Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Gillian Mostyn — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:49:20 GMT

No problem. We had another one in the practice yesterday, brought in as the owner had noticed some blood around its mouth - turned out to have a tumour on its tongue. Poor little things.

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Melanie Illingworth — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:46:02 GMT

Thanks for the detailed and helpful reply Gillian, that's really informative. As it happens my boss ended up seeing the beastie in question as the consults went a bit mad but I'll save your reply for future use.

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:51:22 GMT

[quote user="Melanie Illingworth"]I''ve never handled one of these guys before so any tips for managing skin scrapes? [/quote]

By the time they present they are often completely riddled - so taking a superficial skin scrape from any bit of accessible skin will reveal the little critters. Ideally I aim for the border between quills and belly skin but depends on how helpful they are being. (You would probably even find them on a sellotape test!) They usually don't like being handled and will curl up, hiss and do frequent little 'jumps' in order to inflict greatest pain on you from their quills! (They are quite sweet though.) If you want to carry out anything like a decent exam, you will usually have to GA them - ours tend to get booked for a 20/30 min appointment and I will give them a quick GA (induction chamber) and send home as soon as they're up. This needn't be particularly expensive.

Just use a small towel to handle them. Wear gloves.

Regardless of presenting condition, ideally get permission to GA them for a proper check up unless they are really hand tame or you're 100% happy with them. I've seen some pretty sad hedgehogs suffering from horrid long term skin disease (as Marie has said, fungal disease also v common), dental disease and tumours (check everywhere - they are REALLY good at getting tumours) and the owners are often oblivious. I had one with a completely crispy leg from a hair tourniquet (owner's hair). Once they curl up, there is very little you can see!

Re stronghold- The dose is 6mg/kg and stronghold (kitten/puppy) is 60mg/ml. Most hedgies are approx 400g, so they need approx 0.04ml, which is conveniently the same volume as an average 'drop' - although you can measure this accurately if it worries you. It doesn't worry me - I think the safety profile of salamectin is good enough to say that the dose is one drop per hedgie. Afterall, a 10.1kg dog gets the same dose as a 19.9kg dog!

Incidentally, I have no issue with using ivermectin/xeno- both are very safe and effective! I just think stronghold is easy for the client to continue to use at home and has worked very well for me.

HTH

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Lara Brunori — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 06:31:22 GMT

Hi,

was just wondering if Xeno 50 could be an option?!

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Melanie Illingworth — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 22:17:39 GMT

Thanks for the helpful information Gillian. I''ve never handled one of these guys before so any tips for managing skin scrapes? Also, would you just dose Stronghold as for cats regarding size? I don't think we have injectable ivomec on the shelf as per Marie's suggestion.

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 22:17:33 GMT

Yes, 'scruff' area is accessible even when they ball up but you can't tent the skin nicely to inject as quills get in the way!

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Melanie Illingworth — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 22:14:49 GMT

Thanks Marie, that's very helpful. Just considering the practicalities and probably a stupid question but how do you go about injections, just go s/c in between quills?

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:08:44 GMT

I tend to do a quick skin scrape - and usually find trillions of the little wriggly things! They are fairly common around here - and I see loads of scurfy pygmies!

I tend to use stronghold once a month - seems to work well.

RE: Pygmy hedgehog with "mites" - help!

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:04:24 GMT

I'd do pretty much as you plan!

I don't always find mites on superficial tests including tape strips even in clear cases so look for eggs around the face in particular and treat as mite issue if clinically suspicious.

They can also suffer from dermatophytes and they are usually Woods lamp negative species but these present with generalised scale and often quill loss too. They will lose quills physiologically too, their equivalent of a moult, and this can be particularly dramatic after a change from poor to good husbandry.

I use ivermectin (0.2mg/kg at 2 week intervals for 3 doses) -usually as an injectable preparation for ease of administration and confidence regarding uptake. Be forewarned that there is an enduring myth amongst owners and breeders that ivermectin is toxic to these guys- not true! We have treated dozens upon dozens and not killed them!

Marie