Rifa is losing some fur

[Kristal]

I have been so preoccupied with my dog that I forgot to post about this. My girl has started to lose some fur, and I have no idea what is causing it. It's on her upper, inner thighs and her abdomen right beside those areas. So it looks like she has a V of fur on her lower abdomen, basically. She is also missing fur in a circle around her bum and a bit around her vulva. She had a little bald patch in the middle of her back, but it is healing and coming back in now. I think that might have happened during a fight or maybe one of the boys trying to mount her... I don't know... I am just guessing since it is about in that position.

Their diet is great. They get block and a formula heavy variation of boo balls every day (one part ground block, one part ground almonds, 2.5 parts formula and enough melted coconut oil to make it into a soft paste that cools to the hardness of a chocolate bar). They also get one or two veggie and fruit meals every day. I give about 2/3 veg and 1/3 greens, varying it a little every day and always going for a "balance of colours" since that is supposed to be a good rule of thumb to use when selecting fruits and veggies for nutrition. I would guess that at least 2/3 is green and mostly green from veggies.

So yea, their diet is excellent. They also get antler chews and eggshells. They get 1 - 4 nuts a day, and usually just one or two.

None of the others are showing the same hair loss. And they sleep piled up together every night plus groom and cuddle, chase and (play) fight all day, every day. I cannot imagine that it is anything contagious. Rifa is the one who is not related to the others, though. She was the one that I was able to save from my front yard, and the brothers came along to be her surrogate family. Perhaps she has some allergy or sensitivity that they don't have? Nothing in their environment has recently changed, however.

At first she seemed to have some dry skin or possibly scabs in those areas. It seemed a bit flaky, like psoriasis. I rubbed vitamin e oil into her skin there, and the skin is now smooth, pink and healthy looking - just bald. The skin looks great now, but the fur did not grow back :(

Maybe she is overgrooming? Getting hormonal? She is over a year old, and was trying like mad to make her own house this autumn. It seemed that she wanted to establish her own territory outside of their room whenever I let them out. She would get to nest building pretty quickly. Perhaps it was that she wanted to make a family - that her hormones were telling her to do that? Maybe the fact that she couldn't make a house for herself was what prevented her from going into heat? Maybe her frustrated hormones are messing with her body or mood?

I have a bad thought that maybe she did go into heat, and I somehow missed it. What if her hormones are going nuts because of being pregnant? I am watching her closely as I have been all along, and I don't think so, but it is something to consider.

So does anyone have the faintest clue what this could be?

[astra]

sometimes, flaky skin and stuff like that indicate mites.

It can be an individual thing.
There is very, very, very little teeny tiny almost impossible chance for her to get pregnant in captivity.
Although, flukes happen, of course, it is very unlikely.

It could be hormonal, could be molt.

Could you post pics?

Do you have Revolution? because you could try applying revolution - it won't hurt if it's not mites, but if it is mites, you will see improvement.

But photos would definitely help

[Kristal]

err, 2/3 veg and 1/3 fruit, I meant :p

[Mrs Skul]

:wave123 Kristal
Can you post a picture? What Kind of Squirrel are you talking about?:thinking

[Kristal]

She is an Eastern Grey, born in late July of 2010. Her four foster brothers are the same age as her. I guess that would make her 17.5 months old. I have posted heaps of pics of them on this board, and there are some in the sig, too. I am going to try and get some closeups of her belly probably tomorrow night when she is sleepy and probably calm enough to probably let me pose her a bit for a photo.

[Kristal]

I just took a careful look at her now. I got in during that magic hour before dawn when they are all piled up in a cuddle heap at the tallest point on the cat tree in the cage :) They sleep in their wooden sleeping box, but they all come out to sort of lazily prepare for the dawn like that. If I get in as the sun is coming up, they are already hopping around like crazy and attaching to me asking to be let out. I never let them out in the morning if I can help it. They just have TOO MUCH energy at that time of day :) :sanp3 In the very, very early morning they are cuddly and calm, though. They make a little mutual grooming huddle to prepare for the day. They like to lazily eat in a row on the top platform. I pick out each ones favourite and hand feed them because they don't like to upset the peace of the morning cuddle to go down and eat. I sometimes wonder if it is really normal to have squirrels be so sweet at their age :) :Love_Icon

So yea, she is getting baby down-like white fur on the bald areas. Her fur is starting to come back, but not quickly. I couldn't see it before because they don't always sit still long enough for me to get my head in for an examination :p Too bad I did not bring the camera, but I am going to try to get a shot now, I think.

