Huff the Hedgehog - 2006

We have a pet Hedgepig, acquired from Orb. His name is David Livingstone (as he is an explorer), although we have nicknamed him Huff.

4 July 2006: Unfortunately Huff lost his battle with cancer today.

For the last day or two he has had difficulty breathing and seemed very tired, until then he had seemed well and full of life. X-Rays showed that his body with riddled with tumors and that most of his lungs had gone.

In November last year (2005) we noticed that Huff had a rather sore looking lump on his neck. As it did not get better, we took him to the Vets (Strathmore Veterinary Clinic in Andover, Hampshire), and for the following two weeks we applied an anti-bacterial cream every evening, after his run around, with no effect. The fortnight after that we fed him antibiotics from a syringe, it still did not improve so on 28 December his lump was removed by Vet John Chitty.

Unfortunately, that evening Huff managed to pull his stitches out and we had to return to have him sewn back up. Many thanks to Vet Michelle O'Brian and an anonymous nurse for coming out to meet us at the clinic so late at night, keeping him alive during his second anaesthetic that day, and for doing such a good job of putting him back together again. To stop him having another go at his stiches, Kate spend the next two days (and nights) sitting on the sofa with Huff in her lap.

The biopsy on the lump revealed that it was probably a low grade cancer. Sadly, it may not all have been removed, only time will tell.

Many thanks to everyone at the Strathmore Veterinary Clinic.

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January 2006

Happy New Year Huff.

Many thanks to our friends Han and Andy who came over and brought with them a blanket Han had made for Huff as well as some salmon to help him get better.

To help recover from the operation we were advised to wash the wound in a salt water solution. The realistic only way to do this is to go the whole hog and bathe him completely. Note the scar from his Surgery. A clean hedgehog is never overly happy and will look for interesting smells with which to anoint himself. Here he finds Kate's T-Shirt irresistible.

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February 2006

There was something interesting on the bottom of my shoe...

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March 2006

All better now, and the stiches have almost gone.

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April 2006

Happy once again, enjoying cuddles and anointing himself with prawn.

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May 2006

One minute he is all quiet and snuggling, then next he has spotted a cushion and you have a wet neck!

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July 2006

A very poorly Huff, still very much himself though .