Raccoon

Question
I have a 3 year old female raccoon.  She lives indoors (in the lap of luxury I might add - no cage).  Late last fall when she shed, the hair on her tail never returned and now she has hair loss patches on both sides of her rump.  There aren't any skin problems and she doesn't act like it bothers her.  We don't bath her and she never goes outside.  Could this be a sign of something serious or should we just wait to see if it grows back?

Answer
Last fall was months ago- this hair should have grown back by now. Hair loss has many factors, diet being one of them. Mange, ringworm etc are others.

I would get her into the vet's (I am assuming you have one for her) and have him look at this. Since it is bi-lateral it is a form of alopecia.

I owned a raccoon that we raised to release to the wild when he matured (he was born on a raccoon back east) at two years old (he had his own room). He was fully vaccinated and a healthy 50 lbs when we released him on a game reserve. He never once had a hair loss problem but he got a very natural diet along with a high quality dog food free fed at all times. Nor did he 'shed' any hair at all. I did bathe him because he did go outside and loved to roll in the nasty stuff he found.

So this girl needs to see a vet and needs a diet analysis I would think.
I hope that you can find the answer. Some zoos have staff that can help you with diets. Give one near you a call.
Let me know what you find out.