I guess I should still be thinking of giving her some ivermectin or revolution, though? If I may ask... it would be pretty awesome if someone has some and wants to send me a little... I still want to treat porch squirrel and her son for their mange mites, too. Porch squirrel (the mom) is looking really perfectly healthy after eating so well for a few weeks, but her son is still looking rather rough :( He is also definitely too small for his age, IMHO.

[Jackie in Tampa]

If balding is uniform or symetrical it is molt.
Otherwise, it is rubbing on something, sibs being rough...
OR DIET issue!
Odd bald patches from my experience years ago, before I knew how to feed correctly, always were corrected with diet.
My advise...no coconut oil!
It is not natural and unlike dogs, sqs do not need oil in their diet...
I use heavy cream for fat content, not oil.
Switch the oil to heavy cream in your concoction balls.

I would try FV formula in a lap bowl..
you may get lucky and they like it...
it is the best insurance we can ask for..
adult sqs eating FV or HHBs....CHOICE!:thumbsup

so you never released your crew...:osnap
all of you's in your tiny apartment...:crazy

would love to see NEW pics!!!
I can imagine the daily crazy monkey stories :D

If they are live wires in the morning...that's when I would allow outta cage time...
it's dangerous to have several sqs together in a cage...unless the cage is a super duper walk in...
I have seen too many broken back accidents happen...
sqs are adapted to big open spaces to run and frolic!

Glad they all stayed sweet...variety diet is advised!:Love_Icon

Mites...if they have dirty black gunk in ears, they have mites..
otherwise do not ttreat with Rev...sounds diet related with your description of bald patches, jmo.

Long time no see K!:wave123

[Kristal]

Well, they have the run of the room, now. So they are bouncing around in there like mad all morning when I am sleeping :p The cage was just not enough for them after a certain point. The room is probably 12'x11' with very high ceilings (old pre war place) and a window, so they have room to romp. The apartment time is like and extra bonus, and they love it since there are always old stashes to hunt up, etc.

I was and still am planning to release them, Jackie! Mitch only moved out to the country in September and just could not take on the extra burden of supervising their transition while she was in transition herself. God (and Mitch) willing, we can get something going by summer, though. It depends on how long winter decides to hang on and how easy/feasible it will be to make a habitat for them to transition in. As tame as they are, I won't dump them on just anyone that I don't know and trust. They need a gentle hand and a lot of time to figure out how to do this wild thing.

It is going to break my heart almost totally, but yea, I still plan to let them go :Love_Icon

Anyway, here are morning cuddle shots because I can't resist showing off a little :p

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And here are some not perfect shots of her belly. I got them while she was eating, so they are a bit fuzzy. If she is alert she won't let me poke at her belly. I can only do it sometimes when I get her relaxed first with petting (at night)

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I *think* that the grey patches are fur... I honestly did not notice them until looking at these photos :dono

[Kristal]

Uggh, I just tried again with a flash. No dice. The pic was almost totally white, and now they are off into the morning crazy romp. :shakehead

[Kristal]

Also... I don't use *much* coconut oil. But this seems to be how they love it. They leave mushy boo balls to dry up and go yucky, so all that is left is dog treats at the end of the day. They just don't like them, but they love the nut like texture and coconut flavour that these ones have. I also don't give them a *lot* every day. They are expensive for me, so they are just like a nutritious treat on the side of their bowl of blocks. I guess I give about 1 and maximum 2 oz per day to be split between four squirrels. They are not overweight at all, and I don't think I am loading them up on fat. I just put enough coconut oil in to dissolve the formula and keep the dry ingredients together. Do you really think it could be that bad of a thing to be doing?

