A Very Prickly Situation
For those who do not know him, Nostradamus the Hedgehog was a pet I got after hitting an insane 4 leg parlay back in 2020 So I said I was going to buy something ridiculous. He then was used to pick Parlays and had a 16-6 streak on NFL picks that won me quite a bit of money. He outpicked other gambling animals like Leroy(RIP), and was quite the handicapper.
Including a 9-1 stretch.
This was funny at the time but RIP Leroy
He unfortunately retired at the end of the 2020-21 season due to some unforeseen circumstances.
All the shits he would randomly take while picking games were actually 100x more capable of transmitting salmonella as opposed to other animals.
It was a legit biohazard to keep taking him out the cage and walk around shitting all over the same plank then having to clean it up every week and the whole thing was just way too messy and once again a biohazard.
You see the hedgehog had made me enough money from one season of picks that would last his entire life of food and bedding costs. Hedgehogs only live 4-6 years and as you can tell this hedgehog in its entire lifetime has not even finished the one big bag of Cat food I bought when I got him.
So for the past couple of years, I let Nostradamus live out his life like a retired successful racehorse just without the mares (he has a stuffed hedgehog I put in his cage to maybe be a similar companion but it is hard to explain the concept of a sex doll to a hedgehog) (Or maybe hes railing the hell out of the stuff animal hedgehog idk he is mostly active at night.) (he is very active at night just ask Donnie)
Well, Nostradamus had been living well up until 2 months ago when due to his albinism he went blind in one eye. Because hedgehogs don't understand blindness and albinism, he probably thought something was blocking his eye so he decided to scratch off his whole eye.
Yeah, the dude just took his whole eyeball out. But it has healed a little but he's blind as a bat out of one eye.
He was fine for the past couple of months when this occurred. He was down bad but he was still doing what he loved. He could run on his wheel, and eat cat food, mealworms, lantern flies, and whatever food scraps that he loved to chomp. The dude didn't give a fuck if he lost an eye. To be honest I thought he was blind the whole time before he scratched his eye out. I always had his cage being positioned the same way, hut in the same place, wheel in the same place, food and water etc. Because I always thought he was totally blind. So I was expecting him to probably lose his other eye sometime soon and be fine and blind. Unfortunately, the one-eyed albino hedgehog received a new shocking diagnosis recently. When cleaning his cage I realized Nostradamus couldn't stand well was shaking and couldn't swim. His swaying did not allow him to move. After when staying up to see if he could run on his wheel he kept falling off and kept jumping on and throwing himself off. Really a discouraging site to see. After a quick google search the writing seemed to be on the wall.
Wobbly hedgehog syndrome (WHS) is a progressive, degenerative, neurological disease of the African pygmy hedgehog.[1][2] The cause is believed to be genetic.[3] Nearly 10 percent of pet African pygmy hedgehogs are affected
The disease slowly degrades the hedgehog's muscle control. This first appears as a wobble while the hedgehog is attempting to stand still. Over time, the hedgehog will lose control of all muscles from the rear of its body to the front.
The hedgehog's health will deteriorate over the course of weeks or months, and in the advanced stages of this disease, they become completely immobilized, making euthanasia a recommended consideration.[1] Most animals die within two years of diagnosis.[5]
The dude had Hedgehog Lou Gehrig. Now Nostradamus was a one-eyed, wobbly. albino, an African pygmy hedgehog with less than probably 6 months to live.
The prickly situation is do I let him deteriorate with one eye till nature takes him? Or do I intervene and put him down? I do not have the heart to put him down. With a dog you can tell, when the gleam of life leaves their eye and are immobile and should be put out of their misery. With a hedgehog you kinda wait until they stop eating I guess. The guy can't even do his favorite wheel running anymore. Am I keeping this prickly dude alive for my own peace of mind? Or is this dude got more kick in him?
The next coming weeks will probably show. But this is the same hedgehog that corned a 120 lb bulldog. Tuck tailed in the corner.
This is a very small decision. But it jogs the philosophical idea of when you are doing what you think is in another being's self-interest, but really just doing it to make yourself feel better. I should maybe do the hard thing and take this guy to get put down for $300 bucks (more than the price of the hedgehog). Or should I let him go out on his own time?
Please feel free to take this situation comically. We got a one-eyed gambling hedgehog with ALS fighting through the back end of its life. By the end of next week if the decision isn't obvious I may put up a twitter poll and let you guys decide. Because to be honest I can't right now. Hes still eating, that means he's still got some will to live!