Have not been here in forever...

[Marie5656]

...for various reasons, mainly work related. I still have Trixie, she is 8 1/2 now. Mainly been doing pretty well. Past few weeks I have been noticing some different behavior.
There have been no changes in her diet. Still feeding Oxbow, giving her hay cubes and loose hay. Using Blue Cloud dust.
But of late, she is barely eating at all. Will go to her food, take a bite or two, if at all, and leave. Past few days has been going between her wooden house, lower level, and her slumber bag, top level. Little or no running. I noticed a slight rasp to her breath this evening when I took her out. BTW..past few days has not wanted to go out at all for play or bath. In the past if she has gotten stubborn about at least coming out for bath, I would throw some sand into her carrier, to get her into it to go to her play/bath area. Tonight it did not work. I actually reached in and got her. She LET me pick her up and carry her by hand. Which she has not done since she was young.
In know she is not really considered old yet, and I guess it is time to start researching aging and stuff, for knowledge sake. But what do you think?
The only change is environmental, sort of. My husband changed the positioning of her cage so she would get better air flow when the AC was on. Is there a chance she is getting too much air on her? A lot has been changing since he moved her cage.

 

[mknoblich1]

If her breathing is raspy you need to take her to the vet ASAP. Moving the cage probably put her in a drafty area and caused her to get a resperatory infection or pneumonia. Chins don't benefit at all from having air blown on them as they don't sweat so they don't cool off like humans. If this has been going on for a few days now she may be very ill. Huge red flag if she won't bath and even bigger red flag if she allows you to pick her up with no struggle if she typically doesn't let you do this. I would take her to the vet immediately. Assuming your vet is closed because its Sunday night, take her to the emergency vet. I hope I'm wrong about what I think the issue may be and am just over reacting. Please keep us updated as to what you decide to do.

 

[Zoaea]

Small rodents hide infection really well until they are on deaths door, this sudden change in attitude would be too fast for age issues. The raspy breathing is a huge red flag along with disinterest in dust, play and lack of feistiness (lethargy), bring her in asap, small rodents can die within 24 hours sometimes of the owner noticing infection. So many times I've brought in a small animal pet only for them to die before the antibiotic can even help, every hour counts. =(

 

[Cuddlebug]

Moving her into the area where the AC blows can cause a respiratory infection. I know, it happened to one of mine when I did not pay attention to where the vent was and put his cage right under it. I lost him. You girl's behavior is identical to his when I first realized that something was wrong. Respiratory infections can go downhill very fast. Get her in ASAP. Even with getting her treatment, there is a good chance she will not make it.

 

[mknoblich1]

How is Trixie?

 

[Marie5656]

Well, sadly, Trixie left us on Wednesday afternoon. I will be writing a proper memorial for her in the memorial section here. :cry4: It was definatly a resp. problem. My husband is very saddened as he felt he was at fault for moving her cage and putting her in a bigger draft. I have assured him not to beat himself up over it.

 

[Jenn]

I am so sorry for your loss.