[Kristal]

Umm, I used to make them the cookies for the same reason, remember? They hate the mushy boo balls. I changed over to this method because I was worried that even low heat might destroy some of the nutrition in the FV formula. These are nut like enough that they take them like a treat. They like them even more than they liked the cookies.

[Jackie in Tampa]

OMGosh, They are fricken gorgeous! Oh lala!

that looks like itching/grooming...what a cute fat belly..
try adding heavy cream..
I do not think it is anything to worry about..
I have seen bald bellies on healthy chunky girl sqs...
I do not think it is food related or mites or UTI.
Make sure she is drinking water...I think it will pass!
I bet she has groomed that hair off.

Thank God for Mitch, she is perfect to help...very loving person..
Perfect!:thumbsup
and she is a great photographer too, so we will get lots of pics!:crazy

[CritterMom]

From late winter last year until late summer this year, I battled this naked belly with Mister P. No scaliness - I lay him on his back and rub his belly for long periods of time, and would sit and DREAM of having such smooth, perfect pink skin!! I am a flipping diet nazi with the poor boy...and other than this he was the picture of health. His ragged molting continued all through the summer, then all of a sudden everything grew back and he is perfect now - thick, dense fur EVERYWHERE.

The one thing I am being pretty consistent with is using a warm mist humidifier in my house this winter. I have open construction and paddle fans so the humidity rises all over the house and counters the artificial heat.

So basically, been there, done that, don't know why it started OR stopped...! But it did.:thumbsup

[astra]

OMGosh, They are fricken gorgeous! Oh lala!
:crazy
:goodpost :thumbsup :crazy any more pics of them sitting and eating in a row

[rocky63]

sometimes, flaky skin and stuff like that indicate mites.

It can be an individual thing.
There is very, very, very little teeny tiny almost impossible chance for her to get pregnant in captivity.
Although, flukes happen, of course, it is very unlikely.

It could be hormonal, could be molt.

Could you post pics?

Do you have Revolution? because you could try applying revolution - it won't hurt if it's not mites, but if it is mites, you will see improvement.

But photos would definitely help

Astra said there's a very very little chance of her being pregnant. From what I see in the pictures it looks like she is clearing fur around the nipples. I could be wrong but I think I would separate her for a while to keep her safe from the males should she be pregnant. :dono

[Kristal]

Astra said there's a very very little chance of her being pregnant. From what I see in the pictures it looks like she is clearing fur around the nipples. I could be wrong but I think I would separate her for a while to keep her safe from the males should she be pregnant. :dono

That was my fear, actually. Unfortunately, they now have my only closed room (aside from the bathroom) No, I can't separate them because there is no other place for squirrels to go now :shakehead

[Kristal]

:goodpost :thumbsup :crazy any more pics of them sitting and eating in a row

I will try to get you some this morning ;)

[rocky63]

Kristal, How is your girl doing is she still loosing fur? :wave123

[CritterMom]

I wouldn't worry too much about the pregnancy. The hair loss pattern is almost exactly the same as P had - same place, same shape even. P wants you to know he wasn't pregnant...

[astra]

I wouldn't worry too much about the pregnancy. The hair loss pattern is almost exactly the same as P had - same place, same shape even. P wants you to know he wasn't pregnant...:rotfl

[niapet]

That kind of looks similar to Imps bald spot on his belly.. but of course Imp is a male. Imps bald spot isn't quite that big.

[gs1]

I wouldn't worry too much about the pregnancy. The hair loss pattern is almost exactly the same as P had - same place, same shape even. P wants you to know he wasn't pregnant...

:jump

nia ..maybe you could take a look at mr p photos since they're both males? :)

[Kristal]

I wouldn't worry too much about the pregnancy. The hair loss pattern is almost exactly the same as P had - same place, same shape even. P wants you to know he wasn't pregnant...

LOL, btw ;)

Just a Rifa update: Her fur is coming back in nicely. The grey spots in the photo are, indeed, fur because she has a fairly dark belly anyway. She has been getting a bit chubby for the last few months compared to the others, but that seems to be coming off now, too. I can only guess that her hormones half way kicked in and were thwarted by her not having her own living arrangements to make a family in. Perhaps she got antsy with the overeating and overgrooming and being a bit cranky. She looks good now, though :)