Finding The Right Veterinarian For Your Pet Hedgehog

Finding the right veterinarian is an essential task for all hedgehog owners. It is a good idea to have a veterinarian lined up before you bring your hedgie home so that your veterinarian has a baseline, to know what is normal for your little buddy. Hedgies are generally very robust and may seldom have health concerns, but they are good at masking when they don't feel well. This means that by the time you realize that your hedgehog is having an issue, you need that veterinarian right away. So, how do you find the right veterinarian? Here are some considerations and questions to ask: 

 1) Is the veterinarian experienced with hedgehogs? Not all veterinarians have extensive experience or training with exotic pets like hedgehogs. If the veterinarian does not have extensive experience, are they willing to consult and learn? A veterinarian who is not extensively experienced but is willing to learn can be a good resource for your basic care, as longas they have a resource they can consult with or refer you to if a problem comes up that is beyond their expertise. 

 2) What services does the veterinarian offer for hedgehogs? Hedgehogs have a lot of similarities to dogs and cats, but they also have unique needs. Ask the veterinarian what services they offer, and what they can do to help you find more resources if your hedgehog should have need for a service that they don't offer. 

 3) How does the veterinarian handle hedgehogs during examinations? Hegehogs respond best when handled in a calm, confident, respectful manner. Is the veterinarian patient and gentle? Ask about what they do if the hedgie is not cooperative. You should feel comfortable that the veterinarian will handle your hedgie in a manner that will provide comfort and not unnecessary stress. 

 4) Does the veterinarian provide science based nutritional guidance for hedgehogs? Proper nutrition is crucial for the overall health and wellbeing of your pet hedgehog. It makes the difference between a 1 to 2 year lifespan, and 4+ years. Don't assume that your favorite Internet hedgehog group is right and the veterinarian is wrong, or vice versa. Is the veterinarian able to provide you with research based nutritional guidance? If yes, please listen to the vet! If no, keep looking. 

 5) How does the veterinarian handle emergencies and after-hours care? Problems can go wrong any day of the week or time of the day, so you will need to know how to contact your veterinarian, or an after-hours/crisis care veterinarian that they endorse. Having emergency services contact information before you need it will bring you peace of mind. 

 6) What is the cost of hedgehog veterinary care? The cost of veterinary care can vary widely. Factors that impact cost can include location, specialization, and regional differences. You will want to know the cost of a checkup and of emergency service access before you need it, so that there are no shocked surprises. Be sure to ask questions about payment options, such as if they require payment in full or set up payment plans. If you have pet health insurance, you will want to make sure that the veterinarian you plan to use accepts that healthcare plan, and what is and is not covered. 

 In conclusion, finding a veterinarian who you are comfortable with, who is experienced and has resources appropriate for hedgehog care, who provides routine and emergency coverage, and is affordable, is essential to your peace of mind and your hedgehog's wellbeing.

Where Can I Find Science-based Information About Hedgehogs?

 One absolute truth about the Internet is that it is full of information. The unfortunate truth is that not all of that information is of equal quality. When it comes to our little quilly friends, we want to make sure that the information we use to make decisions about what they need is based on good quality information.

If you read websites or join hedgehog interest groups, you are going to find a lot of information. Some of it seems to make a lot of sense, some of it seems kind of nonsense, and people will argue about what is true until you just want to put your quills up and go snooze in a nice, cozy tunnel.

My favorite source of science-based information is Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a google based search engine of scholarly journals/articles. This is where you can easily search for articles that are published in peer-reviewed journals. To be published in a peer-reviewed journal an article has to meet a higher standard than things that just anybody can publish on the Internet. 

Searching Google Scholar can be a bit daunting at first. If you put in the search term "hedgehog" you will get a whole bunch of articles about the hedgehog signaling pathway, which has to do with neurology, not hedgehoggery. I have found that using the scientific name of our quilly buddies, atelerix albiventris, gets a much better selection of articles. 

One important article I would like to point out is Fiber Digestion in the African White Bellied Hedgehog. If you click the .pdf icon on the article's abstract page, it will take you to the full article, which contains very important information about hedgehog's need for chitin/dietary fiber. Curious about the content of insects that hedgehogs eat? Try this article. 

For the most current research on Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome, a search of "atelerix albiventris WHS 2020" brought up this very informative article. If your hedgehog is sick for any reason, this would be a good article to take to your vet as it includes normal blood values for hedgehogs. 

Happy researching!

My Hedgehog Has Mites- What Now?

Mites are a very pesky but treatable problem that sometimes happens with pet hedgehogs. I am not a veterinarian and this article is not a replacement for your veterinarian. You will want to consult with your vet before using any medical treatment for your hedgehog. This article is meant to give you some idea of what options have been evaluated for hedgehogs, as well as what things we have heard people say about their experiences. This will help you to work with your vet to make a decision about care that is based on as much available information as possible!

When I first started working with hedgehogs, in the mid 1990s, topical Ivermection was typically recommended as treatment for mites (reference: personal exeperience; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-3626-9_19). Participating in the few hedgehog groups/mail lists that existed at that time, I heard people complain that Ivermectin made their hedgehog sick or that it wasn't very effective (reference: personal experience and https://www.jstor.org/stable/20094848?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents ).

When mites showed up in my herd in the early 2000s, I asked my vet if there were any other treatments available, since I didn't want to risk my hedgehogs getting sick or it not working very well. A study that compared injected Ivermectin to Amitraz as a dip showed that the Amitraz, used as in their study, was effective at eliminating the mites while the Ivernectin was not quite as effective (reference: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20094848?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents and https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/ectoparasitism ). I used the Amitraz with good results, but eventually, my vet stopped carrying it and we had to look for something else.

Veterinary articles reported success with permethrins to treat mites (reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/ectoparasitism and https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/ectoparasitism ) but word of mouth was that some people had hedgehogs with adverse reactions, so I did not want to try that.

The next reference we found that was promising was use of Selamectin (Revolution) as a topical treatment (reference: http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/hedgehog-wellness-proceedings?id=&sk=&date=&pageID=5 ).  This worked extremely well, clearing mites within about 24 hours and keeping them gone.

Recently I had a hedgehog turn up with a case of mites and the vet indicated that he hasn't carried Selamectin for over 5 years so we looked at other options. Oral dosage of Fluralaner (Bravecta) was found to be effective in one dose (reference: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318318852_Fluralaner_as_a_single_dose_oral_treatment_for_Caparinia_tripilis_in_a_pygmy_African_hedgehog). I have had someone tell me, "Don't use that, people had problems!" but they did not provide any references or explain what those problems might have been. We chose to use Fipronil (reference: http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00Chem/ChComplex/fipronil.htm and http://vri.cz/docs/vetmed/60-1-57.pdf ivermectin, selamectin, fipronil ) as a topical and it did clear the mites with no adverse effect on the hedgehog.

As you can see, there are a lot of different treatment options and there are different kinds of mites. If your vet is not familiar with the treatment of mites in hedgehogs, the references in this article will be helpful for you and your vet to determine what treatment would be likely to be most effective, and if there are several options, to help you determine which one you would prefer.