A difficult decision.

 Its been about 4 weeks since Lila's been to the vet. In that time her lump has expanded, ruptured, scabbed over, and partially broke off. In the name of science I bagged up her tumor. The remaining part scabbed over again and the loss helped with her mobility. She seems to be eating, drinking, and pooping normally. Other than her condition and some excessive sleeping, she seems to be a normal hedgie.

She was a good girl at the vet today. He just kept telling me how easy she was to handle. He did the normal exam, but today she resisted him touching the lump. The last appointment she had no problem with him putting some pressure on it or the leg. I offered up the "old lump" to give to the pathologist, if he was curious. Dr. Harvey thought we would at least like to see it for his own benefit.

During the exam he observed growth since the mass fell off and he noticed considerable change in size as well as texture. He also told me that the odor coming from it was due to it being sorta "rotten". We did not run any test today, however he was able to visually check the "old lump" that I kept in a zip-lock. That thing smells horrid, by the way. No tests means we don't know for sure, but he strongly believes it is a carcinoma tumor.

Before we left Dr. Harvey gave me the rundown on our options. First was a extremely costly amputation, that I could never afford in my wildest dreams. the second treatment plan was a pain killer and antibiotic duo. The meds will cost about $100 and he didn't even tell me how long that supply lasts. Then there's the au natural way, which is to wait it out.

I have never had to make a decision like this before. Her well being is my number one concern and I want to make the right decision. 

 

 

 

--the decision has not been made yet.

Smokin' in the Boys Room

Just kidding!! I quit smoking 10 months ago. More importantly I realized the boys have completely been ignored on the blog. It also dawned on me that its gonna be way harder to blog about the boys. This will likely end up being a "look what I bought them" blog.  It might even morph into a blog about my self.

We are waiting to move into our new house in about 3 weeks. The boys and I are currently living with my parents and my younger sister. I think we're all getting excited for me to move out again. The living situation have me frazzled and ready to go. The boys don't care where we go or what we do as long as they keep getting getting their new timothy hay with sweet potato.

We are moving into a great house on the sound, I have my own entrance to the house as well. The room is much bigger than out current one. My fluffernutters take up a huge portion of my room and lila's cage helps a bit too.

Imagine the cage is on the left wall and the twin bed is all the way against the right wall. I have about 5 feet from the cage to my bed and about a foot away from the wall behind the camera. Some people have walk in closets bigger then my room.

Their will be fresh free range eggs every morning from the resident hens. The owner filled in his shore line with sand to create a nice beach. I plan to get a float and and an anchor to float while tanning.

I learned about once a month cooking recently and I began preparing my grocery lists immediately. Normally Im pretty lazy and will spend all my money on frozen pizzas. I thought, why spend all that money on prepackaged when I can make that dollar stretch and still have my frozen meals. This way I can still be lazy but in a healthy way.

Post Vet update

I took Lila to the vet today....

He prescribed Synotic 8ml to reduce inflammation. The medication is supposed to reduce swelling and it is a steroidal topical. This is a 2 week treatment, twice a day for a week and once a day for an additional week. The medication is supposed to reduce swelling. I think he said it was a vascular tumor because it was spongy. He coudn't know for sure with out running one more test. I couldn't afford to do it all at this appointment, but I can kind of do it one appointment at a time. She has a check up on April 16th to see how the meds worked. It would be another $ 200 to get the blood drawn, examined by the pathologist, and to pay for that appointment.I did not get quoted a surgery price. If we did decided to operate, Dr. Harvey would only be able to reduce the mass a bit. A complete removal wouldn't leave enough skin to close the hole. When it come down to it surgery wasn't an option for us because of price. Luckily shes not in pain and still has complete motor functions

 

She has a follow up appointment on April 16th. I hope we don't have anymore issues with her mass.
The vet also said she had the best temperment of all the hedgies hes handled. All of the vet techs were enamored by her.

Pre-Vet setup

The boys had their first outing in my room. Normally they get to be out in the hall since that area is completely empty. I did the best to chin proof the room. They really enjoyed looking at their reflections.

I have to use my bath tub to accommodate my weekly deep cleanings. please don't worry about the exercise balls. They use them for about 5 minutes while I set up the play pen. I will not be using these in the summer months.

Miss Lila has her vet appointment tomorrow afternoon and we are packed and ready to go already. I have white cloths, food, water, serving dishes and bedding in case she has to stay over night. Hopefully she can come home with us.

I spoke with her old owners to see what the deal with her lump was. They had her for 6 months and it went from the size of a pea to nickle size. They came to visit the other day and I asked if it got any bigger and she was shocked. It had in fact grown a lot. She said one day it busted open and was bleeding everywhere, which leads me to believe its a vascular tumor. I'm not a vet so I really don't know.

