Any help and advice is appreciated!

[pixiestix]

I've noticed Pixie being randomly grumpy lately and I'm starting to think she might be quilling, but she's only 10 weeks old, wouldn't she be too young?

She's always grumpy when I wake her up, but occasionally when she's just sitting on my lap she'll start huffing and lowering her visor when I'm barely doing anything.

Yesterday I picked up 5 or 6 quills from the blanket she'd been on for only 15 minutes or so. She scratches a little bit but nothing excessive.

I've been looking at her quills and they have little balls on the ends of them but I noticed now shes losing a lot of her fur and there are large-ish flakes of skin.

the thing that worries me most though is that shes acting very strange, she's hissing and jumping when I'm not even touching her and she's scrambling around in circles and shaking her quills. I don't know if this is just normal itchiness or if there is something very wrong. She wont let me touch her. Her quills aren't up while she's doing this and there is a lot of random twitching...

Is this a sign of quilling, just dry skin or something worse??

please help!

[paris26]

Pixie certainly could be quilling- she's at the right age. THe hair loss and patchy dry skin concern me. She may have mites. This can be diagnosed at the vet clinic with a skin scraping. I prefer Revolution for cats to treat the mites.
A warm oatmeal and Vitamin E bath will also help soothe her skin and make her less itchy. Quilling is an itchy process and they sometimes are grumpy during these few weeks

[herbiesmom]

I think it is more than quilling. My boys have both been through quilling and Herbie just got a littel grumpy and Snow got grumpy and scratched a lot until I gave him an oatmeal bath and some vitamin E on his back. But, neither ever lost fur or ran around like that. I would take your baby in to get checked for bugs. Sounds like more than quilling to me.

[pixiestix]

Thank you both for your help! I put some Vitamin E on her last night to see if it would help. She's back to her inquisitive little self this morning, although there was a quill graveyard in her cage. I set up a doctors visit but they couldn't get me in until the 18th.

[LunaMidnight]

My girl Isis started quilling around 8 weeks (still is and she's about 11 weeks now) and she's lost over 60 quills so far (that I've found).

I hope everything goes ok at the vet! :)

[Vincent]

I think it just sounds like quilling, but it's a good thing you're taking her to the vet. :)

Sorry to sound like a worry wart, but make sure to pick all those quills out of her cage. I've heard way too many stories of hedgehogs losing an eye on their own quills... it's got me paranoid.

[LunaMidnight]

I collect all her quills in a bottle so I can keep them. :)

[illinidairychic]

A hoglet will quill many times while they are young. I have 3 week olds that are getting in quills. So 10 weeks is definately not too youg. :)

[pixiestix]

That's so scary Vincent! I'd never even thought of that. The good thing is although Pix will poo anywhere she only shed her quills in her litter pan...

I'm starting to think maybe she is just quilling and has dry skin since she's better today. I was wearing black yesterday when she was acting funny and her liner is dark brown and I inspected both closely with a bright light plus her this morning since she would let me hold her and I didn't see any little buggies. But I'm taking her to the vet anyway so my speculation doesn't really matter :)


Thank you all, I'll update next week!

p.s. Revolution is used on kittens?

[paris26]

Revolution has two products for cats. One for kittens under 5 pounds and one for cats 5-15 pounds. I prefer the 5-15 pound range because I've only had to do one treatment.