Preventive Care
Parasites on the skin or hair (ectoparasites):
Skin parasites are quite common in Hedgehogs. Some, like fleas and ticks, can easily be seen on the skin between the spines of your hedgehog. Others, like mange mites are tiny and cannot be easily seen.
If you think your animal is too itchy, or has some skin disease then please bring them in for a consultation. Catch a parasite with a piece of sticky tape if you can!
Just like with a cat or dog if your pet is diagnosed with fleas or ticks you will need to treat its environment as well to prevent re-infestation. Our vets will give you advice on how to do this.
If your pet is diagnosed with parasites after treatment we will advise a course of treatments, after this we generally do not recommend any further long term routine preventative treatment.
Worms (endoparasites):
We do not regularly diagnose worms in pet hedgehogs in Hong Kong, but due to eating insects in their diet there is the potential for them to become infected via their food. At the yearly health check we recommend owners bring in a faecal sample for testing, if any worms are identified they can be treated appropriately but we do not generally recommend routine de-worming.