So I had to say goodbye to a very dear freind of mine. My hedgehog, Houdini, had to be put to sleep today, after several hours at the vet trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He was fine until a day or two ago, when he was having problems with his balance and walking. I figured it may be a stomach problem, because his whole back portion would topple over, like it was painful walking. Then this morning his feet were feeling really cold and he was barely moving. I gave him a bath and warmed him up (sometimes hedgehogs try to hibernate if they get cold)and he was squirming all around and was pretty active. I dried him off, placed him back in his cage, and he collapsed.

I held him and warmed him up again and we rushed to the animal hospital (the tenth one that I called, not too many vets are familiar with hedgehogs). The got an IV into him, because he was apparently dehydrated (and skinnier than he should have been, but he was eating and drinking fine till yesterday) and she said that he was not breathing well and was in bad shape. They took x-rays, and his heart had become quite larger than it should have been, and was pushing on everything else in there, lungs especially. She (Dr. Small)said that it was probably a tumor inside the heart, and she said that his lungs looked really bad and may have also had cancer. Apparently cancer is very common in hedgies.

So, she said that he looked like he was well taken care of, had very good teeth for a 4 year old (which she stressed was old for a hedgie) and good skin and quills, and that there was really not much that I could have done to catch or prevent it. His heart just swelled till it became too much for him. He had no way of indicating that there was ever a problem.

(btw, I'm really sorry if this entry is too emotional or graphic for everyone)

I stayed with him while they anesthetized him to relax him and put him under, but I left before they did the last step. They took a long time to get my billing in order, so 4 hours and 300 dollars later, I was finally able to leave the vet.

Recalculating Christmas gift budget as we speak.

I'm really gonna miss him. Not sure about any sort of replacement, it's really too soon still.

At least my morning started off okay. I was at the DMV for less than 15 minutes, and got my permit replaced, and my ID is on it's way.

Grr, my throat is scratchy, gonna prolly call it a night soon.