can someone pls help me?

my female hamster is a year and a half old.she is a syrian satin. recently her hair has been dropping and it's now a very visible bald patch. i took her to a vet who told me to wash the patch with salt water twice a day and apply baby oil to it. but my hamster tends to lick it more, making more hair drop!!can someone pls tell me what is happening and how can i treat my hamster?thanx :(

I am not certain what it is but I do have some questions...is the hamster alone in a cage or do you keep her in a cage with another hamster? Could there be any stresses for her, for example, do you have a dog that just stares into the cage and licks it's chops, or a cat that sits on top of the cage and watches every move the hamster makes? Is the room where you have her cage fairly quiet during the day, or do you have lots of noise, construction, partys, yelling, large amounts of people and/or kids? Stress can have an effect on hamsters and it can cause hair loss. Is there pleanty of ventalation in the room where you keep the cage? How is the drinking water in Malaysia? Is it good, or do you have to buy water or filter your water? Perhaps there are too many potentially toxic minerals or heavy metals in your water and your hamster needs to have filtered water if she dosen't already have filtered water? Do they have pet stores that sell hamster vitamins where you live? Here they sell a little bottle with super concetrated hamster vitamins which you squeeze a few drops into their water bottles. Is it hard to find a vet that sees hamsters? If you have more then one around I would take her to another vet for a 2nd opinion. Well that's all of my questions. I hope you are able to post again and let us know how the little hammie is doing.

thanx for replying.the water in malaysia is ok.as for the noise,there's no constructions or anything that's noisy.and she's the only one in the cage with no cats or dogs around.i went to another vet yesterday afternoon and he gave a an anti fungus cream along with some liquid antibiotic.but after giving her a drop of antibiotic she became very weak and it took abt 7 hrs for it to wear of.so i went back to the same place but i saw another vet and he gave me some liquid vitamin B complex and was asked to discontinue the antibiotic unless she starts having a loss of appetite.well,this is the latest update and i am anxious for her to get well. :)

[ July 08, 2001: Message edited by: evelyn1157 ]

I don't know how to help you, but I want to say that I hope your hammie gets better soon! What is her name? I love hamsters, so I hope that yours gets well soon! Keep us posted.

As our Rusty started getting older, his hair started coming out, especially on his belly. Maybe it is age related. And your sweet baby is a "Senior Citizen" in hamster years.

Since you have gone to your vet, you might try one of the hamster sites where people are familiar and up to date on hamsters. I know that this is not a vet "specialty". The only one I know about is: http://communities.msn.com/Hamstersg...naventryid=178 . But there are probably links to others from that site, or you could post your question there.

Good luck. Hope your baby will be around for you for a long time yet.

Logan

[ July 08, 2001: Message edited by: Logan ]

it's good to know that there are concern people out there. my hamster's name is mandy. and i think her patch is healing slowly after applying the anti fungus cream and feeding her with the liquid vitamin. and i also hope that she'll be around for a longer time. and my two month old shih tzu is keeping me quite busy too. :D

I am so glad to hear Mandy is doing better! I also hope she is around for a long time to give you lots of little hammie nuzzles!

I hope your hamster is better now! And once my friend put one of those "Primapore" bandages over her ham's bald spot. A few weeks later it grew back! And the bandage wasn't painful since it was the "Primapore" kind. The adhesive is really quite mild. You might have some difficulty trimming the plaster to fit the hamster's bald spot though... It took us an hour and several bandages to get the fit right! :D

can you tell me more about the primapore? do i get it from the vet or will i be able to get it from normal pet shops? :confused: