Hair loss

[NatalieP]

Hello
I have syrian hamster called Christa and she is about 15 months old and I guess could be getting on for a hamster although she is a baby to me still lol.
I noticed last night when I was cuddling her that she is losing her hair round her hips, bum and tum and its starting to thin out all over her back.

She seems fine in herself eating, drinking, pooing, playing. The thing that I would say is I cleaned her out yesterday and after noticing the baldness separated her from our over animals ( we have 3 chinchilla's and a rabbit) and she smells already! She didn't like me touching her bald spots though and wasn't very impressed with me!

I have done a bit of research and they were talking about organ failure but she's happy and then someone mentioned ringworm. Mites seemed to be the most popular but I can't figure out how she might have got them as she is in the house all the time and our other animals don't have them.

I was wondering if I should take her to the vets but I don't want to upset her. Just wondering if anyone could give me any advice?

Thank you
Natalie

[Tammy22]

Hello Natalie,

welcome to the forum

Hair loss is a normal part of getting old for a hamster and at 15 months old this is usually around the time when they do tend to lose their hair.

There are other possible causes, such as mites, as you have suggested - apparently (so i have heard) all hamsters have a very small amount of mites on them but as long as the hamster is not stressed and healhty and active and their cage is cleaned out regularly, the numbers are controlled and they never cause a problem, even though they are there! So as you can see, they dont actually 'get them' or 'catch them' from anywhere, they are already there, but when they start to cause a problem this is when they are noticed. So the reason that they may be causing a problem now could be another illness, or she could be stressed for some reason, or it could just be her age.

Another hair loss cause is Cushings, but this usually has other symptoms too, but i dont know much about this condition, so hopefully someone else will be able to tell you more about that.

At the moment though, i would just treat it as signs of her getting old, unless she has other symptoms, but please keep us posted

Tammy x

[fluffymunchkins]

i can only echo what tammy says, heres the link to the wiki about cushings Cushings Disease in Syrian Hamsters - Hamster Central WIKI

[chavers]

Hi Natalie. It's good to hear from you as I have a Syrian with pretty much the same thing as yours, although he's a couple of months younger. He has the baldness and thinning like you describe but still behaves exactly as usual, he doesn't seem bothered at all. I took him to the vets to get checked over and they couldn't find anything wrong with him, no mites, nothing. He weighed in at about 150grams which was pleasing, and his skin is perfect, no scratches or scabs or other skin conditions.

That was about 3 months ago and he's still just as bald but just as happy so I have accepted it's probably a sign of ageing. He does seem to rub against everything he can aswell so that may explain the side patches. As long as Christa continues to behave normally I wouldn't worry too much, but there's always the vet in case. One thing I have started doing is putting vitamin drops in Sir Alan's water bottle twice a week and after that he has grown a few tufts back.

Hope this helps to calm any worries, I know I was frantic until after I had been to the vet.

[NatalieP]

Hello
Thank you for all your replies. In the end I took Christa to the vets and she didn't seem to think it was mites or anything serious but gave her an injection just in case it was mites as we have other animals we decided to do it on the safe side.
She was very interested at the vets running round the table and sniffing everything bless her!
Natalie