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Cyst - Can Fur Fall Out?

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Kerrie74

Kerrie74

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I have a sow called Cocoa, she first got a cyst around 4 or 5 months ago, a small amount of fur fell out, but once it was sorted out the fur grew back, her fur started to fall out in the same area again so I thought the cyst was back, so my son took her off back to the vet, he said there was nothing in the cyst and it was normal for fur to fall out around it, however she's lost more fur further along. Is this normal? She was perfectly fine before she got the cyst.

We don't know her proper age either as we adopted her but she's, we've had her a year so she must be between 3 - 5 years old.

No she's not got any mites or fungal problems.

We'll probably be taking her back to the vets anyway just to be on the safe side but I need to figure out which vet first. I just wondered if it was normal for fur to come out in regards to cysts.
 
:D Where on the body is the cyst? With ovarian cysts, the fur on both flanks will fall out, but will grow back after the cysts have been removed. With cysts on the skin, the fur just gets pushed aside but does not fall out.
 
Oh really?! The cyst is on her side! I hope she doesn't have ovarian cysts! We think we lost our last sow to that because the rescue we adopted her from never took her to the vets when they saw she was bloated and when we took her the vet didn't take it at all serious!

When she got the cyst on her side her fur did fall out, which is what alerted us to the cyst, but then her fur grew back once the cyst was popped at the vets or whatever they do to them.. then it started to fall out again.. I can't even book her into the vet I wanted to take her to now because the person taking her has hurt his back... so she'll have to go to another vet *sigh*
 
Where is the cyst Kerrie? SI is on the ovaries? or located somewhere else? Ovarian cysts cause hair loss because of hormones I believe
 
Oh sorry @sport_billy it didn't notify me that you had post on here :(

The cyst is on her side Lee, that's where the fur has been falling out. She had it popped or whatever during the Summer when she went for a nail clip, my son pointed it out to the nurse who took her off and got it sorted, then her fur grew back, then we noticed it coming out again and I thought it was the cyst again as my son was told it would probably come back, he took her back to the vets and he said there was nothing in there (if that makes sense?) so he couldn't pop it but her fur has continued to fall out?
 
Any scaling, dandruff in the area? x
 
Gonna move this to H&I Kerrie, try and get some more opinions and ideas...
 
Hormonally caused hair loss is usually most a thinning of hair on the sides of the body. If it is not symmetric on both sides, then I would look for other causes of hair loss, including self barbering. A picture of the area would help.
 
Ok thanks @Wiebke will see if we can take a picture when we clean their cage out.

No it's just one side Wiebke, it's where she had a cyst, she has something there but like I said, when we took her back to have it checked the vet said there was nothing in the cyst.
 
A cyst on the skin is not an ovarian cyst- they are internal, although they can be palpated through the abdomen sometimes. A surface cyst is not going to cause hormonal hair loss. Is she able to reach the area to gnaw or excessively groom there? She could have some residual discomfort/numbness causing her to groom it or chew at it until she has hair loss. The only other thing I can think of is a skin issue that happens to be in the same area. Personally I've not seen hair loss from a cyst or abscess, but have seen it from fungal skin infection. The other thing that I wonder about since she did have it lanced is scar tissue, but that seems unlikely if this is an area that did have fur after the initial surgery.
 
I don't know if it was lanced, there is no lance scar so I've no idea what they did to burst the cyst the first time and as I keep saying, when she first got the cyst she DID lose fur, I never thought it was ovarian, I'm just curious as to why she's losing fur, plus I've just weighed her and she's lost weight as well.

@Wiebke I've taken pics, don't know if they are good enough but I my camera on both my tablet and phones are bit rubbish :/

The first and third photos are her turned on the opposite side just to show you both sides :) The second and fourth photos are of the side the hair loss is on.

WP_20151119_005.webp WP_20151119_002.webp WP_20151119_004.webp WP_20151119_001.webp
 
So after inspecting Cocoa a bit more we are beginning to think that she MAY have an ovarian cyst.

Her nipples look enlarged, she's lost weight, it looks like her fur is thinning on the other side as well, she looks normal otherwise, is eating fine, drinking and acting normal, although she has been trying to hump, but we thought she was just in season. Trying to find somewhere that can help as we're really struggling to get her to an exotics vet.
 
That looks rather like self-barbering or barbering to me and not like hormonal hair loss, which is really more forward around the tummy area. (Compare with the picture in this link: Guinea Lynx :: Ovarian Tumors)

Mystery weight loss is always difficult to investigate, as it can have so many reasons. A thorough check and a scan may help. :(
 
Ok thank you @Wiebke ! I really appreciate you trying to advise me :)

I've booked her in with a vet for Monday who has some knowledge of guinea's as I'm not able to get her in with an exotics vet sadly :(
 
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