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Old 08-06-2016, 03:00 PM   #1
chewiesaurus
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Default Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Urgently need help and hamster advice!!

I'm worried about my baby Fili - he's a little robo hamster the size of my nose and I love him more than anything else in the world. He's about 9 months old.

He's been suffering with some kind of mite condition since we got him in March, which has made him lose lots of fur and he's been at the vets so regularly that they've said they're basically out of options. They've tried everything they can think of in terms of standard mite treatments and have also given him Baytril but there's a limit to how many tests they can run on him because of his size - the only thing they have been able to confirm is that it's not ringworm.

My ex-fiancé and I tried some hamster home remedies that he found including aloe vera, listerine, witch hazel and cod liver oil - this was about a month ago and for three weeks it was working really well, then suddenly in the space of 2-3 days this week he lost most of the fur on his lower back. He's also become incredibly bitey and seems to like me less than he did - though he will still graciously accept pine nuts, which are his favourite treat.

If anyone has any advice, I'm desperate. My ex has now walked out on me and our four baby hamsters and he was always the one with ideas on how to help Fili - whereas nothing I try seems to work. I'm really worried I can't really live up to being a single hamster mummy and I just want my baby to be okay and fluffy again. I love him so much, he's so tiny and normally he's so, so affectionate and will curl up and sleep in my hand.
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Old 08-06-2016, 03:58 PM   #2
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Hi there, firstly welcome to the forum. I just want to say I am more than sure you will be an amazing hamster mum on your own, it's clear how much you love your little ones and that really does go a long way.

In terms of Fili, what tests and treatments have the vets done so far? Have they done any little skin scrapes or anything? It can be a little costly depending on your vet but could give some answers if it's not already been done and it's not very invasive nor does it require anaesthetic.
When you've done mite treatments are you cleaning, disinfecting and treating his cage and toys too? Mites can live on these things easily.
If your other hamsters aren't showing symptoms then I'd imagine it's not anything that's come from the bedding.

Obviously I'm not a vet but have you tried ruling out allergies as that's one of the other big things that can cause fur loss. It could be a substrate/bedding allergy or an allergy to something in his food and this could be done by slowly ruling different things out. It might be worth mentioning to your vet to see if they can offer any guidance on the best way to do this.

I do hope you're little one will be okay
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Old 08-06-2016, 06:07 PM   #3
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Welcome to the forum, I hope we can help you and little Fili

How sure are you about his age? He reminds me a lot of an older roborovski in that pic so I'm wondering if he's could be a bit older than you think. I've had a few pets turn out to be older than I'd been told and fur loss can be quite common in older hamsters (its nothing to worry about, none of mine have ever cared about fur loss at all)

If he's symptom free apart from the fur loss then I'd try to not worry too much, sometimes we can't fix everything but you've clearly tried really hard and I doubt he minds being a bit less furry than he used to be. You may find that a period of time spent without worrying or trying treatments will help you both relax and get used to enjoying each others company again. He sounds like a really lovely little guy and I'm sure he'd love a chance to spend time with you without any vets or treatments being needed for a while, it might be all thats needed to stop the biting and persuade him its worth being affectionate again after all

