Sickness
Hedgehogs are prone to many diseases including cancer, which spreads quickly in hedgehogs, and wobbly hedgehog syndrome. Some symptoms of wobbly hedgehog syndrome resemble those of multiple sclerosis (MS) in humans, therefore the condition the animal experiences can be compared with what MS patients experience. A possible cause of WHS is a genetic flaw allowing a virus to attack the hedgehog's nervous system. The nose can display a variety of symptoms of a troubled hedgehog, especially respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. In many cases, the form of pneumonia that affects hedgehogs is bacterial in nature. If acted upon quickly, antibiotics can have a very positive effect. Signs to watch for include bubbles, excessive dripping, or constant sneezing.
Hedgehogs usually react to stress with temporary digestive disorders that include vomiting and green feces.
Read more about this topic: Domesticated Hedgehog
Famous quotes containing the word sickness:
“I N take thee M to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.”
—Book Of Common Prayer, The. Solemnization of Matrimony, “Betrothal,” (1662)
“Perhaps our only sickness is to desire a truth which we cannot bear rather than to rest content with the fictions we manufacture out of each other.”
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)
“the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splended sickness, the sickness of the pearl;”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)