Continuing Chaos

Today was a crazy day. We had one hedgehog pick-up, some unexpected (but very nice) guests, a call from a hedgehog owner in Illinois, and more hedgehog chaos. The phone call bothered me a bit. The man bought a hedgehog at a local auction but didn't get any information on it and he didn't know what to feed it. I was very glad he called and that I was able to point him in the direction of the Hamor Hollow FAQ, articles, and Hedgehog World. What worries me is that there are other hedgehogs out there being sold at auctions without any care information. I have some ideas of where these hedgehogs are coming from, and I can only hope that their new owners are able to find either my site or another reliable hedgehog site and get the information they need.

This gives me another push to try to get more care information up on my site. <Pause to go put up my care sheet.... I can't because of copy protection or something, so I will ask Sean to put it up> There are also a few articles I started writing that I need to finish and get up.

Marble passed away this morning from birthing complications. I lost her mother to cancer a few weeks ago, and her sister was the one who's milk dried up and the we lost the litter. I'm not having much luck with that line, and it's a shame because they are very beautiful and friendly hedgehogs.

The Google babies aren't looking good today. I checked their birth-date and they were way too early, so I don't have high hopes for them surviving.

Asti had some caked blood that I needed to clean off her personal parts. Some hedgehogs will bleed for a few days after miscarrying, and Asti has always been one of the heavier bleeders. Because the blood was caked on over night, there was some raw skin and swelling, so Asti got a bath in warm water and epsom salt.

IPod's little chocolate boy has a huge infected leg. Elephantiasis-like infected. I took him out yesterday because someone wanted to see a young baby (he's 4 weeks), and quickly put him back and grabbed his sister when I saw his leg. Later I soaked it in the sink with some Epsom salts and got the nasty scab to come lose. There are 2 puncture wounds, so I'm thinking it's a bite mark. I can't believe how quickly it got infected and huge! A little while after his bath, a pus bubble formed near the bite marks, so I got a sterile pin and popped it. YUCK! An incredible amount of pus and blood came out and it just kept on pouring out! I know hedgehogs have thin blood and a lot of it, so I knew not to be worried at the amount, but still....YUCK! He's on antibiotics now and the leg is still very swollen. I talked to my vet and we are going to see how he responds to Clavamox before we look into other drastic measures.