Herp Nerd
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Vinson Massif, Antarctica
Posts: 1,115
Seasonal shedding, or even just with a temperature change in your home, is normal. It can kind of give them a rough-looking appearance, or even a distinct line across their back where you can tell the fur is obviously different lengths and scruffy, but it does not generally create bald patches where you can see skin. If the skin was red or irritated, my first thought would have been parasites, and skin scrapings from a couple different areas should be able to rule that out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, hair loss by itself is a pretty vague symptom, it could be something dietary, or an allergy, or something irritating in his enclosure, even simply boredom - if you notice him pulling the fur out himself, but it can also be an indicator of very serious issues, like kidney or liver failure. If you can't figure something within his home environment that could be causing it, you might want to consider a round of blood tests at your vet. They should be able to check kidney and liver function, check white cell count, and other basic indicators of health without a lot of specific knowledge about prairie dogs... or they could call another vet for a consultation. With my array of critters, my vet is always calling around the country to get information for me when they don't have it themselves.
She sits in her corner, singing herself to sleep.
Wrapped in all of the promises, that no one seems to keep.