Hello!

My brother has two hamsters (both male). One of them has developped a strange illness - loss of fur and strange skin around arms. It appeared two weeks ago and has been progressing (going deeper) since. Hamster is licking and scratching the arms more frequently.

Can't be mites because in this case the other hamster would have caught them too and why only arms then?

Can not be alergy because nothing has changed during last few weeks except that we separated both hamsters as they were fighting a lot lately and after this one had some blood on the nose we decided to separate them forever. Plus the other one (same age but a bit bigger) was dominating and collecting the best of food.

Vet is not an option. Either we resolve this or else. We are from Latvia, very poor economy here and thus we do not have vets that specialize in small rodents - no vet we called offered any help. They all specialize in cats and dogs mainly.

Here are the pics - caught in a glass because could not photograph otherwise. Take a look at the arms. Please help with advice if you can. Thanks!