Lastly I wanted to show you the glass pieces I've made.

Tricking the picky eater..

Recently Ive tried to add Senseed's Vita Exotic to Lila's diet. First i tried to replace about a fourth of her food, which she promptly picked her old food out and left the new food in the dish. Next was the baby food fiasco. I'm not entirely sure if it hardened up on her or she didn't care for it. My most recent attempt turned out well but Im not happy about the method. Last night I left her food on top of her cage, my poor baby was starving this morning. So knowing she had a big appetite, I mixed a 50/50 portion of her Blue Indoor formula with the Vita Exotics and added Wellness Turkey & Duck wet food. I think shes enjoyed it but after a couple hours it all blended together and died up. I gave her a fresh bowl for the rest of the night but I left out her precious Blue dried food.

Picking out her favorite pieces

 Tonight's dinner (I'm blogging when I should be having my dinner)

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Today I went to the thrift store I work at and picked up a beautiful green chinchiller! Its big enough for both boys to cuddle on. I also picked them up some baby food puffs for treats.

These should be fine in moderation.

Scored this for 5 bucks!! 

I love when they sleep on their sides :) so cute!

Lila, Lila, Lila

Last night I mixed up some of lila's normal food with hedgie care formula and baby food. I thought Turkey and gravy baby food would mask the smell of the new diet food, and I think it did. She either hated it or it hardened before she could finish it. This morning it looked as if she ate some of it but the rest was crusted to the dish. I'm doing my best to round off her diet but shes being picky. There's got to be something I can do to get her to eat the new food.

I finally got a good picture of Lila's mystery lump. Normally she wont let me flip her over for a up close picture, but today during bath time I figured out how to get one. I have a water proof camera so I started recording, picked her up in front of the camera, then got a screen shot while watching the video.

Poor baby. I feel worse and worse as each day goes by. I get paid this upcoming Wednesday and I will skip class if I have to, to take her to the vet. I turned to Craigslist to see if people in my community knew of a vet I could take her to. I hope this thing isn't cancerous, but my gut feeling is not good. The waiting is killing me but theres nothing I can do until Wednesday. I feel so hopeless.

Pulling out off the stops for mis Lila

I've been crossing off my list, buying everything for Lila lately. So she's getting more blog worth attention. I picked up meal worms and a hedgehog specific food the other afternoon. The food was about 10 dollars and for about 25 meal worms I spent 3.00 dollars. I knew she liked the worms already but I underestimated by how much. She grabbed that suck out of my finger tips so fast! They were swallowed in about 3 seconds. She did not like the new food. I only replaced about a fourth of her normal serving. Tonight I tryed the same ratio of cat food and the hedgie diet, but this time I added turkey and gravy baby food. Not a lot but enough to cover all the food. Its the first time with baby food as well. Shes a piggy and I'm sure she will eat some of it if not all of it.

Lila finally acquired enough stuff to have her own Tupperware container. I have a big bag of friskies that I plan to feed to her after she gets used to Vita Exotics Hedgehog food. The plan is to have a mix consisting of all three foods for variety of taste. I bought an assortment of baby foods also. In her One Direction rinse cup, I have her toothbrush rolled up in a girly pink hand towel and Johnson's & Johnson's baby shampoo. I want to find Aveeno oatmeal baby shampoo and Johnson’s & Johnson’s lavender baby wash to change the smell up.

If you know of any essentials I'm missing please let me know. All I can think of that's left is a smaller pair of nail clippers.

I have a ton of fleece on hand but I'm always picking up more are thrift stores. I left a bag of fleece at my friends house to sew but she became to busy with work so I brought it back home. I completely forgot how much I bought. I work at a thrift store so I bring home fleece blankets every other day. I don't think you could possibly have too many but when's enough, enough?

 Fleece I had already                                                                                                 The new stuff

Thanks and feel free to leave advice, comments, concerns, or what ever.

A small post about myself.

I don't normally enjoy talking about my self but for the sake of the blog I think I can muster up a little info. My name is Helen, I'm 23 and I have owned various small animals most of my life. I have had mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs. Now I have two chinchillas and a hedgehog. I have a big heart full of love and compassion for all things furry.

Today I'm blogging from my glass blowing class. We do a lot of waiting for our turn to make something, so I took the opportunity to write this post. We have been practicing making cups for a few weeks now. Apparently you cant learn anything else until you master making a small cup like vessel. Today I made the best looking one out of all the others I made.

