Skin Issue

[Jen]

Hello all. I have a one year old female. She has this spot, approx 1 sq inch in size under one arm that I'm concerned with. She has had it for months. It is not an open sore or anything that seems critical but it's been there awhile and I'd like it to heal up over the winter as we plan to release in the spring. I have not determined the cause of this - I can only tell everyone that it's not ringworm, it's not nor has ever been an open wound, it's just an area that as she regularly grooms, rips the fur out and licks raw. I'm stumped. I'm beginning to worry that maybe it was a scratch or something originally and maybe it has become habitual behavior. I am just curious if anyone else has experienced something similar? Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!

[Diggie's Friend]

There is a variety of conditions that can cause itching.

http://ratguide.master.com/texis/mas...q=itching&s=SS

External parasites Mange is the most common this time of year. http://www.ratfanclub.org/skin.html

Diseases: Liver disease, lymphoma, etc.

Various Medications

Food allergies or sensitivity to specific foods: wheat, soy, lactose If you suspect either of these, ]

http://ratguide.com/health/integumen..._allergies.php You may want to remove the source you suspect, to see if the itching abates.

Dietary mineral deficiencies making rodents prone to developing fungal infections.

Do you have a Vet that can help to determine cause?

[Jen]

There is a variety of conditions that can cause itching.

http://ratguide.master.com/texis/mas...q=itching&s=SS

http://ratguide.com/health/integumen..._allergies.php

External parasites Mange is the most common this time of year. http://www.ratfanclub.org/skin.html

Diseases: Liver disease, lymphoma, etc. (for more see http://ratguide.com/ ).

Various Medications

Food allergies or sensitivity to specific foods: wheat, soy, lactose If you suspect either of these,
you may want to remove the source you suspect to see if the itching abates.

Dietary mineral deficiencies making rodents prone to developing fungal infections.

Do you have a Vet that can help to determine cause?

No, it's hard to find a vet who will treat wildlife in this area. I have a cousin who is a vet tech but he wasn't able to offer much insight. My lil love has a nasty bite for anyone other than myself if they try to touch her. I've been distancing myself in preparation for release, she barely tolerates me handling her anymore. I have noticed her scratching here and there but I haven't seen any fleas and it seems unlikely to me that mites would only cause hairloss in one armpit, never spreading anywhere else in all this time. I could probably manage to get a photo of the area, if that would be helpful. Thank you for the above links, I'm reading over the info now.

[CritterMom]

Can you hold her long enough to wipe the area down? Every time I see something unknown on the skin - on squirrels and everything else including humans, I always try wiping the area several times a day with a diluted Betadyne solution. Betadyne is the orange brown stuff they use to clean the skin before surgery. It is in the wound care section of any drug store, in a bottle, and is 10% povidone iodine (feel free to save a $$ and buy the generic store brand if they have it). Add about 25-30 drops to 1/4 cup of water and dab the area and leave it wet. Try to do it at least twice a day - more if you can.

It doesn't burn or hurt and if you heat the solution to body temperature they hardly know you have even done anything! It will not hurt them if they lick it. It also doesn't do anything that TRIGGERS licking and cleaning like stiffen the hair or goo it all up. It dries like water.

It is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal so it covers a LOT of bases. I have tried a lot of different things and always come back to this because it really doesn't have a downside.

[Diggie's Friend]

This is good that you are going through the process of elimination. I would read through the links on the page on ratguide.com which addresses the most common causes of itching in rodents.

I read about a kind of growth that is a white form of melanoma that will cause itching as the black form does. This can be found in a very flat growth. If you can examine the squirrels arm pits to feel for any differences in one pit from the other in regard to a flat growth, you could eliminate this cause if nothing is found.

Another way to help eliminate possible causes of itching is to do a food elimination test. This is done by removing foods and adding them back one at a time. Start with the rodent block and see if the condition improves. Then move on to other foods you feed also, adding one at a time back to the diet. Should you feed yogurt for example, change to an organic plain source that is lactose free, like Green Valley low-fat plain yogurt. If then the itching stops you might have found the cause. Then switch back to a source that has just a little lactose, like Stonyfield, and see if the itching returns or not. With all the sources in a diet, it isn't easy to determine if it is a food allergy or sensitivity, yet it can be done.

Sulfa drugs and compounds are a common source of food sensitivity/allergy. Sometimes even foods high in sulfur content can set off a reaction that promotes itching.

Consider using a natural liver detox, like extract of Dandelion root and/or, Milk Thistle seed, or Pycnogenol.

https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Origi...4759717&sr=8-6

This is an organic liquid source with both dandelion root and Milk Thistle seed. This same company also produces a powdered try extract of the same two sources.

https://www.amazon.com/Oregons-Wild-...4759612&sr=8-6

In research of rodent diets, some products were found to contain GMO's and others pesticides, and some both. One study that was done on various sources of rodent block you will find the link to on my thread on GMO's. See charts for more details.