Friday, July 15, 2011

Wounded Pygmy hedgehog, should I remove her wheel?

When I went to clean my hedgehogs cage today I realised she had wounded her foot, it is red raw and was obviously bleeding a lot. She does not have back toes as she was overgroomed by her mum as a baby. It has never affected her ability to walk and run but I noticed that sometimes they can be a little tender if she runs a lot. However today her left foot has an open wound on the base where she walks on, I bathed her and cleaned the wound, disinfected her cage and gave her one of my old t shirts for soft bedding. Her wheel is a special heavily whisper wheel, bucket style with a solid base that I imported from America. I've had her and the wheel a year and there has been no problems until today. I know that she is more prone to injury as she has no back toes but this is the first time her foot has been injured. When I put her back in the cage she attempted to run on her wheel and I put her to bed instead. Should I remove the wheel for a few days and give her foot time to heal? I'm going to bathe the foot and clean it everyday an make sure her heat lamp is on to make the cage a little warmer to keep her snug. Her wheel is everything to her, she will spend the entire night on it so I'm worried that she will get incredibly bored without it. Is it wise for me to remove it for a couple days? I don't think a vet is needed at this point in time, I reassess the situation in a few days. There is no sign of infection and the area is clean. She can still walk on her foot, it's just obvious a tad uncomfortable. What do you think? She's active and eating and drinking as per normal and seems normal.

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