So roughly a month ago I took my hedgehog, Sonic, to the vet because she had a small lump on her face. She is over 4 years old, so I suspected cancer, and unfortunately I was correct. Surgery was inadvisable, since the tumor was very close to her nasal cavity. The vet was worried that it would do more harm than good.
A month later she is still doing pretty well. We have her on Piroxicam every night for pain. She is still eating and running on her wheel all night. The tumor is growing, but for the moment we're just waiting to see how it develops.
Then a couple weeks ago, my other hedgehog Garnet (~2 years old) threw up one morning and stopped eating or drinking on her own. I brought her to the vet (not the one I usually go to, she was out of the office) and she couldn't find any medical reason for it. She prescribed Pepcid and that helped with the vomiting, so I syringed her some pedialyte hoping she would eat on her own.
She still didn't eat after another day, so I got Hills A/D and started syringe feeding her. She took it surprisingly well. After a couple days of that she started drinking water, then the next day she ate some chicken baby food and mushed up banana on her own (banana has always been one of her favorites).
After that she kind of plateaued. She continued to eat a bit of baby food and drink her water in addition to the syringe feedings, but she would not eat her dry kibble for anything. I crushed it, I mixed it with baby food, I added gravy from wet cat food. Nothing worked.
Then after another couple days I noticed that her gums were swollen on one side of her mouth. So, back to the vet we went (our usual vet this time), expecting an infected tooth, or something similar. The vet expected the same thing and put her under anesthesia to check it out.
A little while later the vet tech came back in with Garnet, and said the vet would be in shortly. When she came back in, I knew something was wrong. First of all, she was carrying a freshly hatched baby emu, and secondly she looked like she was about to cry.
She said she brought in the emu as a buffer because she had some very bad news. Garnet also has oral squamous cell carcinoma. The same diagnosis I got for Sonic a month ago. Her cancer is also inoperable (the vet said is covers most of the top of her mouth). So she is on the same Piroxicam regimen as Sonic.
So now I have two terminally ill hedgehogs, and I'm really dreading the decisions I'm going to have to face soon.
A month later she is still doing pretty well. We have her on Piroxicam every night for pain. She is still eating and running on her wheel all night. The tumor is growing, but for the moment we're just waiting to see how it develops.
Then a couple weeks ago, my other hedgehog Garnet (~2 years old) threw up one morning and stopped eating or drinking on her own. I brought her to the vet (not the one I usually go to, she was out of the office) and she couldn't find any medical reason for it. She prescribed Pepcid and that helped with the vomiting, so I syringed her some pedialyte hoping she would eat on her own.
She still didn't eat after another day, so I got Hills A/D and started syringe feeding her. She took it surprisingly well. After a couple days of that she started drinking water, then the next day she ate some chicken baby food and mushed up banana on her own (banana has always been one of her favorites).
After that she kind of plateaued. She continued to eat a bit of baby food and drink her water in addition to the syringe feedings, but she would not eat her dry kibble for anything. I crushed it, I mixed it with baby food, I added gravy from wet cat food. Nothing worked.
Then after another couple days I noticed that her gums were swollen on one side of her mouth. So, back to the vet we went (our usual vet this time), expecting an infected tooth, or something similar. The vet expected the same thing and put her under anesthesia to check it out.
A little while later the vet tech came back in with Garnet, and said the vet would be in shortly. When she came back in, I knew something was wrong. First of all, she was carrying a freshly hatched baby emu, and secondly she looked like she was about to cry.
She said she brought in the emu as a buffer because she had some very bad news. Garnet also has oral squamous cell carcinoma. The same diagnosis I got for Sonic a month ago. Her cancer is also inoperable (the vet said is covers most of the top of her mouth). So she is on the same Piroxicam regimen as Sonic.
So now I have two terminally ill hedgehogs, and I'm really dreading the decisions I'm going to have to face soon.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire