First Daisy--now Starla

[Johanna]

As many of you may know--Daisy has had diarrhea for a week. She has now started Baytril as of last night. I am not sure if it is working yet. She seems a bit more in control of her diarrhea though.

Tonight, Starla is now sick. When I checked her I realized she had thrown up in her hedgie bag and poo'ed a bit too. I got her up to run around. She then had very stinky diarrhea on the floor and is somewhat lethargic. She has a bit of slimy poop last night but I thought that it might have been because I got fresh bags of food (CSFTCLS lite and Innova Senior) and I substituted out Wellness and replaced it with Solid Gold. I doubt that would have caused the puking and diarrhea though.

Bella's poop is ok but I noticed that the end piece has a bit of white mucous. As well, her wheel last night had some green slime residue.

The girls are all separated but in the same room. The last time (and only time) Starla had contact with Daisy was close to 2 weeks ago. As well, Starla and Daisy are not even next to eachother--Bella has the pen between them.

I am freaking out now. What could be going on?

[Nancy]

I am so sorry your girls are having problems Johanna. It's time to have a fecal done on them to find out what you are dealing with.

Put them back on their old foods, minus wellness and don't give any new foods until this is over unless you have to syringe feed them. Food upset could cause puking.

This is exactly the way it went here last year. It went from hedgehog to hedgehog with no apparent reason why it hit some and not others. Luckily, what is going through your girls isn't as serious as what killed our Luke. I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

HUGS

[Johanna]

I took a sample in of Daisy's stool on Wednesday for a culture and sensitivity. As well, the vet wanted to do a culture and sensitivity for salmonella (another $66). I opted for just the culture for salmonella for $28 since this has costed me close to $300 already and I thought we could do a salmonella sensitivity if need be (but the vet called to say the lab only does package deals and if there is no bacteria they don't refund for the sensitivity). So now I wonder if I should bite the bullet and order that up as well? Thoughts?

I changed the bags of CSFTCLS and Innova because they have been open since about Christmas and I also noticed that the CSFTCLS also expired at the beginning of March. I will remove the Solid Gold though.

Starla has diarrhea bad. She is also puking whitish foam--except this morning it was slightly green. I am taking the vomiting to mean that this is hitting her harder than Daisy--although Starla has a more sensitive stomach than Daisy and is a puker when it comes to car rides (whereas Daisy isn't really). She is my rescue that is about two years old.

Daisy didn't diarrhea all day yesterday. Last night her diarrhea is not as watery and no visible mucous. It is quite sticky and dark. This also worries me.

I am going to call the vet this morning. It may be that Starla will be a better candidate for a culture because she hasn't been on antibiotics yet. I am betting the vet will tell me to put her on Baytril. This is going to be difficult because Starla wouldn't eat A/D with acidophilus last night so I don't know how I would get the antibiotics in her. she is very huffy and hardly let's us touch her.

What could this be? Can the bacteria be air born? Could it be a virus like a stomach flu? Daisy got sick a week ago and now Starla and I am slightly worried that Bella is fighting it too.

I feel like such a bad mommy. Maybe I cross contaminated but I have been careful. My poor poor babies--this is breaking my heart. We won't even have the fecal back for another week (7-10 days)!!! This can't go on like this.

[Johanna]

Is there anything I can do to help Starla? She won't eat and she is vomiting and has bile coming out her bum bum. She is drinking water (thank god!). Can I give her something like children's gravol to help calm her stomach? She is VERY upset.

[Nancy]

You are not a bad hedgie mom so get that thought right out of your mind. I felt the same way when our gang was getting sick and felt I was cross contaminating especially when it was only my gang that were getting sick. My daughters were fine at first until we both started caring for and cleaning them all and then two of hers got it as well.

See if the vet will do injections with Starla. It means either they will have to teach you how to do it, or you will have to take her in every day for an injection. Injections don't cause the stomach upset that oral does and you won't have to fight her.

