Balding in hamsters?

[CashiWaku]

So one of our Syrian hamsters, Yuffie, who is about 20 months old, is gradually going bald. We first noticed hair thinning over the back of her neck and her head in July or so. We increased her protein and started a multivitamin but didn't see much improvement. She was treated for mites by the vet in mid-September (Revolution on the neck.) They did do a skin scraping for mites and didn't see anything, so they could never positively confirm the diagnosis. We thought she improved slightly, but over time started losing fur again. It became pretty sparse by early November, so we went back to the vet and got a second mite treatment, and she is booked again for another followup mite treatment next week. Except I don't think she has regrown any hair since last time, although I also don't think she has lost much more fur. It's largely isolated over her top of head and shoulder areas. She now has only very sparse fur over the back of her neck and the top of her head. The skin underneath looks a bit flaky and sometimes the skin on her face and eyes looks irritated. But no scabs, no scratches, no wounds, no excoriation. Behaviorally she seems okay... she eats, she maintains her weight, she does hamster stuff (she has never been really active as far as hamsters go though.) She isn't drinking excessively, which I know can be a sign of Cushing's. She just has male pattern baldness.

I've done as much research as I can, as I know that Cushing's disease and lymphoma can cause hair loss in hamsters, but she doesn't have any systemic symptoms yet and a lot of what I read had indicated that she would be showing a lot more systemic signs of those illnesses by now. This has been going on gradually over the past 6 months or so. I know some hams lose fur from aging, but she's not ANCIENT (though she is a senior hamster.) She doesn't seem uncomfortable, but she looks ROUGH! Has anyone else had this happen? We've had several hams and have never had this happen before. I suspect that there's probably not much to do but treat for the treatable and recognize that she is getting up there in age regardless, but if anyone has anything similar I would appreciate the input!

[EmmaGold]

Oh, poor Yuffie! It must be tough seeing her go through that. I once had a similar experience with my older hamster, Luna. She started losing fur gradually, and I worried sick about her.

I found some helpful advice on hamster care at https://hamsternow.com/hamster-care that might offer some insights. It's tough when our furry friends start showing signs of aging, but it sounds like you're doing everything you can to make Yuffie comfortable.

Sometimes, it's a matter of providing extra love and care as they enter their senior years.