[racinghamster]

Hi. Molly is a good age so it may not be related to any environmental changes but her own body/immune system requiring some boosting. What is she fed on and has that changed or been added to? Gerbils love variety and I`m sure she would appreciate some new things in her diet that provide nutrients that can help the skin. Carefresh can be dusty but if that`s what she`s used to, changing it could trigger a reaction, so sometimes it`s better to look at keeping things as they are if no previous changes were made to her diet or environment.

As said, she may need a spot on treatment for mites that naturally occur when they become older. Some hair loss and thinning in older animals can be a natural occurrence but sudden irritation that wasn`t there before could mean something is changing. It could be her age yes, but sometimes these phases pass, sometimes they have a cause behind them. The vet you say may just give a topical mite treatment anyway unless they are rodent savvy and pick up on something we on a forum can`t see. Just make sure whoever you see tells you what they are dosing and what it is. Ivermectin is the usual topical mite treatment for rodents but it can also be bought in pipettes from the vet in the form of a product called Xeno50 mini. This is a good product and if bought online, comes with a safe dosing chart for mice, hamsters, gerbils and bigger pets. Vets usually dose it from a syringe from a larger bottle or they may give you the smaller pipettes to dose yourself. Depends on the vet practice really and how they do things.

Hope Molly is okay otherwise and enjoying her dotage! x