[emmylou]

Hello! I couldn't find any template on how a Healthcare thread should be written, so I hope this is okay.

My syrian hamster, Trico, has been to the vet two times now, and he's got a follow up appointment in about a month. But I wanted to share the problems here too, to see if anyone else has experienced the same.

I got Trico from a breeder in Norway in February, and he was born in September last year. He has always been scratching while cleaning himself, but I assumed it was part of his cleaning routine.

However, a few weeks ago during his playpen time, I noticed his fur was thinning a bit on the top of his back. He also had a dark spot there, and I arranged an appointment with an exotic vet the next day. Turns out the dark spot was just new fur growing back, so no need to worry about that.

The vet first assumed he had parasites. She injected something to stop his itching, and told me to treat him with "Stronghold", a parasite medicine for dogs and cats. I was to put one drop of this onto the skin of his neck, and then repeat it after 3 weeks, so I will give him the second drop of this in a few days now. She also said his skin was a bit red, all over, so there could be an allergic reaction.

I was to return in 2 weeks, and during that time I was to eliminate possible reasons for his condition. So I put all of his houses and stuff in the oven to disinfect them (I have all wooden and natural materials), I disinfected his sand, and changed his bedding (Previously I had Carefresh, Chipsi Extra and Hemp - and now I took away the Carefresh). I noticed the Carefresh was really dusty, and he had been sneezing in his house too, possibly from the bedding. So now his cage was cleaned out and disinfected to deal with possible parasites, and I had also eliminated a bedding allergy by removing Carefresh.

Last week was the 2 week checkup, and the vet said his skin still looked a bit red and inflamed (it's not red, but more pink-ish). She said we had eliminated parasites, because of the medicine, but I should give the second drop either way to be sure. I told her about disinfecting the cage, and she said that even though his skin looked a tiny bit better, she wanted me to continue finding the cause of the problem.

She gave him another injection of "stop itching"-medicine. She also gave me a medicine called Cortavance, which is a spray with Clorhexidine(?), made for dogs. It's supposed to calm the skin, and I was supposed to wet a cotton ball with water, then spray the cotton ball, and press it on the inflamed skin areas. The water is to avoid an overdose.

So, after the appointment I took away all the Chipsi and Hemp bedding, and replaced it with Uber paper bedding, to eliminate an allergy towards those beddings as well. And I've tried to treat him with the Cortavance spray, but he doesn't like the wet cotton ball on him, and sprints away before I get a chance to get it properly onto his skin. The first day was a success, where I managed to gently stroke him with it while he was eating. But the next two days, I've barely had a chance to treat him. I'll try again tonight.

So, to summarize:
1. He's beeing treated for parasites/mites
2. His stuff has been disinfected, to remove any bacteria/mites etc
3. His bedding has been changed from Carefresh, Chipsi and Hemp, to Uber
4. I've removed hay and herbs, to eliminate allergies from them
5. I'm supposed to treat him with a Cortavance (Clorhexidine) Spray for 10 days, and have only had one and a half successful tries so far
6. He's going back to the vet in a month`

Edit: I forgot to add that inside his sleeping house, he has shredded toilet paper. So there shouldn't be any allergies from that.

I'm sorry for the long post, it was hard to keep it short, when there are so many details.

So my question is, has anyone experienced anything similar? Allergies towards different types of bedding, or allergies in general?

And does anyone know if I can give him too much of the Clorhexidine spray? I spray 2-3 sprays onto the wet cotton, but maybe it should be just one spray? What are the chances of this stuff harming him in any way?

I read that these symptoms may also be anything from Cushings to Cancer, so I do worry about him a lot. The vet didn't say anything about this though.

He might also be allergic to a type of food, but I doubt that. I hope it will improve now that I changed his entire cage to just Uber bedding. And hopefully I can find a way to treat him with the spray without bothering him.

I added two photos of his back, this was from this morning. The fur is growing back, and the skin doesn't seem alarmingly red, I think.

Oh, and the last photo is from before I tried to treat him with the spray this morning. He's just eating his carrot in peace, minding his own business, and here I come with the camera and the medicine, haha.