Chinchilla Help please!

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TataChinnyluv91

New member
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
4
So I’ve had my chinchillas for about three years now. I have my first (bought but not oldest) Tat, my second (bought who is the oldest) Pablo, and my third who I’ve only had for about 5-6 months, the baby, Mini.
My issue right now is that my oldest Pablo has a huge bald spot on the right side of his body and he even has hair missing from all his paws.
Vets have checked him and he has no bacterial issues. They actually said they aren’t sure why he’s losing hair. They’ve given me creams and told me to give him extra dust baths. I’ve also refrained from touching him or handling him too much anymore just in case it’s something about my hands being too greasy. I’ve also spent over $500 redoing their cage just in case the culprit is boredom, even though I’ve only caught him once or twice biting at himself. Unfortunately nothing I have done has worked and it seems that the hair loss is actually getting worse. I am worried sick about him I have not changed their diet or done anything different other than a few months ago I bought a new brand of hay. I’m hoping that by doing that I didn’t cause his issue. Neither of my other two chins have lost any hair and they’re both actually super healthy. I’m not sure what to do about my Pablo it’s driving me crazy and the last thing I want is for my poor baby to be in any type of pain.
When I purchased Pablo he had some type of cold because he was on antibiotics when I brought him home. I am hoping me buying a new brand of hay isn’t what might have caused it either, because I switched them right back when I noticed that they wouldn’t touch the new stuff and I just donated it to someone else. I feel like I’m failing him by not being able to help him. And I just feel like I’m out of options. If anyone has any ideas about what I can do that I haven’t tried yet please let me know!
 
The most common cause of hair is ringworm, but I would think the vet would have checked for that, and it's pretty contagious so it wouldn't just affect one chin. Could you post pictures? That might help us better understand what you are seeing. Like is the skin red or flaky or anything? Could the area on his side be a large fur slip? Is hair growing back there at all?

What are you feeding, pellets, hay and treat. It could be an allergy to something you are feeding since it's only affecting him and not the others. Unless you got hay from a farm and it was contaminated with something it's unlikely changing hay caused the issue.
 
The doctor ruled out ringworm. Also his skin isn’t red or flaky but it does look kind of dry. I took him for another check up yesterday because he looks a lot better since I gave him his own dust bath station away from the 2 girls. I also added dried, crushed oatmeal to the bath just to see if it could help him and I’ve noticed he’s actually been running around playing since he got his own little space. The vet said today he thinks he may have an anxiety issue and looks like he’s pulling his fur out when he’s upset. I’m not sure what I can do about that now but the vet recommended putting him in a separate living area so I’m going to try that for awhile and see if it may help. Hopefully it doesn’t do more damage because they’ve never been apart from each other. Maybe just like every other living thing he just needs some space. I’ll post pics of his fur and skin when I have the chance maybe I can get better advice up here because honestly the vet seems iffy on chinchilla knowledge. He told me to give him a bath like a real bath with water.. I feel like that would make things so much worse.
 
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