African Pygmy Hedgehog Health Watch List

African Pygmy Hedgehogs like everyone else can get ill from time to time, we are compiling a list below of the most common illness, not only illness but other health issues like mites, ringworm etc.





Please note I am not a medical expert and any health concerns should be presented to your vet for diagnoses and or treatment. The above is based on my own independent experience and many years of research and I hope it is of some help to you. We are not suggesting you use any of the above medical advice without checking with a veterinary specialist first, as we do ourselves

Mites

This is one of the most common issues for hedgehogs, we regularly treat our hedgehogs with stronghold as we feel it is a very safe treatment used at the correct dosage and very effective, stronghold lasts 30 days so often they only need one treatment as it outlives the cycle of the mites, although some vets are recommending three treatments every three weeks for badly infested hedgehogs (generally wild ones), as a precaution one treatment should be enough. At present we are happy to use the one treatment as we have not seen any mites on our hegehogs, but they can not always be seen so we go with the prevention and treat all of ours.  It is also safe for use during pregnancy of hedgehogs and whilst they are raising their babies.

Please note stronghold is only available on prescription for other animals but some vets will be happy to allow you to use it, they may want to look into its safety first. I first came across this information from rescue centres in the US and have done huge amounts of research and am happy this is the best treatment for our herd of hedgehogs.

Vets have differing opionions and some believe all hedgehogs carry mites and at times of low immune or stress, it activates them, this is why when you get a hedgehog from us we always recommend a treatment after a week or two, we also treat them before they leave us to try to minimise the chances of mites appearing from the stress of moving.