Hair loss on female rat?

Hey guys,

I have a 5 month old female rat and today I noticed some hair loss on her upper front leg (shoulder area).

Any suggestions what this might be? Any one seen this before?

Her diet has been the same, no new treat, food etc, same bedding, I don't see any wounds, swelling etc.

She lives with two other female rats, same age, and they get along great.

I'm stumped!

Vicki

Looks like she might be self-barbering. I've had a couple of rats who did that. They pull out their own hair. I don't think anyone knows the cause. Mine weren't under any particular stress, and they were healthy.

Thank you!

Yep, that's self barbering. She might snap out of that habit eventually. It's usually due to boredom or stress and really, there's not much we can do about it.

Thanks Joanne! I researched it last night and I'm on a mission! Lol. I'm going to try and rearrange their cage and come up with some new toys. They dunk for peas all the time and have their own digging box. It's weird that she would be the one in the group doing this, I've always thought she was the most outgoing and least nervous and stressed in the three

But don't be surprised if she never stops, for some its a compulsion like a human chewing their nails, etc. Harmless, but unsightly LOL. They chew off their fur usually over their forelegs and up the shoulders, but sometimes they will work on their belly or not barber themselves but other rats instead. A friend of mine online had some gorgeous girls then they added one more girl who ended up being a barberer. Her compulsion was to barber the tops of heads so all her cuties ended up with bare pates like a monk's tonsure LOL

Vicki it totally resembles my jake, although he went through the loss of his brother, I've spent time trying to help him with natural methods then I tried rescue remedy and then we looked at blood and skin samples to make sure it wasn't a parasite or skin rash. I've tried 2 anti depressants which are suppose to help with OCD behaviours as of right now we are having great response to the 2nd one on a very low dosage. But it is true it can just be a OCD behaviour not caused by any stress or emotional trauma. Jake was getting skin infections because of the constant pulling his skin was raw and would catch an infection so I decided to try the drugs. I would do skin and blood tests just to rule out parasites but if it doesn't get worst I think it's safe to leave it. Let me know if you want some more info my vet has been great with jake it's been going on for about 6-8 months now we've got it pretty much under control the past few months. Hope that helps!

I'm curious about the antidepressants. What were they both and what was your experience with each?

So the first drug was called fluxotine - it is a drugged actually used on humans for anxiety and depression, jake had severe anxiety and depression and it helped him allot with those 2 traits, we started at 0.1 dosage it helped slow down the barbering as but it wasn't the end all so we upped it to 0.2 which helped a bit more with the barbering but then it would start again. So instead of just increasing the dosage my vet suggested a drug they use on cats that he said they've seen positive reactions in rats
Here's a pic of it from my thread about jake, this has been great (I don't want to jinx it) we've stayed at 0.1 and have had good results. He hardly barbers anymore at all, I maybe find 1 or 2 bits of fur in his cage when before if find tons. The fur on his but stomach and wrists are finally growing back although I feel like some of his hair follicles must be damaged. So in all the first drug really helped him emotionally and the second seemed to help with the OCD. But like I said we did so many tests before this to rule out everything else.

Thanks for all the info! Greatly appreciated! I will be bringing Poppy into the vet to get checked over next week when I'm off! I spoke to my vet and she said that a lot of times it is just a genetic habit they've picked up and not a lot that can be done, but would like to rule out any other causes If I can.
I'm not sure that i can see it being stress or anxiety with her, she is the most happy, go lucky rat I have, always the first out and exploring, nothing seems to phase her! Even last night we had a bad storm and the three girls were out, every time we got thunder the other two would run to me from wherever they were and poppy just kept doing what she was doing
I have reorganized her cage and added lots more toys and given her more time out of the cage.
My husband reminded me that we changed detergent about two weeks ago and I use fleece bedding so thinking maybe that is what's causing this. We have switched back to our regular detergent and if there is no changes might switch the bedding I use!

Again, I really appreciate all the suggestions!

Thanks,
Vicki

lilspaz68 said:

But don't be surprised if she never stops, for some its a compulsion like a human chewing their nails, etc. Harmless, but unsightly LOL. They chew off their fur usually over their forelegs and up the shoulders, but sometimes they will work on their belly or not barber themselves but other rats instead. A friend of mine online had some gorgeous girls then they added one more girl who ended up being a barberer. Her compulsion was to barber the tops of heads so all her cuties ended up with bare pates like a monk's tonsure LOL

Click to expand...

Lmfao!! Barbering the tops of everyone else's heads!!!! [emoji23]

I had a larger group for a while and when we added one girl, Penelope, my girl Sabrina started barbering her own forearms. This went on for some time but when Penelope developed spinal cancer and left for the Bridge, Sabrina stopped barbering and things went back to normal. So for Sabrina, it was directly related to Penelope. I had another boy, Hotch, who self-mutilated his belly. It only stopped when he got a PT, which confirmed it was self-mutilation. So you never know what is the trigger.

I used amitriptyline with Eli when he came out of a seizure insanely aggressive...he was normally a very gentle boy but he was scary. We put him on this to smooth him out, and he was on it for a weeks, but by the end of the first week, he was more or less back to normal.

Good news! Poppy's hair is growing back in and no other areas seem to be loosing hair looks like I might have the self barbering to a minimum for now!

I think it was the detergent, so good to know she may be sensitive to smells and that they might stress her out!

Yeah good news !!!!