Hamster Hair Loss

Please note that the author is not a veterinarian. Please
consult your vet for any medical advice about your pet.

Growing up, a sense of wonder at nature and a love for animals
was instilled in us. A normal weekend was spent at Elachee
Nature Center in Oakwood, GA learning about the climate that
controlled Georgia’s agriculture and natural resources. This
normally went into detail about animals as well as the plants
that naturally supported such wildlife. This inbred fascination
with nature was also reflected in our home. My brother, sister,
and I all had numerous books on wild animals and we loved to
watch The Discovery Channel. My mom brought it on herself that
we tended to bring home and love animals. By the time I had
moved out, my family had two birds, two turtles, numerous white
mice and hamsters, and one very rowdy little dog. After I moved
out, I collected a couple of cats and a couple of very rowdy
large dogs.

The most recent addition to the family is Hannah, the dwarf
hamster. My brother, Bob, brought her home in late 2003 and my
mom quickly became enamored with her. Mom has been known to get
Hannah out of her cage in the middle of the night to play and
feed her almonds in the kitchen while she gets ready for work.

Early in 2005, Hannah began to develop bald spots under her chin
and across her body. My mom would often talk about how it
worried her during our weekly conversations, but I hadn’t
realized how far spread it was until I woke Hannah up one Sunday
afternoon. She climbed up against the walls of her plexiglass
hamster-haven and I realized that she had lost most of the hair
on her stomach in a patch that stretched from her right arm to
her right leg. Her little pink skin showed through clear as day,
and I got her out for a closer look. She didn’t exhibit any
bumps or discomfort as I probed her, although she was a little
irritated that I was bringing her out without the offer of a
tasty treat. I gave her a hamster treat and set her back down in
her little home.

Then, I decided it was time for an internet search. Little
Hannah needed some help, and I didn’t want to pay a vet to tell
me she was just getting old. I researched ‘hamster hair loss’
and found that it is a fairly common problem, especially in
older hamsters. The search told me that the most common reasons
were age, protein deficiency, vitamin deficiency, hair getting
caught in the hamster-wheel, mites, and allergic reactions to
the bedding. It also let me know how to check her for mites.
Mites cause a red or black pattern of bumps on the skin and they
normally nest in the hamster’s hair and bedding. I checked her
and realized that her skin was clear, smooth, and free from
little insects.

I knew Hannah was aging and getting to where this was a natural
instance for her species; however, I couldn’t just tell my mom
to prepare for a little hamster funeral. I focused on the
deficiencies and found that most pet stores sell a water-soluble
vitamin supplement for hamsters. You simply dissolve a pill in
the hamster’s water supply, and the hamster ingests it without
even knowing.

I called my mom and let her know what my research had concluded
and she said that she had found basically the same thing in her
own search. She said she was going to get a supplement and see
how Hannah responded.

After a couple of weeks, Mom reported that Hannah had regained a
new love for life and was even making her wheel “go squeaky,
squeaky in the middle of the night.” She mentioned that the hair
had not started to grow back but had stopped falling out. She
also noted that Hannah seemed to really like her new
supplemented water and she had to refill her little dispenser
more often.

Before, whenever I had browsed the pet store the animal
multivitamins struck me as silliness for profit: a plan to play
off our love for our pets to line the company’s pockets. Now
that I have seen it in action, I realize how close we are to our
little animal neighbors in how our bodies need the substance of
healthiness. In animals and in humans, our food comes
pre-processed and our exercise is limited by our lifestyle. As
people, our doctors, magazines, TV programs on healthy living
and even our mothers tell us to take our daily multivitamin to
keep us young, fit, and healthy because our food simply does not
satisfy the nutritional needs of our bodies. As hamsters, they
only have the attention of their owners to see to it that they
get what their little bodies need to survive – and there aren’t
any TV commercials on the benefits of hamster vitamins. Now the
victim of a successful experiment, it seems that Hannah now has
a greater appreciation for her nutritional supplement as well.

For more advice from real professionals, the following websites
helped me in my search for the cure:

http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/hamsters.htm

http://www.petinfo4u.com/advanced_small_animals.htm

http://www.britishhamsterassociation.org.uk/get_article.php?fname

=journal/dermatitis.htm