Bleeding, but cannot find wound

[Cimredopyh]

I was letting Demon run around in his TP tube and suddenly he hissed, jumped and balled up. He then unballed pretty quick, stuck his head in the tube again and walked off. Now this in itself is not unusual sometimes he will get abit of a scare from noises around the apartment when hes playing with the tube and do the exact same thing.

But when he walked off i noticed a few drops of blood smeared on the floor. I really got a shock! I immediately picked him up and examined him, he had blood on his back right foot and a little on his boy bits and tummy fur. But i could not see where the blood was coming from
So i cuddled him abit to calm and console him (and myself) and washed his tummy and foot clean of blood.

I then bundled him in a towel and examined him again. The bleeding had stopped and i simply cannot find any injury or even any redness or swelling on either his foot, boy bits, or any other part of his body for that matter. He is moving around normally but i have taken out the wheel for the night.

Now could it be that when he balled up his toenails scratched his boy bits? Since his boy bits just look like a bellybutton perhaps the scratch is hard to see? i did check the floor very carefully and there was nothing there that he could injure himself on. Oh and also he did unball very fast compared to the other times he got a scare, which just makes me think even more that he injured himself somehow when balling up.

Time is 10.45 pm most stores and of course the vet is closed
Should i call emergency? Im pretty worried, my brain says situation should not be that bad but my heart wants to make sure he will be ok immediately. I know i should be more decisive but he sight of blood on his tummy fur really scared me, please advise

I should add that we do not have neosporin brand here, all i have with me on hand is Dettol liquid which im sure is much too strong for him and i dont even know if it will be toxic.

[Rikki Tikki]

I'd wait unitl the perfessionals get here, but what you can do is go to the nearest store (walmart, etc.) and get anti-bacterial medicine. If you don't use it for this situation, you might have future episodes down the road that will need it. You would be glad you had gotten it.

Do you think it could have been the quills? Rikki's quills always dig in his skin. Every two days, I check for quills being stuck in his side or ears. I don't know why it happens, but Rikki doesnt barely have any because of me getting them out for him, but I check every two days just in case.


That is really strange. Have you check his whole body, his sides?

I don't know about the nails though. Are then trimmed? Are they pointy?

[HedgeMom]

Do you really think there are a lot of WalMarts in Kuala Lumpur? Because that's where the hedgehog is. And please note, the poster said it's 11 at night when posted.

To the OP. Change the bedding, remove all the litter and put down white paper towels or light colored fleece or white cardboard. It could be that he's got a bladder infection and you're seeing blood from his urinary tract. It's not a reason for an emergency visit.

If it doesn't happen again and if you don't see any bloody or pink urine, I'd put it out of my mind and relax.

[Rikki Tikki]

Do you really think there are a lot of WalMarts in Kuala Lumpur? Because that's where the hedgehog is. And please note, the poster said it's 11 at night when posted.

Just helping :D I'm only 14... I don't know much about Kuala Lampur--I said "etc" so I wasnt saying just Walmart. And my computer said it was posted 2 hours ago. :p

[Nancy]

Rikki, getting antibacterial medicine is rather useless considering the poster couldn't find any injury. Also, there are only specific antibacterial medicines that can be used as many are toxic. :)

In addition to Hedgemoms recommendation of paper towels, pillow cases in white or a pale pattern with white background will work well. Flannel baby receiving blankets work great too. My thoughts go toward a urinary tract infection as well. If he hadn't had his tube on his head I would say he was having some fun and bit himself. Don't laugh, it does happen. :laugh:

[Cimredopyh]

Thank you Hedgemom and Rikki Tikki

No signs of any blood at all, not even dried blood, since i cleaned him him. Other than being abit grumpy that i keep inspecting him he seems all right. I use light blue fleece liners and paper towels under his wheel so that is covered. I will keep a close eye on the colour of his urine.

Dettol is actually an antiseptic that we dilute and use to clean wounds, but im not sure if its safe to use on him as it is a little strong. Ive read that neosporin is safe but we do not have that here. You are right tho i should have looked into alternatives beforehand.

It was 11pm for me 3 hours ago : ) Kuala Lumpur is literally on the other side of the world from where most of you are, so when its daytime for you, its nightime for me. Also im living in the 'future' as its 2.33 am Monday Feb the 18th at the time i am posting this.
We do not have walmart but we do have alot of convenience type stores that open 24 hours...but they all carry Dettol : /. I would have to go to a pharmacy for more varieties.

edit: LOL Nancy i had no idea that could happen
I want to add that the blood was very red and thick, could it really be from a UTI? I really hope not with such thick blood i am thinking it would be quite a serious UTI. Perhaps the one he recently had did not completely clear up and got worse?
I have been checking the color of his urine on the paper towels under the wheel since then and it seemed that he had recovered, nice clear yellow urine.

[hemi_mygirl]

That sounds scary. I know this is a bit of a long shot since you said there was no other blood or visible injury, but does he have all of his toenails? I don't know what surface he was playing on (carpet?) but it may have caught a toenail and got it torn when he jumped. But then again, usually they bleed a bit more when they rip a toenail.

[Cimredopyh]

All toes and nails intact, that was one of the first things i checked because he had blood on the nails of his back right foot.
His nails were short but i did trim them very recently, so they were a little sharp around the fresh trimmed edges.
He was playing on a varnished wooden floor i believe it is called parquet? Another thing that i thought it could be was a splinter but the floor is very smooth and varnished. I ran my hands over the area but was unable to find anything.

[April7901]

Ooh. I completely understand what you're going through! I found a spot of blood in Bramble's cage last week - maybe the size of a nickel. I *freaked* - but that was the ONLY spot.. nowhere near his wheel, and no "trail" of blood.. so I knew he hadn't hurt his foot. He was already on a light-colored cage liner, so I would have been able to see any other blood. I checked him over - no blood that I could see on him, either.

I still don't know what it was... but Nancy's suggestion actually makes sense, because he hasn't been quite as um... active about "that" since then....

No more blood here, either, so there's no telling what our boys are up to!

[Nancy]

Our Bandit had 3 times of unexplained blood starting when he was about 6 months old. All times were under his igloo with not one spot of blood anywhere but under the igloo. This was undiluted blood. The first about the size of a loonie, the second a quarter, the third a dime. They were spaced roughly 3-4 weeks apart. There was never anything on him and no sign of where it came from and he obviously hadn't moved from his igloo while it was happening.

What is interesting is that we have never found any evidence since of Bandit enjoying himself. There is never any little boy stuff on his bedding and we never see it, unlike many of the boys who like to show off. Can't help but think that after 3 times of biting himself he gave up. :laugh: