Gypsy is a 3 year old chocolate chip colored African-Pygmy Hedgehog. She was born on September 18, 1996 in Milan, Mi. and currently resides in Fort Collins, Co. This past August she made the trek to Colorado in the back seat of her slave's car.
As of the Sptember 16, 1999, Gypsy was diagnosed with cancer, and on October 4, 1999 the tumor was found to be a level 3 mast cell tumor. Unfortunately, it is in a very difficult area to operate on or to do anything with. It is completely surrounding her urethra and is up inside of her.
On October 6, Gypsy completely stopped eating and started peeing only very thick, sticky blood. This continued for a week.
On Wednesday October 13, Gypsy got palliative radiation. This type of radiation therapy is not designed to cure the cancer, but to make the animal more comfortable throughout the rest of their life. Her tumor shrank by a large amount within 24 hours, and she started forming urine again within 4 hours after the radiation.
Her tumor has remained small, but as of October 18th, she started peeing green urine. It started out being clear, but now it is getting cloudy which means that it could be mixing with some of her feces. She has also developed a litttle bit of a cold due to her immune system being supressed by the radiation. She started taking Amoxicillin to help combat any impending infections.
As of October 23, Gypsy is looking better. She is no longer listless and vegetative, she is slowly becoming more active although she still isn't eating much. I've been supplementing her with Ensure (vanilla flavored) to help her maintain her weight. Throughout this ordeal so far she has dropped from 560 g down to 430 g. She may not be light compared with many other hedgies, but I certainly don't want to see her lose any more weight. I think she is just fine the way she is, and I would love to see her gain back some of the weight that she lost.
November 11, 1999
On this morning, Gypsy passed over the Rainbow Bridge. I came home from my animal nutrition class and found her laying on her cage floor wheezing for breath. I immediately scooped her up and wrapped her in a towel. We sat together for about an hour and a half, and right before she passed away, she looked into my eyes and nuzzled her nose against mine. At least she is no longer in pain...
Gypsy, I love you sweetie.
Last updated November 11, 1999.