Why is my dwarf hamster suddenly losing fur on its back overnight?

Question

Hello, My boyfriend & I have a 4 month old Chinese dwarf hamster who's overnight lost a patch of fur on her back. She is cleaned with a dust bath once a week along with her cage being cleaned once a week, her food & water is checked daily. She's energetic & doesn't seem like she's sick. I've attached a picture below. We just thought it was a dramatic difference in such a short amount of time & neither of us are sure how it happened. Thank you. Pet's info: Other | Unknown - Other | Female | unspayed

Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS · Accepted Answer

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment (advocate or advantage), then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Why is my dwarf hamster suddenly losing fur on its back overnight?

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