Gotten worse?

So I'm not too thrilled about this. Tonight I had the impression that Lada's neck has gotten worse again. It is really hard to tell, but it seemed to me like his neck fur is thinner again.

Tonight's picture:

Of course he is leaning forwards in this photo, so it's more obvious then. But even with that taken into consideration…

I will not be terribly surprised if there's another trip to the vet in the not-too-distant future.

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.

Relapse

Last night I realized that Lada's neck fur is getting thin again. I called the vet this morning and got an appointment for 9am tomorrow. So Lada will be off to the vet again. Looks like the mites are back. It's not very obvious yet, but definitely the case, I think.

This is Lada tonight. His fur is definitely getting thinner in the same area as before.

Damn it. He looked so good. I had really hoped he didn't have chronic bad immune system, but it's starting to look like he does.

On the mend

It's been 5 days since Lada's vet appointment and he looks better already.

And he still has gigantic ears. :-D

Preliminary diagnosis

Lada went to the vet today and got a preliminary diagnosis of hair follicle mites. He got an injection of medication and vitamin B, and a new appointment on Monday 19th for a follow-up injection if the first one seems to have helped. If it hasn't helped, the diagnosis was wrong…  So we'll see. Fingers crossed!