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WillowHamHam · 03-04-2019, 03:23 PM

About a week and a half ago, I noticed that my 1 1/2 year old Syrian Willow’s fur on her face had begun to thin out a bit as the skin underneath was quite a bit more visible. As she is getting on a bit I put it down to old age so I wasn’t too concerned and decided just to keep an eye on it. Yesterday evening I noticed that the fur loss has begun on her stomach, neck, and behind her ears. The skin look similar to a sphinx cat and it was also a little bit more pink than usual. I booked her into the vets this afternoon and they gave her a good look over.

The vet decided that it was probably not entirely age related, and instead thought it may be one of a few things:

-She suggested that she may have caught ringworm from my guinea pigs, but soon decided that probably wasn’t the case as neither of my piggies have ringworm

-Then she suggested that it could be caused by her bedding. Willow has always been on Carefresh natural, ever since I got her so initially I didn’t think this would be the issue. However, she thinks that it is potentially a bad batch and that she has caught some sort of parasite from it, as I cleaned her cage out and used some of a new bag a couple of days ago. She got a second opinion from the senior vet and he agreed with her so she treated Willow with one pipette of Xeno. We are hoping this should clear it up, maybe with a couple more applications of Xeno.

If anyone else has any idea what this may have been caused by, that would be greatly appreciated. The only change I have made to the materials in her cage is her sand, which I I’ve changed from Tiny Friends Farm to washed children’s play sand, as I heard that the other one has been causing issues recently for other people’s hamsters. Her main bedding is exactly the same, with just a bit more of the new bag of bedding. The only behavioural difference that I’ve noticed is she seems to be drinking quite a lot more, but this has been going on for a couple of weeks so I’m not sure if it’s connected or if it even matters at all.

I will try and get some good pictures of her later on, but I don’t have any at the moment as she is still quite fast!

Sorry for the super long post! I just wanted to warn other people who use Carefresh and see if anyone had any other ideas of what might have caused this. Thank you in advance, Willow and Poppy

03-04-2019, 03:23 PM
WillowHamHam Newborn Pup Join Date: Mar 2019 Posts: 38	Female Syrian is losing her fur ! About a week and a half ago, I noticed that my 1 1/2 year old Syrian Willow’s fur on her face had begun to thin out a bit as the skin underneath was quite a bit more visible. As she is getting on a bit I put it down to old age so I wasn’t too concerned and decided just to keep an eye on it. Yesterday evening I noticed that the fur loss has begun on her stomach, neck, and behind her ears. The skin look similar to a sphinx cat and it was also a little bit more pink than usual. I booked her into the vets this afternoon and they gave her a good look over. The vet decided that it was probably not entirely age related, and instead thought it may be one of a few things: -She suggested that she may have caught ringworm from my guinea pigs, but soon decided that probably wasn’t the case as neither of my piggies have ringworm -Then she suggested that it could be caused by her bedding. Willow has always been on Carefresh natural, ever since I got her so initially I didn’t think this would be the issue. However, she thinks that it is potentially a bad batch and that she has caught some sort of parasite from it, as I cleaned her cage out and used some of a new bag a couple of days ago. She got a second opinion from the senior vet and he agreed with her so she treated Willow with one pipette of Xeno. We are hoping this should clear it up, maybe with a couple more applications of Xeno. If anyone else has any idea what this may have been caused by, that would be greatly appreciated. The only change I have made to the materials in her cage is her sand, which I I’ve changed from Tiny Friends Farm to washed children’s play sand, as I heard that the other one has been causing issues recently for other people’s hamsters. Her main bedding is exactly the same, with just a bit more of the new bag of bedding. The only behavioural difference that I’ve noticed is she seems to be drinking quite a lot more, but this has been going on for a couple of weeks so I’m not sure if it’s connected or if it even matters at all. I will try and get some good pictures of her later on, but I don’t have any at the moment as she is still quite fast! Sorry for the super long post! I just wanted to warn other people who use Carefresh and see if anyone had any other ideas of what might have caused this. Thank you in advance, Willow and Poppy Last edited by souffle; 03-05-2019 at 12:26 AM.