Imp's Hair is falloing out

[niapet]

I honestly don't know if this is life threatening or not but I figured better safe than sorry.

Imp has had the occasional bald patch on his belly before but it seems to have gotten worse the last couple of days. I am worried about him a little now and was wondering what if any of you know whaight is going on?

These pictures were hard to get, Imp really did not like being held this way. He is a little chubby so I thought it might be from his fat rubbing as he walked but that seems extreme for the amount of bald spots showing up.

The second pic is of his inner thigh.

[Nancy in New York]

A little resizing

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95/nancym518/TSB%20photos/0121021919e.jpg
http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv95/nancym518/TSB%20photos/0121021919d.jpg

[Kristal]

It looks a bit like Rifas fur loss in that it is roughly symmetrical and there is no scabbing, only fairly smooth skin. You can see what she looked like here:
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32483

She was overgrooming herself, possibly due to being angsty about coming only partway into season. She is old enough to breed, but it seems like they don't go into season when they are living in too close quarters or something. In any case, it is supposed to be rare to have a female come into season when she lives indoors with other squirrels.

She is looking better this week. She is also losing the belly that she packed on at the same time - maybe in preparation for pregnancy :dono

[niapet]

The thing is that Imp is a male and he does not live with any other squirrels. Could this still be the cause? I do notice him scratching now and again. He used to only have a little hair loss on his belly near his penis and there was a bit of a urine stain there, so i assumed it was getting irritated by urine getting on the hair when he pees.

There are definitely no scabs or anything, its all pink, smooth soft skin where the hair is falling out. It also seems to be in the areas where there are joints, near his thighs and armpits.. and maybe where his belly touches the ground. I was surrounding if he might be too fat and the rubbing was causing the hair loss.

There is absolutely no hair loss anywhere else. His back and tail look perfect.

[Busysqrl]

Could be barbering (overgrooming), but also could be urine scald. If your male squirrel doesn't groom well (for whatever the reason), the urine could be causing the hair loss. My Magnus went through several bouts of this before we figured it out and it looked just like your male squirrel's. Inside of his back legs and right above his penis. He has a back condition that doesn't allow him to groom his underside very well. We started cleaning his belly every day and since then, no problems at all. We use a chlorhexadine wash every other day. It's very safe. You can buy it on line at Amazon, but usually it sells in only gallon sizes. That's enough to last you about 1000 years. If you have a vet, likely they have chlorhexadine there and will give you some with instructions on how to mix. IF it's urine scald, silvadene will clear it up quick and then you can keep it clean with the wash every day. Silvadene is a prescription you can get at your vet. You could also use neosporin provided you rub it in really good. Make sure you clean it and dry it well before putting any prescription or any creams on. We only use the chlor wash every other day with plain warm water on the days we don't use the clor wash. Good luck with Imp :grouphug

[niapet]

i am almost sure its urine scald then. Imp tends to have uine visible on his belly at times. The only prolem is that we sont, and cant, have a vet here. I guess we will start with the neosporin. Hey sell hybiclens at the drug store. Is that too concentrated? If so how much should Idilute it?

[Kristal]

I dunno, all my boys get some pee in their fur from time to time, even often, and it makes no difference.:dono I wonder if this could really be a problem given that your guy can groom normally unlike the one that Busysqrl is talking about.

Also, is neosporin safe to eat?

[niapet]

I was wondering about the neosporin's safty to eat sa well. I use a rosemary tincture as an alternitive here and that would be safe for him to lick, maybe even healthy.

I am actually kind of worried today though, I noticed a spot on his elbow and two of his back nuckles seemed to to be slightly balding as well. I think he is molting (or whatever he term is for squirels) he has been shedding lately and its around that time here.

I am realy worried about him, I dont think Icould live without my little Impy! Is there anything else this could be? we have no vet here... They wont see him...

[Busysqrl]

We used neosporin the first time as we didn't have the Silvadene yet and didn't have any problems with it. You do need make sure you rub it in good though. I'd buy the cream rather than the ointment. Even though the ointment would act as a moisture barrier to the urine, I wouldn't want them licking a ton of it and the ointment takes longer to absorb, so I'd use the cream and just make sure you get it rubbed in good so you can't see it.