 Top and side view of the dish I made on Monday



My recreational time is mostly made up of hanging out with my friends, my family, and my babies. I hula hoop on really nice days but I haven't been practicing lately. I like to go to thrift stores and find treasures. Recently I found 1920's depression era Uranium Glass bowls. They glow under black light and have a green tint in regular light. I got each dish for 75 cents, they are worth at the very least $20 a piece. They are priceless to me.

The Lila Diaries

I took in Lila from some friends who were moving. I knew prior to taking her in that she may have cancer. Shes got a huge mass on the back of her front right leg. In addition to the lump, shes a bit over weight. I bought her a wheel to combat the weight issue. The lump as me concerned and I think I'm going to drop the 50 bucks to at least have it looked at. I owe her that much at least.

Medical issues aside I revamped her cage within a week of her being here. She had loose bedding and a brown paper bag under the food and water dish. I upgraded her to a waterproof cage liner with fleece over it. Lila came with a cool log but it took up to much space in her cage. I had a left over plastic igloo from the chins that I held on to for playtime use only. The log looks much better in the chins cage but I havent seen them use it.

Lila got her first bath recently, she really enjoyed it. I would have bathed her sooner but she was still cautious with me until this point. I used this time to put antibiotic ointment on her lump since I was already messing with her. All the other times she got very pissy when I just "picked her up for no reason". Today a piece of her scab fell off and looked like half a rose hip. It was hard as a rock too. I applied more ointment and I'm hoping I can heal it up a bit.

 Dirty little hedgie

"5 more minutes please!"

Finished Emergency/First Aid Kit

I really got into the idea of having the necessities on hand. Its always a good idea to have something like this prepared for your animals. I knew I had to get something ready for hurricane season and I feel good about it being done months in advance. I spent about 50 dollars at walmart and I'm pleased with the results.

the first aid kit includes clippers, corn starch for clipper accidents, gentle antiseptic wash, neosporin, q-tips, syringes, Vaseline,baby shampoo, fragrance free wipes, and hand warmers. We most likely wont need the hand warmers living on the beach.

Websites recommended pedialyte and juice for diarrhea, so I bought it to keep on hand. The kit should always have water and enough food for a week. I included a baggie of dust and a KD chew log. Included but not pictured is a weeks work of fleece bedding, and clean up rags.

 I have snack packs that will last forever that include cheerios, goji berries, banana chips, pineapple, papaya, raisins, and coconut.

I found 3 of these little freezer chiller that I plan to make fleece covers for. Primarily to use for over
heating.

Can't leave Lila out of the blog today because she was being especially sweet today. Since shes new I gave her a shirt I had been sleeping so she could learn my smell. She was sleeping in the sleeve when I woke her up.







Because She was in such a good mood I thought we could let her test the waters, literally. Bath time went really well so I believe shes had one before. The water wasn't very deep tonight but next time I want to fill it up and see if she can swim.

After her bath I put some neosporin on the cracked  part of her mass. She resist being wrapped up during this process but I think she knows I'm trying to help.

A month into living with Chinchillas.

My boys Wilbur and Orville came home around valentines day. I will most likely just adopt this as their birthday. They came from different homes, but both from military families. One was presented as a total sweet heart and the other a moody brat. the personalities were there just in the opposite chin. Wilbur the supposed cranky dude warmed up to me immediately. Orville has just recently started giving kisses for treats and hangs half in and half out of the cage, perched on my hand and the shelf. We are all learning each other likes and dislikes.

                                             Orville                                Wilbur

We ditched all of the plastic igloos and wheels that came with the boys as soon as we could. My father built them a new hidey hut and I made as many toys with the extra scraps of wood. During a weekly cleaning I dyed on of the blocks to resemble tie dye. Dad also put together 4 ledges, 1 of which I stored away so they have a fresh one down the road.

                                    Wall-E Fleece                        Opps Had to use Lila's liner
           
I went to thrift stores and got about 15 dollars worth of fleece and another 40 dollars in fleece at Hancock Fabrics. We completely converted from pine bedding in the chins cage. Lila the hedgehog also got a hammy down igloo from the chin brothers and her own girly fleeces.

                                            Lila traded the log for the igloo for more space

I got a great pop up play pen with a zippered mesh top, 2 zippered doors, and mesh windows on every panel. It came with a carrying case that has just enough room for the fleece I use in the pen. I also bought a alligator they can hide inside of. I also found a doll sided bear claw bath tub to do bath photo shoots in!

I recently put together a hurricane readiness kit for the Wilbur, Orville, and Lila. I'm kinda proud of my self for this, no shame here. Chin food, Hedgie food, chin treats, hedgie treats, water bottles(not pictured) Water bottles for them, extra fleece, baby blanket liners, Chin bed, Serving bowls, the carriers, and the play pen.