Hello,
I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with difficult to treat fur loss.
I have a 1 year, 8 month old Russian Dwarf Hamster named Fozzie Bear who's been losing fur for the past 4 months and has not responded to any treatments. Here's the history, as best as I can remember :
Four months ago (in June) I noticed a scent gland tumor on his stomach and he also had a little fur loss on his lower back area. He went to the vet and we made plans to remove the scent gland tumor & treat with antibiotics in the interim since it seemed to have a small infection from him scratching it. The vet did a skin scraping and did not see any signs of bacterial infection or mites, but we decided to treat for both anyway. He got a mite treatment and was given some antibiotics, which were also targeting the infected scent gland. I forget the name of the antibiotics.
He went back to the vet the following month (July) for his surgery and his fur loss had gotten worst. His lower body is mostly bald! Surgery goes well & he recovers well. I put him in totally clean bin cage after his surgery and did a deep clean & sterilization of his main cage. I didn't give him any sprays, flowers, herbs for a few weeks in case he had some kind of allergy. But nothing helped.
I bring him for a post-op checkup and the vet checks him for signs of ringworm, but sees no indication of that. We then did a skin and fur culture which was sent away to a veterinary lab but they did not find anything. We decided to trial some drugs and he was on chlorpalm for 2 weeks, but still no improvement.
The vet said we have 2 options for our next steps. We could try an anti-fungal just to see if that happens to work. The next diagnostic step would be a skin biopsy.
So that's the details about his health journey. If anyone has ideas of what could be going on please share.
Husbandry :
Feels relevant so Fozzie Bear is in a 36"x18"x18" aquarium with full cheeks paper bedding. He has a multi-chamber hide, other hideouts, tunnels, a 10" wheel, sandbath, etc. I know his cage is on the smaller side but I've never seen him engage in any stress behaviours like pacing or scratching the walls, so he does seem pretty cage content.
Family History :
So - I actually have some potentially relevant health details on his mother & some siblings. I adopted his mom when she was pregnant and then ended up keeping 4 of the pups since I couldn't find enough adopters.
Two of his siblings have also had masses. And his Mama & 1 of his brothers have also had fur loss issues within the past few months. However they have responded well to antibiotics and mite treatment and their fur has all grown back in.
I'm wondering if anyone has dealt with difficult to treat fur loss.
I have a 1 year, 8 month old Russian Dwarf Hamster named Fozzie Bear who's been losing fur for the past 4 months and has not responded to any treatments. Here's the history, as best as I can remember :
Four months ago (in June) I noticed a scent gland tumor on his stomach and he also had a little fur loss on his lower back area. He went to the vet and we made plans to remove the scent gland tumor & treat with antibiotics in the interim since it seemed to have a small infection from him scratching it. The vet did a skin scraping and did not see any signs of bacterial infection or mites, but we decided to treat for both anyway. He got a mite treatment and was given some antibiotics, which were also targeting the infected scent gland. I forget the name of the antibiotics.
He went back to the vet the following month (July) for his surgery and his fur loss had gotten worst. His lower body is mostly bald! Surgery goes well & he recovers well. I put him in totally clean bin cage after his surgery and did a deep clean & sterilization of his main cage. I didn't give him any sprays, flowers, herbs for a few weeks in case he had some kind of allergy. But nothing helped.
I bring him for a post-op checkup and the vet checks him for signs of ringworm, but sees no indication of that. We then did a skin and fur culture which was sent away to a veterinary lab but they did not find anything. We decided to trial some drugs and he was on chlorpalm for 2 weeks, but still no improvement.
The vet said we have 2 options for our next steps. We could try an anti-fungal just to see if that happens to work. The next diagnostic step would be a skin biopsy.
So that's the details about his health journey. If anyone has ideas of what could be going on please share.
Husbandry :
Feels relevant so Fozzie Bear is in a 36"x18"x18" aquarium with full cheeks paper bedding. He has a multi-chamber hide, other hideouts, tunnels, a 10" wheel, sandbath, etc. I know his cage is on the smaller side but I've never seen him engage in any stress behaviours like pacing or scratching the walls, so he does seem pretty cage content.
Family History :
So - I actually have some potentially relevant health details on his mother & some siblings. I adopted his mom when she was pregnant and then ended up keeping 4 of the pups since I couldn't find enough adopters.
Two of his siblings have also had masses. And his Mama & 1 of his brothers have also had fur loss issues within the past few months. However they have responded well to antibiotics and mite treatment and their fur has all grown back in.
It can take a couple of weeks before anything is noticed really. So a pinch of linseeds daily - maybe on a separate dish so he licks them all up - as opposed to mixed in with food where he might not get them all. It has worked for me before. It may help perhaps 
