Two questions! Bald spots and Blood. Please help.

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OlliesGirl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
96
Location
Missouri. The states.
I just joined today and I am concerned about my two new boys. We just got them the 16th. They are young but I can't tell you how old really. I'll try to get some pictures.

Tristan is a black dumbo boy with an odd brown spot on the top of his head. At first we thought it was just a cute marking, you know. But since getting him home we have noticed his hair thinning in two spots directly parallel to each other. Progressively they have turned into full on bald spots. This morning when I had them out I noticed it was worse. And I saw one tiny scab in each bald spot. I am very worried. He hasn't been itching excessively or over grooming or anything like that. I'm worried that my other boy, Oliver might be hurting him. I thought that wrestling was normal, but this morning Oliver was really at him. He was acting very dominant, and well, it looked like he was trying to mate with him. It is the first time I have seen him treat Tristan that way. Is that normal?

Oliver is also worrying because this morning I noticed he had skin ripped away from his balls. Excuse me if that's crude, but I don't want to beat around the bush. And they are bloodied. Do I need to separate them? I don't know how they got like this. Their cage is 3ft by 2ft and 3 levels. I don't know why they'd be hurting each other. But if Tristan has mites, do I need to get them in different cages? Do I need to get them vet care?? I just don't know what to do! Please help. I'm just sick about it, they've got me so worried. I'll try to get some pictures.
 
Here are some pics. They aren't the best but it may help.

Oliver: :sad3:
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Tristan: :gaah:
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it looks like someone has tried to shave tristan Oo (im not accusing, just observing lol). the two patches are very distinct and dont look like mite/parasite related. I think that it is barbering or overgrooming. If there is tussling going on and one is missing fur, the other has a flesh wound... it sounds like a dominance battle to me tbh
 
I think so too, but this is my first time having males, is this sort of thing normal for them? Are things going to get worse? I've had girls all my life and they never drew blood from each other.
 
Those boys look to be older... not babies. They might be trying to establish who's alpha.
The bald spots could be power grooming. The cut testicles is a concern. I'd keep an eye on them just to make sure that they aren't really fighting. That cut could have happened by accident.
I would still do a mite/lice treatment on both of them. Don't separate them yet unless you see them really go at each other.
Is there any background on these two? Where they come from, another home or shelter, they might be able to tell you if they are brothers and have always lived together... or from the pet store, where they together already when you picked them up?
 
My sister and I picked them up from Petsmart (please don't hate us) they were together and seemed to be fine. Oliver is a lot more out going with us and Tristan is very shy. I've seen Oliver behave a lot more dominantly over Tristan but I have seen Tris flip Oliver over and hold him down a couple times. So I do think they are going back and fourth. But we never hear them squeaking, they just thrash around a bit. And I haven't seen any sharp things in the cage. I have one of Martin's cages and the shelves are lined. Ollie does climb the walls but I've yet to see him fall. If Tristan's issue is power grooming, is there anyway to discourage it? I just don't like seeing blood or scabs. What else can I do to fix this? :sad-p:
 
If they are from Petsmart, I bet they are under 6 months old and litter mates so I don't think there should be any aggression between the two of them.
Can you get some Revolution and treat both of them? That would be your best course of action at this point. And then see if that helps.
 
Yes, Revolution would get rid of any mites or lice, and should help reduce any squabbling that might be happening due to them being uncomfortable because of their itchyscratchies.

The ball wound looks so painful, LOL.
 
Moon said:
The ball wound looks so painful, LOL.
Click to expand...
I know it looks so awful. But so far it doesn't seem to be affecting him. He has been playing the same as usual.

Do I need to go to the vet to get Revolution for rats?

And thank you to everyone for all the help so far.
Any other suggestions and opinions will still be appreciated!
 
Some vets are not comfortable prescribing Revolution for rats. There is dosing information for them on the Pfizer website that vets can access.

Some vets will say they want to do a skin scraping to check for mites, but with rats they don't usually show properly.
 

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