This type of post totally sucks and I can't believe I have to post it....
Yesterday I was cleaning the cages and I had taken the water bottle off TBone's cage to wash it. I came back and he was chewing the wire spring thing that holds the bottle on. I tried to remove it from his mouth and now in retrospect maybe that is the beginning of the problem. I kind of jiggled it slightly and he let go....but then I looked at his nose (cause it was poking out of the cage) and I saw a tiny bit of blood coming out. I grabbed him and grabbed a kleenex and dabbed his nose and the slightest amount came out....and that was it. I heard him breathe once and it sounded like there might have been a bit more in there, but after that I could hear him breathing normally.
I cleaned his cage out and set him in the play area but he was not himself. He sat in this pile of shavings the whole 45 minutes, eating the shavings (totally strange for him). When I put him back, he went into his house and stayed there for the rest of the night (again, completely unlike him). This morning I went to check on him and he's still in his house but I can see I don't think he left it all night. There are no poops at all on the bottom of the cage and no pee spots. His food and hay and water are untouched. The full water bottle is not unusual, he's never drank much water before, but the hay is his favourite thing to tear apart.
He is sleeping now and he will be sleeping for at least another 7 hours (he is such a sleeper - there is no waking him during the day). There is no way I can do a further assessment of him until this evening....
Does this sound really bad? Should I be taking him to a vet right now? Should I wait until this evening and see if he's back to normal? I do have an emergency vet I could go to, but I doubt he really knows any more about chinchillas than I do. I saw him once before and he was very nice, but it was a waste of time and money and unnecessarily aggravated my chinchilla for nothing. I don't want to do that again. It's not the money issue, it's more that even if something IS wrong, I doubt he would know how to fix it.
It sure sucks to be in a city of 700,000 people and not have one decent chinchilla vet.
anyhow please help. If you have suggestions for some kind of supplement I should be feeding him, please give me some advice about how to feed a chinchilla that refuses to eat anything except pellets and raisins too....this guy is the pickiest eater in the world. And it needs to be something I can buy that isn't a specialty item....again, this city isn't a chinchilla-friendly city.
thank you.