red/brown skin blotches

[cherrysparkey]

I've just noticed one of my degus has got strange skin. His skin and fur looks healthy (not flakey) but has small red/brown blotches (they aren't scabby or bumpy), like small bruises/blood under the skin. Does anyone know if this is his normal skin pattern? I haven't had a proper look before so I'm not sure if its been there for a while.
Thanks

[deguconvert]

I would say this is not normal at all. I encourage you to have a vet look at him. That way you can rule out any type of pest infection at the very least, and possibly prevent an illness if it is a symptom of something else.

[cherrysparkey]

Going to take him to the vets this weekend, do you have any advice on how to make it less stressful for him (they haven't been to a vets before) I was going to take the other goo to get checked as well and keep him company. Other than that bring lots of oats? lol

[deguconvert]

LOL! It certainly can't hurt to have them on hand! I would also place some of your substrate into the travel cage, so that they bring the smell of home with them.

[cherrysparkey]

Hey, just thought I'd let you know that the vet just thinks its scars, definably not parasites. I felt so bad that I put Mo Mo through that, but he was okay, just a bit scared when they tried to pick him up (I think he just wanted to explore lol).

I think I'll be looking for a new vets though, she didn't know how to handle them, she tried picking them up by the scruff of his neck and didn't really know much about them

[deguconvert]

You could always direct them to some good information to help them learn a bit. ;D I was going to suggest she look here, but . . . we aren't a medical site so we probably wouldn't be of much interest to her.