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Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
According to things I've read, Cushings is actually quite rare in hamsters. It's also difficult to diagnose. Vets tend to just go by various symptoms (which could also be symptoms of other things). As mentioned above, a highly specialised vet could take a blood sample to diagnose it, but most vets aren't that specialised and it may not be possible at all in a tiny robo. What you could do to eliminate causes, is have a skin scraping done at the vets to rule out mites or diagnose mites. It would be a bad idea to treat her for mites though, without a confirmed diagnosis after a skin scraping, because the treatment is quite toxic and she sounds to be not in a great state to start with.
It may well be stress related if there has been dominance and/or bullying. Give her a few fresh treats as well as her hamster mix - the occasional blueberry or half a walnut eg - to perk up her interest in food. For weight gain the occasional pecan nut helps and sunflower seeds as treats.
I would also try giving her a pinch of linseeds every day and carry on with that indefinitely (hamsters seem to really like them and lick them up). It works wonders for skin and fur condition and I've had bald patches grow back using them. It's not expensive for a bag of linseeds that would last a few years! Brown linseeds are supposed to be best. They are full of healthy oils and vitamins as well so it'll be good for her generally and help boost her immune system. I put the linseeds in a separate place to the regular mix - on a little jar lid or on a house roof near the food bowl.
If she has a nice cage environment of her own now she may flourish. I think good staples for a cage environment are - plenty of substrate, a good sized house that is part submerged (if it has a lift off roof you don't need to take it out and disturb the nest). Plenty of floor toys, cardboard tubes and tissue box hides etc. And their wheel of course.
Let us know how she gets on. Maybe give her a week or two to adjust to the cage change, and if she's still scratching, ask for a skin scraping at the vets.
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Thank you so much for all your advice, it means a lot to me during this time! Yes, I’ve heard that Cushings is pretty rare, so I was kind of surprised that my vet immediately suggested Cushings if she wasn’t scratching. The vet she’s been to in the past doesn’t seem very willing to treat an animal that small or to bother doing many tests on her. They’re very professional and kind, but don’t seem to be extremely knowledgeable or thorough about hamster ailments if I’m being honest. There is another small exotics vet in my area that I recently discovered online, I’ve never been in but they may be more willing to actively do tests to look more into a diagnosis if she doesn’t improve. I’m sure either of them would be able to do a skin scraping if needed. Someone suggested she may have demodex mites, which apparently present themselves if there’s an underlying problem like a Tumour or a cyst. Demodex mites aren’t contagious, which may be why Bijous sister is unaffected, if mites are the case here. Bijou seems to have more visible balding every night when I bring her out, I’m going to keep her separated and see if the daily balding ceases at all, because it was progressing pretty rapidly and has been alarming to see each night.
That’s very interesting about the Linseeds, thank you for recommending them! I’m definitely going to pick some up today, as well as introduce more high protein treats and fresh food. I was thinking about giving her some egg as well now and then for a high-protein treat. Her cage environment has everything you mentioned in your response, I cleaned her cage last night as well so it doesn’t smell like her sister and she can have a fresh start in her own environment. I take the two of them out nightly for a run in a large bin; I’m thinking of continuing to do that with both of them, so they can still see each other once a day, but I wouldn’t want to stress out Bijou. I agree with waiting a bit longer for the vet and just seeing if anything changes. With the sudden scratching just the other day and her new housing situation, it seems like a good idea. If it goes on longer I’ll seek help though, I wouldn’t want to feel like I didn’t do everything I could for her. I’ll keep you updated on here in the next few days and see if anything develops. Thank you again so much, I appreciate the help immensely. ☺️