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  • Case of the Month - February 2018

It's not only furry critters that we look after at the Barn - read on for Juliette's story -  an African Hedgehog needing life-saving surgery!

It is not often that one of these little guys comes through our doors, as they are one of the more uncommon family pets in the UK! Juliette is a 1 year 11 month old African Hedgehog that started to develop some blood in her urine. The owners straight away knew something was not right and brought her down to be checked over.

Hedgehogs can be prickly customers (!) at the best of times but with some chicken Juliette was more amenable to examination – she was clinically looking very well, had not been losing weight and nothing obvious was found on examination so she was prescribed a course of antibiotics in case a urinary tract infection was present. The antibiotics caused little change to the blood in her urine so she was admitted for further investigations. x-rays and ultrasound under a general anaesthetic was the first port of call.

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Juliet cropped

Her x-ray indicated a descrete mass in her abdomen (white arrow) which when she was asleep was palpable.  Ultrasound examination of this lump revealed a tumour located in her reproductive tract.

Juliette was immediately prepped ready for surgery. An ovariohysterectomy (spay procedure) was performed, revealing a uterine tumour present in one of her horns.  Thankfully there was no evidence of spread of the cancer to the surrounding abdominal organs and her lungs appear clear on her x-rays too.

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Juliette recovered very smoothly from her anaesthetic - our team of nurses did an amazing job of caring for her throughout.   As you can see with her recovering all cosy in her incubator above!  She is doing remarkably well post-operatively having made a full recovery.  We are pleased to hear that she is back to being top of the pecking order at home already!