Normal to go bald when shedding?

[bmt87]

First – sorry I haven’t been around in the last month or so.  I am so utterly swamped with my thesis that I do absolutely nothing but go to work and then come home and sit at my computer and analyze data for hours on end.  On the plus side, the stress has caused me to lose 15 lbs!  Winning?  I guess?

Anyways – Lola question.  So – as many of you know – Lola had a bout with stasis in November and I realllly thought it was caused by her shedding.  Well, she doesn’t have stasis right now but is STILL shedding and worse.  She legitimately has not stopped shedding since about September at this point.  I am seriously removing handfulls of hair daily…and no, I am not pulling it out.  It’s the little “tufts” of fur that are already loose and just come out when I brush her.  My boyfriend was accusing my of pulling out her fur because he couldn’t believe that much was coming out on its own…but I swear it is.  I was just petting her on the couch and now need to change my tshirt before I go to bed because there is fur ALL over it that a lint roller can’t even help. 

My question is – is balding a normal shedding pattern?  I am freaking out a little.  It’s actually worse than what the pictures look like because I couldn’t hold her down and take a picture in the good light BUT it really is in a pattern from her bum all the way up her side…and I know there is A LOT more fur still to go because she has that bum-skirt of loose fur that I just can’t bring to yank out because she HATES being brushed and 30 minutes is the brushing limit.  There’s also a big bald spot right ok her backbone. Is this normal?  She does seem to be growing tiny little hairs back when the other day it was just completely bald.  

She’s been having strings of “pearl necklace” poop every so often but I’m brushing her everyday and it really seems to help.  She’s also drinking about 5x more water than usual and I’m giving her a ton of hay.  She’s probably going through that 2x faster than usual.

I’ve considered mites – but I don’t think that’s it.  It’s not red or inflamed or scabby….

Help!  I’m considering a vet trip because it’s so alarming to see bald bun skin but trying not to just waste money because the whole grad school thing already has us in a money pinch…

Bald spot on her side.

Bald line on her side – this actually extends back to her bum where there is a larger bald spot that is the size of about 3 quarters. I couldn’t hold her down and get a good picture of it at the same time.  You can see some of the fur tufts and the butt skirt I am talking about of shedding fur.

“All I do is groom.  Groom, groom, groom.  I also have started grooming my humans. And the couch. It’s all I do. I’m obsessed.”

“I’m not amused by this hooman.”

[bmt87]

……Buelller….anyone?

[Sarita]

Well there can be some weird shedding patterns and it can appear to look bald. The “skirt” is very normal so it definitely sounds like shedding. I think if it’s just a bald looking spot, it is most likely just a shedding pattern.

[Bunbun500]

bmt –

I was about to post about the exact same issue. My holland lop is going through a terrible shed right now; he also has the ‘skirt’ (my fiance and I dubbed it his racing stripes before we knew what everyone else called it lol) and has some bald spots too. His skirt has been expanding lower and lower over the past few weeks and the bald spots have stayed the same.

[MimzMum]

What kind of comb are you using? I find that with both the hairbuster (which is a great comb) or the furminator I just tend to brush too much. Even if I go light. It’s not something I intend it just seems to take quite a bit of hair off and sometimes I don’t see skin until it’s too late.
On the hairbuster I just take out the rubber piece…it pulls too much fur. The comb works fine without it, you just have to brush more often.
The only other thing I would think is, either your home’s ambient temperature is too warm for her, or perhaps it could even be a nutritional problem.
If she is grooming herself excessively, perhaps a nervous condition?
It’s always alarming to see hair loss in an animal because of course the first thing you think is parasites. I have taken my buns in several times and the vets never saw bugs on them..however I used a course of revolution over the summer that I repeated every month and it really helped with their bald patches. So something must’ve been there that we couldn’t see.
Now that it’s winter and the house is really dry, the shedding just doesn’t seem to stop. How well is she drinking?
I really hope something can be sorted for Lola. ((((((hugs))))) It must be very worrying.

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns are shedding really weird this winter too. Bindi completely blew his coat before Christmas and then it all grew back and he’s shedding again now. Olivia has been shedding bald patches all winter. It’s super cold, you’d think they would want to keep their fur!

[Brittany018]

I was just about to ask the same with Dulce. He’s been majorly shedding nonstop since about November. I have to wipe excess fur out of his cage every morning because it clings to everything. He usually doesn’t shed this bad either but we’ve had a colder then normal winter as well.

[bmt87]

I’m glad to see there are a few ppl going through the same thing right now. We are just DROWNING in hair.

MimzMum – The Furminator didn’t really work for Lola (required too much sitting still and patience for a rabbit that dreads the brush) but we do use the Hairbuster and what you’ve said is kinda what I’ve been wondering. It takes off A LOT of hair and even though I’m not pulling I wonder if it is actually pulling out the hair. I always look and there isn’t any skin attached to the end of hair and most of it does look like the fluffy dead fur….but still.

I’ve considered the nutritional thing – but believe me – she eats better than any other living creature I know and is strictly on the HRS recommended diet with fresh, organic veggies that are mixed up weekly. So unless she has some random deficiency that I don’t know of – which is possible, I guess….can they check for anemia in rabbits? Ha.

She is drinking a lot. She has never been an excessive drinker and I bet if i left her 1L water bottle out it would take her weeks to go through but right now she is going through about 1 a week. So not a lot for most rabbits…but a lot for her. I wish she would drink more but I am thankful it’s enough for now to keep things moving digestively.

It’s weird other buns are experiencing the same thing this year – we live in SoCal so I don’t think it’s a weather thing since it’s rarely ever below 55 degrees here. Maybe they all got some sort of bunny memo we missed?

[MimzMum]

I begin to wonder that too…my three have been in a state of perpetual shed for the last year easy, if not longer. And I can’t isolate a cause.
I do think the hairbuster may work a little TOO well. I usually can get by with taking off the excess floof once every other day, but if I try to do a full body groom the buns just keep getting thinner and thinner fur and then big old patches will come off. No ripped skin, but there’s far too much pink skin where there should be velvet or new growth if it really needed to come off.
That being said, it’s a great comb and I have several here for each of my pets. But it should come with a warning label or something.

[Velvet]

Rabbits don’t shed the MOLT!

 

 http://www.verlannahill.com/molting.htm

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