Kristal, I think it's hard to know if it's overgrooming or the urine scald until you try the treatment for urine scald. Our vet thought it was overgrooming too, but since we got it cleared up the last time and started washing his belly every day, we haven't had another incident, so in our case, it was for sure urine scald.

I just looked up hybiclens and it's twice as concentrated (4%) as the regular chlorhexidine wash. It also has fragrance and a sudsing action. Because of those things, I'd probably stick with regular chorhexidine wash. If you have a local feed store, you might want to check with them, they should carry it. It's commonly used for horse wounds and dosn't require a prescription. In the meantime, just use a lot of warm water to rinse his belly. We use moistened cotton balls, but if you can pick him up and dunk his lower body in warm water, that would be the best. We are unable to do that with Magnus, so we're stuck with the cottonball method. Then just be sure you dry him off well before you put the neosporin on. Please keep us posted on how he does. :grouphug

[Busysqrl]

niapet - have you treated him for buggies? A drop of revolution between his shoulder blades wouldn't hurt. Magnus also had wierd baldness under his arms and down the undersides of his body at one point and his tail went almost completely bald. The hair on his back, shoulders and head was completely normal. Even so, I was beside myself with worry. We now think it was some strange molt pattern. If it happens again this year, we'll know that particular pattern is molting. Molting can look very strange and scary sometimes. I would definately give a drop or two of revolution just to make sure. We've done that with Magnus several times just to rule out buggies. FYI - he was an adult wild when he came to us. so we didn't know what was normal for him.

[niapet]

Thanks for the info on wash, Ill check the local animal supply store. Imp is a very head strong squirrel and if he doesnt want to go in the tub he wont be going ;)

as far as bugs I have never heard of revoluto but Ill look into it. He has had odd molting before its posible this is just happening at a bad time so his urine burn is worsening just as molting season starts.

[Busysqrl]

Revolution, Ivermectin, Advantage, all bug removers. Revolution is one that is commonly recommended. I use the one for small cats.

The hair loss could also be fungal caused by the urine sitting on there. Some males have urine on them with seemingly no ill effects, but others develop fungal or bacterial infections. The chlorhexidine will cover all those, however if it's fungal you'd want to use something stronger than just the chlorhexidine wash. Fungal infections take quite a while to clear up.

I'd try keeping him clean with the chlorhexidine/neosporin combo and see if it gets better. When Magnus was going through this, I also gave him Vetri-DMG every day to boost his immune system. I gave him 4 drops every day for about 4 weeks. Vetri-DMG can also be purchased on Amazon.

[niapet]

We started cleaning him.. my goodness he HATES it.. I have never hear him scream like that.. little drama queen...

I did notice some gray down like hair coming in on some of the bald areas.. maybe that means there is just a weird molt going on and the urine scald is only on the are area just above his penis like before.

Either way we will keep it up and hope for the best... plus he is going on a bit of a diet to try to get his weight down a bit...

[jbtartell]

It could be molting or nutritional..I had a baby once who was thin fur and had bald spots his was nutritional. but cleared up later..

[Busysqrl]

We started cleaning him.. my goodness he HATES it.. I have never hear him scream like that.. little drama queen...

I did notice some gray down like hair coming in on some of the bald areas.. maybe that means there is just a weird molt going on and the urine scald is only on the are area just above his penis like before.

Either way we will keep it up and hope for the best... plus he is going on a bit of a diet to try to get his weight down a bit...


It's really hard to know in cases like this what's causing it, but if he has urine on his fur, it certainly doesn't hurt to clean it. What we do with Magnus is give him something he likes that he has to stay in one place to eat, like yogurt and then use the cotton balls on him at that time. You don't get it perfectly done because you can't see well, but it works well enough.

[niapet]

Well for any of you who wanted a final update:

Imp's hair is all grown back, we never even got to the chlorhexidine gluconate, after a few days or so of neosporin, his hair began to grow back and within a week he was all hairy and pretty again.

We will monitor him and if the problem returns we will set up a daily chlorhexidine gluconate regimen for him.