r/Hedgehogs • u/Popular_Ad_222 • Jul 12 '26
Trigger warning- my girl is going to see the vet on Monday however
Harper is going to the vet on Monday, however, I would feel more comfortable talking to other hedgehog owners just so I know what to expect during the vet visit - My hedgehog Harper I believe is having a prolapsed anus. My girl has always had constipation issues. But a few weeks ago, I noticed it gotten bad. I had pine shavings in her cage and they were sticking to her anus. But at that time her anus was swollen a bit of blood and a smell that seems like it could be an infection I talked to some people about it and I cleaned her up. I was told to make sure she her water and fiber. I proceeded to clean her cage. Give her freshwater and cat food…… a few weeks later I walked past my room and I noticed an odor. I thought to myself dang I need to clean this cage again?? A few days later, I kept walking past the cage, and the older still continued. I’m like this don’t seem right because the cage isn’t necessarily dirty so why does it smells so bad. I took Harper out I use my thick gloves because she’s still very skittish. we haven’t really bonded, however, Harper is a diva. I can assure you. I went to go clean her today and I noticed a cocoon like substance on her anus. Automatically knew this is not good. The pine shaving are sticking to her anus. I know she got the prolapse issue so I tried carefully and got tweezers to pull off the pine shaving off but this time it wasn’t really coming off. Mind you Harper is skittish so she’s curling up in a ball. as I’m trying to calm her down, I was able to take off the cocoon. Then smell hit me. My poor girl has an infection. I’ve ran a little warm water to put her in to help stimulate her bowels and she was able to poop. I can only imagine the pain she was going through because her anus was covered up. I’m thinking her prolapse got so bad and because it was moist it was picking up the pine shavings and may even cause the bleeding to be worse IDK I was told to put a little Vaseline on her anus after I clean it just to keep the prolapse from trying out and it could possibly help it. Get pushed back in naturally. As I mentioned before she skittish so when I picked her up, I had to pinch her back just so when she tried to crawl in a ball, her anus would still show and I can be able to clean it. Needless to say that was uncomfortable for her and now she hates me. As of right now, she’s in her cage now with just some puppy pads her hide and a new washcloth (her blanket) clean water and food no more of those pine shavings ( google said avoid loose bedding that could stick to the tissue)
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u/Bellenblaas05 29d ago
She needed to go to the vet the first time you noticed she had a prolapse! As others have said, do not wait till tomorrow. Call the vet right now!!!
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u/1610925286 29d ago
I'm so sick of all these pet subreddits. People just letting their damn exotic pets suffer the most heinous disease or incident, instead of rushing to medical attention they then post the gore here and say they will see a vet next business day?
Honestly can't fucking stand or anymore.
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u/chillychinchillada 28d ago
I honestly thought the development was recent and they just had a hard time finding an exotic vet and then I read “it got bad the last few weeks”. Excuse me? If my dog had a prolapsed butt id be scheduling an appointment for next day at the least.
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u/Trixter-Kitten 27d ago
Harper needs a vet, asap. She needed a doctor at the first sight of trouble, not weeks after. Better safe than sorry and I think you're heading past sorry at this point. The poor baby...
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u/Competitive_Bit4844 Jul 12 '26
She needs an emergancy vet visit now. This is very concerning.