If you did want to look at other possible causes then there're a few questions I'd start by asking. Does he have any symptoms other than the fur loss and had the fur loss already started when you got him or did it start after you got him? If it started after you got him, had anything changed around that time? (e.g did he get a new substrate, new food e.t.c) How did he lose the fur? (Where did the fur seem to go from first, how fast has the fur loss been e.t.c) How did the home remedies help, did they stop the fur loss or did they do something more than that?
If there are other symptoms then they could help your vet get you a diagnosis, the same is true about how he lost the fur and responses to the home remedies. When the fur loss started could give you an idea of where to start if you did suspect it to be an allergy. If the fur loss had already started when you got him then you know its not going to have been started by an allergy to something new that you introduced (e.g a new substrate/food), whereas if the fur loss started after you got him then if he does have an allergy it could easily be something you had introduced (hamsters can become allergic to something they were fine with before, but allergies to new things seem to be more common so ruling out any new things could be a good place to start). When the allergy started could indicate what item started the allergic reaction, e.g if you changed his substrate and a week later his underside became bald then a sensible starting point would be changing the hamster back to their previous substrate and seeing if that resolved the problem. The only thing to be wary of with allergies is that removing all of a suspected allergen can mean a full cage clean and/or a total diet change and that could stress him out a bit, so if he's happy as he is then I would think carefully before looking for an allergy without knowing there's one to find.
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Old 08-06-2016, 09:18 PM   #4
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Great advice already but I just wanted to add that while you try to find out what might be causing the problem you could try giving some evening primrose oil, I've had a lot of success using that for both coat & skin problems, they only need a tiny bit so I put a few drops on some oat flakes mix it up then just feed a couple of the flakes daily. A few extra flax seeds can help too.
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Old 08-06-2016, 11:11 PM   #5
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Thanks for the quick replies, really appreciate it!! Hopefully this answers all the questions:

Firstly, not 100% on his age - we rescued him and they said he was 4 months old, but they could have been wrong! He did have the beginnings of fur loss when we got him but we didn't notice it for a couple of weeks as he was the first robo we had and it was only a tiny little dark patch on his back (in the same place where the fur loss is worst now). Am attaching a photo of my ex holding him the day we got him - annoyingly you can't see the patch because it's on the opposite side, but it gives an idea of what his fur was like overall I think? The rest of my thousands of photos of him aren't on this laptop but I can probably dig some out.

The only test the vet has done is for ringworm with a fur sample, and they've said it's definitely not ring worm. She was considering doing a skin scrape and then said because Fili is so small she didn't want to - he's very thin as well as having the mite problems! Also blood tests etc, she said the blood tests posed more of a risk than the mites, so she didn't want to take the risk. Because he scratches a lot though, she thought it was 99% certain it was mites (and in terms of other symptoms I think the scratching is all he has really? He's still surprisingly active though, although at one point he seemed to spend more time scratching than doing anything else, though he's got lots better since then because we changed vets and the new vet was better).

In terms of the fur loss - it started on a patch on the back left of his lower back - kind of in the same place Syrian scent glands are, I guess? That seems to be the bit that takes the longest to get better. Normally the fur loss is quite gradual but this week was quite scary because he lost a whole giant patch in less than 72 hours! The home remedies (and also he'd just come off the Baytril at that point) did seem to help and he had lots of brand new fur growing through! About two weeks ago he had all this brand new fur and was really furry/fluffy and I was so happy (and this was a week after my ex left, so I was just like 'yay I can manage alone!') and for like a week and a half he was doing great, then this week it just all suddenly went.

We (or I now, I guess... :/ ) have been cleaning his cage out once a week ish - we also took his wooden toys out and replaced them with plastic ones where we could, and we've also been giving him cardboard tubes that we've just been throwing out and replacing every time we clean him. He doesn't seem to get too stressed about his cage being cleaned - my two Syrians absolutely hate it but Fili and Anakin (my other robo) are pretty much fine with it. I did try giving him one of his favourite wooden toys back about a week ago, bearing in mind he hasn't had it for about six weeks - I was a bit concerned that maybe him having that back was a factor in him suddenly getting worse again?

Oh also should maybe mention we separated Fili and Anakin a while ago - which is sad, because they were super cute when they were building nests together, but also we were worried about mites jumping around and it stopping Fili from ever getting better. It was temporary at first but they've been apart for two months now so I guess it's not really temporary any more.

We've also changed his bedding - he used to have sawdust/woodshaving stuff, we were worried about him getting little cuts from it so now every time we clean him out we spend half an hour (or an hour, now, I guess, because that ******** abandoned us and everything takes longer on your own) tearing up bits of toilet paper for him.

