Melissa
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty broken up about this one, but glad she had a great mom for the last bit of her life.
Elvira was an older hedgehog, and I got her at the age of 5. She had so much life in her. I will always remember her noises in the middle of the night, beating up her truck, lol. She was also lightening fast!
As some know, I gave Elvira to a wonderful lady in Kingston who is the "Mom" of hedgies about 4/5 weeks ago. Here is her emails to me:
"Hi Melissa
I don't know if you still read CnQ but I wanted to let you know we had to say goodbye to Elvira yesterday.
She had surgery 1 week after arrival here to debulk an oral tumour. That is why her lip was curled looking. The vet got as much as possible but said it was more extensive than it appeared on visual. Elvira came through the surgery like a trooper and was home within hours looking for her food.
I cannot believe what a good appetite that old lady had. She could easily out eat any of the rest of our gang. It was hard to believe anything was wrong when watching her eat.
The surgery seemed to help for about 2 weeks but then her jaw started to swell again. Monday night when I got her out for cuddle time, she stunk. I was hoping she was just dirty but a bath did nothing. I was out of town on Tuesday so couldn't get her to the vet until yesterday and by yesterday the small of her was sickening.
The tumour was massive and her nose was runny. Another surgery would have been pointless with the speed at which it had returned and grown. We helped her cross and she will be buried with our gang.
Did you notice the little tiny cataract she had in her right eye? That cataract had spread to cover her whole eye and the vet thought it interesting that the cataract and tumour are on the same side.
She was a wonderful old girl and I want to thankyou for letting me have her. Our time together was short but her spunk and love of life amazed me and I was happy to know her if even for such a short time.
Hugs
Nancy"
I then replied:
"Wow, I really wasn't ready for that. I'm so sorry. I'm glad you took good care of her and took her to the vet. I wonder why they didn't notice it last time I brought her in to the vet.
Thank you for everything.
Melissa"
And her latest email:
"Hi Melissa
Yes, it was a shock for us too have fast the tumour grew after the surgery but having already gone through 3 oral tumours, I know how fast those suckers can grow. With our Pagen's I swear if you watched you could see it growing.
I thought you had taken her to the vet and looking back at your pictures and the dates, her mouth had that curled lip in pictures you took on Sept 9. Now it may not have been visible on a visual but if they gassed her, they should have looked in her mouth. I too wondered how they missed it but at that point, it may all have been internal.
When she arrived here it took me a week to decide that there really was something there. I looked in her mouth numerous times and at times her lower jaw looked swollen but other times it didn't. Even at the vet when she first looked in her mouth she said there was something there but it didn't appear bad. That is why we opted for surgery. Once she was gassed and the vet started removing the tumouros tissue, she realized that it was actually way more extensive than was visible.
These (*&*^% oral tumours are awful. They grow so fast. Elvira is the first one that surgery was even an option. Our 3 all had upper tumours and to remove would have taken half their face. I do not regret for a moment having the surgery on her even though it didn't buy her much if any extra time. I had figured it would have given us months, not weeks. Even the vet and techs were shocked at how fast it had grown back. Perhaps it had
just reached the stage of fast growing.
She was such a sweet old girl and certainly deserved a better ending to her life. It is so difficult to make the decision to euthanize when they still are so active and full of life. Her behaviour had not changed in the least but it had to have been painful to her.
When I went in the hedgie room each evening, she was the first I tended to and she got her canned catfood, heated of course. Often she would hear me coming and be out and waiting for me. While I cleaned cages, I listed to her smack smack smack on her food. Once she was finished which was often half an hour or longer later, she'd head to her litterbox and when she was finished we'ed have a cuddle which really wasn't much of a cuddle as she prefered to explore. lol
I miss her. She was certainly one to grab at peoples hearts.
~N~"
Elvira was an older hedgehog, and I got her at the age of 5. She had so much life in her. I will always remember her noises in the middle of the night, beating up her truck, lol. She was also lightening fast!
As some know, I gave Elvira to a wonderful lady in Kingston who is the "Mom" of hedgies about 4/5 weeks ago. Here is her emails to me:
"Hi Melissa
I don't know if you still read CnQ but I wanted to let you know we had to say goodbye to Elvira yesterday.
She had surgery 1 week after arrival here to debulk an oral tumour. That is why her lip was curled looking. The vet got as much as possible but said it was more extensive than it appeared on visual. Elvira came through the surgery like a trooper and was home within hours looking for her food.
I cannot believe what a good appetite that old lady had. She could easily out eat any of the rest of our gang. It was hard to believe anything was wrong when watching her eat.
The surgery seemed to help for about 2 weeks but then her jaw started to swell again. Monday night when I got her out for cuddle time, she stunk. I was hoping she was just dirty but a bath did nothing. I was out of town on Tuesday so couldn't get her to the vet until yesterday and by yesterday the small of her was sickening.
The tumour was massive and her nose was runny. Another surgery would have been pointless with the speed at which it had returned and grown. We helped her cross and she will be buried with our gang.
Did you notice the little tiny cataract she had in her right eye? That cataract had spread to cover her whole eye and the vet thought it interesting that the cataract and tumour are on the same side.
She was a wonderful old girl and I want to thankyou for letting me have her. Our time together was short but her spunk and love of life amazed me and I was happy to know her if even for such a short time.
Hugs
Nancy"
I then replied:
"Wow, I really wasn't ready for that. I'm so sorry. I'm glad you took good care of her and took her to the vet. I wonder why they didn't notice it last time I brought her in to the vet.
Thank you for everything.
Melissa"
And her latest email:
"Hi Melissa
Yes, it was a shock for us too have fast the tumour grew after the surgery but having already gone through 3 oral tumours, I know how fast those suckers can grow. With our Pagen's I swear if you watched you could see it growing.
I thought you had taken her to the vet and looking back at your pictures and the dates, her mouth had that curled lip in pictures you took on Sept 9. Now it may not have been visible on a visual but if they gassed her, they should have looked in her mouth. I too wondered how they missed it but at that point, it may all have been internal.
When she arrived here it took me a week to decide that there really was something there. I looked in her mouth numerous times and at times her lower jaw looked swollen but other times it didn't. Even at the vet when she first looked in her mouth she said there was something there but it didn't appear bad. That is why we opted for surgery. Once she was gassed and the vet started removing the tumouros tissue, she realized that it was actually way more extensive than was visible.
These (*&*^% oral tumours are awful. They grow so fast. Elvira is the first one that surgery was even an option. Our 3 all had upper tumours and to remove would have taken half their face. I do not regret for a moment having the surgery on her even though it didn't buy her much if any extra time. I had figured it would have given us months, not weeks. Even the vet and techs were shocked at how fast it had grown back. Perhaps it had
just reached the stage of fast growing.
She was such a sweet old girl and certainly deserved a better ending to her life. It is so difficult to make the decision to euthanize when they still are so active and full of life. Her behaviour had not changed in the least but it had to have been painful to her.
When I went in the hedgie room each evening, she was the first I tended to and she got her canned catfood, heated of course. Often she would hear me coming and be out and waiting for me. While I cleaned cages, I listed to her smack smack smack on her food. Once she was finished which was often half an hour or longer later, she'd head to her litterbox and when she was finished we'ed have a cuddle which really wasn't much of a cuddle as she prefered to explore. lol
I miss her. She was certainly one to grab at peoples hearts.
~N~"
