Red tail looks to have lost a little hair

[CPalmer]

Freya has been getting up later and later these last few months. A couple of days ago I gave her a quick health check as soon as she got up. She has started to get food and water and go back to bed most evenings. I noticed her back end looked a little wet and assumed she had just had a pee before getting up.
Tonight she hadn't been up at all, and tbh I was worrying whether she had passed in her nest. But after gently moving her actual nest she came out and snuffled up a chocolate drop.
I noticed her tail tip looked really red. I picked her up and the underside of her tail is bright red and looks to be hairless. My hubby thinks she may also have a little triangle of hair loss around her bottom. I'm not sure if that's just where she had been laying in her nest.

I checked her nest and there is no signs of blood or diarrhoea. Normal poops. I took out a tile we recently put in to try to file her nails in case it was irritating her
We will leave fresh foods for a few days and see if that helps.

Does anyone have any ideas of causes? If no better I'll take her to the vet on weds to rule out mites. I read that someone used a skin cream to aid healing, I have sudocrem and bepanthum but would be worried that she may actually be biting her tail.

I've never been so clueless. Poor Freya

[BrainGirl]

Does she pee in her nest? I'm wondering if perhaps she's sitting it and the urine is irritating her skin.

[CPalmer]

She pees.more in her larder. She has started storing seeds in her nest so maybe peeing there too. I might put some carefresh in. She has hemp and shavings mixed and toilet roll as bedding.

[Thin Lizzy]

I was going to say mites, they can cause hair loss and redness.

[Pebbles82]

It's difficult to know really. Maybe see if it improves in the next day or so, and if not, a vet check could be a good idea. They should be able to tell you what it is.

[CPalmer]

I've put some care fresh into her toilet area and nest. She is currently snuggled in the hubby's jumper. I've had a better look at her. No worse than yesterday. A tiny bit of hair missing from tail tip but otherwise seems normal. There is a little matted hair that looks like urine. I had a little go with damp kitchen roll to tidy her up but no luck. I'm hoping that she will groom it out once the irritation has gone. I may make an appointment for weds for a health check as she is getting old and could do with 2 nails trimmed that are growing sideways curved.

Here is the photo. What do you guys think?

[Pebbles82]

Hmm. I'm no expert but it looks a bit infected due to being red.

[cypher]

That looks really sore, it could be urine burn or have got infected so a vet check certainly wouldn't do any harm.

[Thin Lizzy]

I agree it looks infected, it's quite a dark red colour.
A trip to the vet would get prescribed medication to help it.

[Nancy's Hamsters]

I don't wish to scare but that bottom looks very close to what the bottom of my last Pyo hamster's bottom looked like. I would not delay and book her an appointment ASAP. Sadly I waited too long and my girl was lost to the Pyo

She is most likely licking her tail area and has now irritated it from the too often cleaning. She is trying to clean herself of the yuck coming out from inside her. It may not be Pyo as this would also occur with a Urinary Tract infection as well.