards.

 This is the sad, sad looking hedgehog in his clean litter pan.  Poor Poggles.

You can see the mouthwash in this picture and the syringe in it's protective casing.  I wash his bowls and spoons throughout the day as I keep changing the foods out for new ones.  Most of the time, I am offering him foods by spoon.

 Here is Poggles ignoring me.  When he doesn't like something that I offer him, he pushes the spoon away from underneath, turns away, or pretends to sleep.

 He puts his head down a lot like he is sad.  I feel bad for him.

 He likes the camera though.

 He is always curious about it and tries to come closer to explore it before licking my hands.

He was very dirty today.  There was food all over his chin and some poop smears on his tummy.  He isn't actually pooping or peeing much.  I found maybe only two very small dark green poops in his litter pan.  Since he is nosing around the litter pan a lot, I changed the litter and washed the pan anyways.

Poggy looked cute peeking out from under his towel.  He was hiding there while I was attempting to blow dry him after his bath.

Ah!  You discovered my hiding place!

 He is sitting there watching my camera again.

Here he is coming towards me.

Ah!  Cute little feet!

 The reflection from the sink makes for some good lighting. 

 I thought this was a lovely photo of Poggles.

 

 Cutie pie.

You can see how many spoons get piled up around him as he dries under a lamp on my desk.  I gotta try everything!  Right now, I have discovered that he will eat Chinese egg tarts.  He especially likes a tiny bit of the buttery crumbly crust with the egg.  I am pinching off bits and feeding it to him.  It makes me happy that I have finally found something he is eating lots of.  It makes me feel warm inside that he seems to prefer the bits I give him by hand instead of the larger amount on the spoon.  I think he likes me  :)

Have a happy day!