Dry Skin, Ears are always down

[artificialred]

Hi everyone!

I’d like some advice on my hamster, Bear. She is confirmed to have an allergy, but I am struggling to figure out what exactly it is.

We first got Bear from another home in February. She was living in a tiny cage, with uber paper bedding and Higgins sunburst food. From first glance, she looked healthy, but in a photo we noticed that she had cuts on her legs, and when we brought her home, we immediately did a health check and saw that she did not have much fur on her belly. She was brought to the vet and given antibiotics to clear up the infection.

At that time, we had many different materials in the enclosure — her cuts healed but she began to lose fur pretty rapidly. By the end of April, she looked pretty bald, to the point where you could see her scent glands clear as day. At this time, I believe we had Carefresh bedding, Robin’s Gourmet mix on Etsy, and Mazuri rat and mouse pellets.

At the vet’s her allergy was confirmed after a skin punch. We began trying to narrow it down while also keeping some sort of enrichment in her cage. We tried cardboard, but it didnt seem to work, tried switching in and out the chamber house, etc. We eventually switched to uber again, and basically took out everything that wasn’t ceramic or acrylic, aside from the plastic wheel. I changed to Oxbow comfort in the last month or so, but everything in the cage is still ceramic/plastic. This seems to work as her fur continues to grow back slowly. I added moss back in a few days back and am trying to wait a full 2 weeks before putting anything else in there.

Throughout this process, she’s also had dry skin, which we have been trying to treat with topical coconut oil. It seems to help a little but it comes back, even though her fur is getting better. We had brought her to the vet a couple times in the last month or two, in which she got antibiotics that really helped her fur grow back faster, but the dry skin persisted, which concerned the vet. I did not have a good experience with him, as he talked down to me and told me that I was “feeding her junk” and I should give her just pellets and fresh vegetables for her entire diet. I am concerned about doing this, because I am afraid it will make her situation worse if I don’t give her a varied diet.

I am also afraid that she is declining, even though she is eating and drinking and foraging still. Since the beginning of August she has had her ears down pretty much constantly, now that I look back at the footage.

I’ve been searching this forum and saw the recommendations for linseed and evening primrose oil. I also am getting an air purifier for the room, and I’m hoping that her situation continues to improve with her fur and her ears pop back up. Is there anything else I can do?

Attaching photos for reference:

- Bear when we first got her (you can see the cuts in this photo)
- April, during the worst of it
- This Friday (her fur was a bit matted from the coconut oil the day prior.)

TLDR: hamster has an allergy, working on it but her dry flaky skin persists, and her ears have been down in the past month.

 

[Maz]

Hello and welcome and so sorry to hear about Bear and her problems. How old is she now? She looks quite healthy on the last photo. If her ears are down all the time, that suggests she's in pain. That could be anything. But it could be an idea to try some pain relief for her and see if she improves. A vet would need to prescribe that. It could simply be tooth problems or it could be something internal. Metacam/loxicom is the usual one but there is another one they can have.

Yes a pinch of linseeds daily does wonders for fur growth and condition I've found - it can take a couple of weeks. Evening Primrose oil (just a drop daily on food eg) is something else that can help - something @elusive recommends - alongside linseeds. I tend to put the linseeds separately from the other food - eg on a shelf or a separate dish, and the hamster just licks them up.

With the allergy it's difficult. If you've tried bedding by process of elimination and removed wood, it could possibly be a dietary allergy. It could actually be worth trying her with something like Science Selective. Although they are pellets effectively, hamsters seem to really like them (they smell a bit of gravy) and I've not heard of any issues with them before. Although a varied muesli mix gives plenty of variety, it could be hard to find if there's one particular ingredient that affects her. I'm aware some hamsters have had issues with Mazuri/lab block before though.

Science selective does contain everything needed and correct protein levels but you could still give fresh extras, like veg or a bit of chopped hard boiled egg or the occasional walnut, for variety and see how she goes Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds could be given as treats to provide some variety as well.

I'm pretty sure you can get Science Selective for hamsters in the US, but it might not be cheap as it's probably imported. I've used it for older hamsters with tooth problems before as it makes a good mush with a bit of water on it.

Low protein can cause fur loss. Some of these gourmet mixes rely quite heavily on lentils for protein and if the hamster doesn't eat the lentils, that could be an issue possibly. I'm not a big fan of lentils in hamster mixes personally - they're not that digestible. But you've already established she has an allergy.

Although the vet was rude and talked down to you (vets nearly all seem to recommend pellet diets!) it could be worth using Science Selective for a while as it has such limited ingredients. It's one of the better pellet foods.

We had a dog who had terrible food allergies and seemed to be allergic to just about everything. He ended up just having rice and raw meat.

She is such a beautiful girl and so lucky to have you after her bad start.

It's this one

Science Selective Hamster - click here

 

[artificialred]

Thank you so much Maz! I appreciate the in depth response — I’ll grab the science selective today! It’s sold at Petco, thankfully. As for the possible pain, I’ll set up a vet appointment.

I’ll update you once I’ve been to the vet

 

[Maz]

You're welcome I hope she improves soon and likes the Science Selective! Apart from the ears down, is she well in herself? How old is she?

 

[artificialred]

I believe she’s about a year! She seems okay, but the last few nights we haven’t seen her as much. She tends to come out pretty late but I was up until around 1am last night and I never saw her. Not sure if she is on her wheel for long but I see on our camera that the wheel has at least changed positions, and she is foraging and drinking water. She has always drank a bit more water than other hamsters I have had, but I wonder if that is due to allergy.

 

[Maz]

They vary and hamsters do start drinking more as they get older without it being of any concern really. She's in her prime then if she's a year old I hope things improve for her soon. Let us know how you get on at the vets Maybe a different vet?

 

[artificialred]

They vary and hamsters do start drinking more as they get older without it being of any concern really. She's in her prime then if she's a year old I hope things improve for her soon. Let us know how you get on at the vets Maybe a different vet?

I hope so too, i just got the science select so we’ll start that tonight! Hopefully I can get the better vet at the place I go to — there’s two and the first one was a lot more caring than the second, so I’ll try to go to her!

 

[Zelda]

What about omnivore critical care? https://www.chewy.com/oxbow-critical-care-omnivore-small/dp/704718 I found some at my local PetSmart - they seem to have a better selection of oxbow products. Good luck, my Chihuahua is allergic to synthetic vitamin E so no processed foods for her at all.