Dr. Emerson is joined with Katie and the adorable hedgehog, Spiky.
After noticing changes in Spiky, it was discovered surgery was needed.
If your pet is showing similar signs make an appointment today with The Animal Hospital.
Dr. karen emerson: good morning, sunrisers.
I'm dr. karen emerson and today i have with me my technician, katie, and this cute little hedgehog down here is spiky.
Spiky actually presented a few months ago with a large tumor protruding from this area of his body.
We did have to put spiky under anesthesia in order for me to do a proper exam because of the fact that if you see them ball up, this is one of their defense mechanisms out in the wild.
They'll actually ball up and make themselves look bigger and prick you.
This is not extremely painful or anything.
It's just like a little prick, but they actually prefer to be in contact with human skin, so the owners noticed that spiky had lost weight, not eating good, just really lethargic, not wanting to play, and we put him under anesthesia and we discovered he had a very enlarged tumor on his testicle.
Dr. karen emerson: now, it was very, very infected.
What we did first is i actually prescribed spiky with medications, an antibiotic, actually.
We send him home for about 10 days on this antibiotic to allow the infection to subside so i could do a neuter on this hedgehog.
He did very good with his medications because of course they are flavored.
We get them specially compounded and flavored, so the owners were able to give it.
Spiky presented back about 10 to 11 days later and we actually put him back under anesthesia and i actually removed both testicles.
Dr. karen emerson: if the owners wouldn't have noticed this testicular tumor or it wasn't removed when we did, spiky would have probably only lived another couple of days.
He was that sick.
One of the things i want to really get out to the audience is the fact that exotic animals hide their illnesses.
It is something natural, and i'm talking about rabbits, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, snakes, lizards.
Dr. karen emerson: any of these exotic species are going to hide their illness, but the owners are going to be able to tell because of the fact their routines are going to differ.
They noticed that he wasn't eating as much food.
They noticed he didn't want to play on his wheel.
There was just so many things leading up and then they finally saw the tumor.
He was actually actively bleeding somewhat, and we took care of the issue.
I recommend early spay and neuter for hedgehogs, just like i do in rabbits and guinea pigs to avoid having to get to that point where they get so sick and almost die and then having to do the procedure.
The owners didn't even know that hedgehogs could be neutered, so if you have an exotic pet a hedgehog, a guinea pig, rabbit, anything like that, it is so important to get that education you need on it to find out if they need to be spayed or neutered and to get that good health exam.
I promise your pets will.
Thank you.
I hope you have a great rest of your week.
Announcer: wcbi animal health with dr. emerson was brought to you by emerson animal hospital in west point.
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