The Prolapse

We did pictures of the available and reserved babies last night, and initally we got through all the babies and they were fine. The girls who are staying here did not get their pictures taken, but they did all get picked up and moved around. Everyone was fine..... at first. When I started moving everyone back into their cage to go back to the hedgehog room, one of my girls had something long, red, and previously internal, hanging out of her butt. I immediately identified it as a prolapsed rectum or uterus and called my vet (at home at 11:10pm.... I heart my vet). My directions were to gently clean the area and use plain KY jelly  to keep the area moist. Ok, I can do that. Next, Sean and I got in the car and drove 15 mins to Dr. Chip's house.

Dr. Chip was able to get the prolapse back in place. I won't go into how it was done for two reasons: #1 I would have to relive it and #2 It was gross and horrifing and you really don't want the details. Very few of us are cut out to be vets. Remaining calm while staring at what should be (and currently isn't) and internal organ is a very tall order. Let's just say that it took about an hour to get it in origionally, and then it started to slip out and had to be stuck back in a few times. Finally, I held the hedgie curled up on her back for awhile and eventually it stopped slipping out (Thank goodness since I was pretty green by this point).

Somewhere, in the middle of everything, we stopped to give the hedgehog some pain meds. The glazed-over pain filled look in her eyes did me in. At 11:30pm, when you aren't in a vet's office, you don't have much available to you. But we didn't have time to get to the office, not if we wanted the hedgehog to live, so our options were limited. Fortunately, Val (Dr. Chip's wife and my best friend) breeds ferrets and she had some pain meds on hand.

Once everything stayed in place, we were able to go home. I kept the little hedgehog in a small carrier so she wouldn't be too active or bothered by roommates. Thankfully, the pain meds pretty much knocked her out...... well that and she was surely exhausted from all the trauma. I know I was exhausted!

Let me tell you, there are days when my hedgehogs drive me to want to drink, and this was surely one of them! The temptation to find warmth and comfort at the bottom of a nice bottle of tequila was great, but that would have been a bad idea since I had to check on the little girl on a regular basis to make sure everything stayed in place. If it didn't stay in, we would need to go to the vet clinic and get a suture put in to hold it in place. Thankfully, the night went well.

I'm regretting not taking pictures for our gallery of gross things a breeder has to deal with, but there just wasn't time. The pictures would have been a great addition, although I'm fairly certain they would have chased away even some of the more experienced breeders. Really, it was bad, nasty, scary, nerve-racking, and horrifying. I know many other breeders who have dealt with prolapses. Honestly, usually the hedgehog doesn't survive the ordeal. If the internal organs dry out at all, they start to die and there is nothing that can be done to reverse that. I got lucky in the fact that I found it right after it happened. If I hadn't of had those hedgehogs out to do pictures exactly when we did, I probably would have found the little girl dead in the morning.

Another reason this was so traumatic to me is that the little girl is one of the last 2 babies from Tobiko before she died a little over a week ago. I was planning to breed both of the sisters to keep the line going. Now there is debate on weather or not the little girl can be safely bred. I will have to do some research. If she can't be bred, she will go to one of my foster homes once I know that she's going to be fine. She is a beautiful uber pinto with an extremely laid back personality..... or maybe that's just the meds.

So far today everything has remained in its proper place. I have some pain meds to give the little hedgie for the next few days. I still feel like I need meds to erase the pain of what I saw. Maybe one of those little flashy memory erasers from 'Men In Black' would do the trick? Where's Will Smith when ya need him?...........

-K

This is a picture of her from a fer weeks ago