Update on Lada's neck

So this is Lada's neck tonight:

You can still see that his fur isn't entirely normal in the neck area. But he still hasn't got any worse, so I guess maybe the new food and the vitamin supplements are helping.

Unless he turns up hairless some evening soon… It happened very suddenly last time, so might do so again!

Warm weather

We're in the middle of a heatwave and have had temps above +30 every day for a week. Tonight the forecast says it'll hit +34 C, which is close to the all-time heat record in the country!

Lada is hot. In fact, he's so hot that he's currently sleeping with his butt outside of his house! LOL!

Very light-weight...

I weighed Lada tonight, to see how he's getting on with the Oxbow Essentials food. Tonight he only weighed 96 grams. That's 10 grams down from the 104 he clocked a month ago (June 6).

Apparently, though, it's normal for a hamster's weight to fluctuate with as much as 1-12 grams, so I don't really worry yet. I only worry about the fact that he's so small, but I guess he's just built that way.

Little Lada's neck

Tonight's pictures:

In the top and bottom photos you can kind of make out a circle in the fur on his neck. This is the area where he went bald before. It's getting hard to tell if you don't know what you're looking for, so I would definitely say he's getting better.

Looks like the vitamins in his drinking water is helping. He hasn't eaten a lot of the new food yet, he is getting a mix of old and new and seems to prefer the old. But it'll still be a couple of weeks before his feed is completely changed over.

Status Update

Lada's neck last night:

He's not worse, but I still don't know if he's any better. I'm happy as long as he doesn't go bald in the neck area again. :-)

Neck fur picture

I just took this photo of Lada's neck. Look closely and you can see a circle covering his neck where his fur is a little different.

I can't tell whether it's the same, a little worse or a little better than before his last vet appointment. Will be keeping a close eye on his neck for the next couple of weeks.

Vitamin deficiency update

So, we got back from Italy yesterday. It's now 1.5 weeks since Lada had his vitamin injection.

He's not gotten any worse. He's also not ok. His neck fur is still thinner than the rest of it, in the same circular area. But at at least he's not bald. ;-)

I decided to go with the vet's idea about a vitamin deficiency and change his feed. He already gets fresh greens of various kinds almost every night, and dog biscuits as a protein supplement. Other than that, his staple food has been "beapher Care+" hamster feed, same as Tanita got. I have now bought "Oxbow Essentials Hamster & Gerbil food", which is the only other brand of hamster food pellets in my pet store. His Care+ will be gradually replaced with the Essentials.

I also bought the beapher Hamster Vitamin Solution to add to his drinking water. Syrian hamsters technically do not need vitamin supplements, but this is at the vet's suggestion, so should do no harm.

If he keeps losing neck fur over the next couple of weeks, it'll be back to the vet again. But I hope not. Fingers crossed that this feed change is enough. I really don't want to take him to the vet for the 4th time in 3 months!

Vitamin deficiency?

New vet, new theory.

Lada went to the same clinic as before, but got to see a new vet. Third appointment, third vet. And this one agreed that his fur is thinner in the neck area. However, she couldn't see any indication of mites. Last time he got a mix of vitamins and medication, so she wants to see if maybe it's just a vitamin deficiency. So this time he got a shot of vitamins, no medication.

If it's a vitamin deficiency it means I need to change his diet around, maybe try another brand of hamster food or something. I told her what he eats and she said it's fine, but this particular hamster might need something else.

We're off to Italy tonight, so will check on Lada again when we're back next Thursday. If he keeps losing fur, it wasn't the vitamins and he will need to go back to the vet again. If he's better then, I'm going to have to track down some place that sells a different brand of hamster food.