It could be a food allergy I guess, but he's had the same food pretty much from the start and he's had periods of being better/worse (at one point it was really, really bad - he'd lost loads of fur on his face too, and it was devastating). The only new thing he's had is that we discovered baby food a couple of months ago and it turned out to be a good way to disguise Baytril - but I don't think it's an allergy to that as the introduction of baby food coincided with a period of him getting better.

Have also been obsessively cleaning my hands with hand gel before/after holding him to try to avoid passing anything onto him!

Went to check on him when I woke up just now and he seemed to be very apologetic about the biting incident last night - when I went over to his cage he was in bed but came running out to me and climbed into my hand, and we had cuddles and playtime for a bit, and now he's happily running around his cage again (though he spent a while scratching in his sandbath, poor baby). Maybe he was just upset because he thought I was going to give him some kind of other weird medicine, probably need to gain his trust a bit again.

Thanks for the evening primrose oil idea, will try it!!! He does like oat flakes - we discovered this when Chewie (one of my Syrians) kept trying to eat my porridge when we had him out during breakfast once, and we decided to buy them all some plain oat flakes to see if they approved. They did

Thanks so much everyone!!!

Edit: forgot to mention - he did respond well to the vet treatment at first, but the pattern was pretty much always the same - he'd get the treatment, he'd be better for a week or two, then he'd get bad again.
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Last edited by chewiesaurus; 08-06-2016 at 11:25 PM. Reason: forgot something
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Old 08-06-2016, 11:48 PM   #6
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Some hams don't do well on wood shavings so it's probably just as well you stopped using that as a substrate but shredded toilet tissue while fine for nests isn't really an adequate substrate I don't think, not sure where you are but in the UK the best substrate, especially with possible allergies or just sensitive skin is fitch which is just recycled food grade paper.
I know vets are often a bit reluctant to do tests on the tiny hams but as this has been going on for so long a skin scrape might be worth doing as it's the only way to know if it is really mites causing the problem or not.
Mites normally begin around the eyes & or ears though so that does suggest it may be something else.
What are you currently feeding him on?
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Old 08-06-2016, 11:55 PM   #7
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Will try the fitch stuff!! Am in the UK

The vet was the one that recommended tissue - they were worried about him getting little cuts, and also worried because he scratches a lot and so already has tiny cuts and they were worried they might get infected

Currently feeding him this - https://www.ocado.com/productImages/...ier=1235940335

Hmm maybe it's not mites then - but what else would explain the scratching??
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Old 08-07-2016, 12:03 AM   #8
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

The tissue is fine as a temporary measure so don't worry about that but it doesn't provide the chance to do natural things like digging or burrowing & I think it's important they can do those things especially if they are being a bit stressed by things like vet trips, meds & just not being totally well. I think toilet tissue is quite dusty too so he might well do better in the long term with the fitch, most hams love it.

The burgess food should be fine so I don't really see any problem there.
Does he have any fresh veg at all? Even a tiny piece each day, introduced gradually if he's not used to them will give him a few extra vitamins & minerals & might give his overall health a bit of a boost.
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Old 08-07-2016, 12:10 AM   #9
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Have ordered some of the fitch stuff now so will keep you updated on whether or not he likes it - thank you!!! There's so much stuff we've done for Fili that was initially supposed to be temporary that's ended up being more long term :/

He occasionally has fresh fruit but not all the time - will try to give him some more! He also gets baby food most days, as well as various types of nut that he likes. Any recommendations on particular fruit/veg that might help him?

Thank you!
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Old 08-07-2016, 12:18 AM   #10
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Default Re: Hamster losing fur - help!!!

Broccoli is good for protein and fiber so that is one veg to try and make a regular part of the diet!In terms of overall healthy things,something like seeds and nuts are great for the skin and also do tend to be high in protein and healthy fats.Flax seed for example if you're not already feeding it would be a great addition,just a small pinch every day to every few days is good.
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