Did the vet put a rush on the sample? You will probably never know where this came from. Had I not bought more mealies that there was obviously something wrong with, I'd still not know what had caused the illness with our gang.

[Nancy]

Just read your second post. Phone the vet or preferably take her to the vet.

Sending lots of prayers your way.

[Luvin_Hedgies]

Just curious on if you offered the a/d in a bowl, or did you try and syringe feed it to her? Roxy wouldn't eat it straight out of the bowl, but I could usually get 4ml in her through syringe during a sitting. She'll need something in her tummy. The water that she's drinking on an empty tummy could be causing more upset.

I'd take her into the vet. I know your pain with constant diarhea and no desire to eat. Its heartbreaking but getting food in her couse help with some of the vomiting.

We're sending hugs and prayers here for the you & the girls.

[Johanna]

Thank you for your hugs and prayers. We really need them right now. My poor girls.

I talked to vet. He said to start both Starla and Bella on Baytril even though Bella is still ok. Baytril as a preventative strategy seems pretty extreme but if it is spreading I guess that makes sense.

He said that he has a strong suspicion that it is salmonella or e-coli. I have no idea where the girls would have picked either of those up. I haven't introduced anything new in a long time. We are hoping to have preliminary lab results monday but we don't know if that will happen at this point. I am also going to cough up the extra dough and have a fecal culture run on Starla if I can get a sample. With her not eating it will be difficult. Right now only smears of VERY STINKY bile are coming out.

I am going through so many Blankies and hedgie bags and I am wondering if the washing and vinegar rinse is not enough and that is how Starla got this? I just don't have a hundred blankies to use for each girl and now 2 of the girls are going through them so quickly. Should I be doing the laundry differently?

Starla won't eat anything. Not A/D, not chicken baby food, not pumpkin, not kibble and definitely not baytril. And Starla is not taking any syringe either (maybe I am bad at it??). She won't even take the 0.2 cc of baytril. The vet said he would teach me to give injections and I am going to do that (Side note--I am terrified of needles and this is going to be VERY difficult). Unfortunately he is right booked up until Monday so I can't really get in for an exam. I am going to call and see if I can bring Starla in for the injection today though.

Nancy--what happened last year with your gang? I remember many of them being sick at once but I thought they were are different illnesses. I remember what happened with Luke--and was it Kesia too that was ill? I just didn't know it spread through the whole gang. What was it and how did you treat it?

[Nancy]

Go to Walmart or Zellers and buy some baby receiving blankets in bulk. Use them as liners for now until they are better. You can buy even use a different colour or pattern for each girl and launder separately. When my gang were sick, I used the receiving blankets and I put a bit of bleach in the wash then did a rinse with vinegar and that got rid of the bleach smell.

Can you scruff Starla? If she isn't co-operative it can be difficult but worth trying so you can get something into her. If that doesn't work, and she won't take the syringe, try squirting some a/d on her tummy and then leave her alone. Some will lick it off. Others, will leave it there and then need a bath but it's worth a try. You can also try leaving a small dish of it in her bed. Sometimes they will eat if they don't have to get up to do it. Are you warming the a/d? Just slightly warm puts off that yummy smell :Pukey: that sometimes entices them to eat. Try anything you can to get her to eat. Canned kitten food is good to try as well.

It was Kendi that got sick at the same time as Luke. She got better on her own as did most of them. Peanut would have died except that we had the baytril by then and knew what to do. They had either e-coli or salmonella. I'll write more shortly. I'm heading out right now... to the vet actually.

HUGS

[Hathery]

Have you been around any younger children lately? What can present itself as loose stool or diarrhea in a young child may acually be e-coli. We all know the handwashing habits of kids, and this is actually one of the more common ways that e-coli is spread (whether person to person or animal to animal) :( A bad poop-day for a young child could be a life-threatening illness for a hedgehog.