Nova was humanely euthanized on March 7. She lost all mobility in her back legs and began bleeding heavily when peeing or pooping. I was out of the country at the time, and my mom made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep rather than prolonging her suffering. She died the day after my...
Thanks! She's a pretty relaxed hog... I can't recall the last time I saw her in a ball; it was probably when she first came home and was in a new environment. I'm hard pressed to get a real hiss out of her. She's just completely secure and apparently doesn't feel any need to ball up, raise...
Nova has discovered one of the perks of being sick -- breakfast in bed! Here she is, enjoying her mushy kibble in the comfort of her hedgie bag, sprawled out over a heating pad. She's so hard done by.
LOL! I'm pretty sure my eyes nearly fell out of my head when the tumor hit the table. The vet practically had to pick her jaw up off the floor while Nova was wiggling around and glaring at me. I was hoping for some sort of a sudden change in plans, but I never expected something quite so...
Nova had a follow up appointment today, with another to follow on March 12. Since Saturday, she has gained 12 grams. The inside of her mouth looks good, with the tiniest bit of dead tissue where the mass was (and detached), so we're going to watch that. We will be continuing antibiotics and...
I took her to work with me again today, because she has an appointment with the vet right after work. As you can probably imagine, she is not being very helpful at work. When I snapped this photo, she was about 2 seconds from attempting to jump off my lap to make her grand escape.
(And yes, the...
Thanks, Kalandra. The stretched out look is slowly going away too. Her appetite is really good too... I'm having a bit of a hard time measuring how much food she's eating, since I'm mushing up her kibble, but if I had to guess... she's up to at least a tablespoon, maybe a tablespoon and a half...
Here is a photo of Nova's mouth today, just over 24 hours after the growth fell out. As you can see, her eyes are bright and she looks quite animated and happy. I actually had to gently scruff her to get the photo because she was on her way to explore and there was no way she was posing for a photo.
Kalandra, I was absolutely stunned when the mass just fell out. I've had quite a few hedgehogs with cancer, and this thing looked exactly like a tumor. It looked like every tumor the vet had ever seen and he's one of the best hedgehog/exotic vets in Edmonton. All signs pointed to cancer - the...
I'm being cautiously optimistic. She was investigating her food dish about an hour after I brought her home and looking very disgusted at the prospect of a completely mushed up diet. She took her medicine very well and I don't see signs of fresh blood around her mouth. Poop is still in good...
Well... I took her to the vet at 2pm today. I spent all evening with her last night, and then the entire day today. I put the vet off as long as I could, in hopes that I would start to feel more sure about the entire thing. Normally, I can justify that I'm doing the right thing and I feel okay...
Nova's tumor has doubled in size over the last day and a half, and she has started to rub her face on any surface she can. She spent nearly 2 hours last night, pushing her jaw against my thumb and whimpering quietly. She is still eating and moving around, but she looks a little off-balance...