Internet diagnosis please!

[tcraighenry]

So here's what Vincenza is doing:

- She seems a little more subdued than normal. She's not bouncing as much, though when she does move around her cage she does it energetically.

- She's been making a teeth grinding/clicking sound. I've heard her do it before.

- She's been peeping a bit but not consistently

- She's making her contact sound a lot. (Over the last week)

- But I think she's been sneezing but only in the kind of dust bath way.

- No discharge

There are a couple things going on, in mid September my schedule changed and I'm now gone 2 days out of 5 and study a couple of them as well. We also had to go out of town for a couple weeks at the beginning of November for an emergency. AND my husband and I have had a cold since oh, November 12th so they haven't been out for play time in about a month.

So I'm worried it might be a URI due to the perpetual cold we've had. (It's a nasty one.) But we don't want to take her to the emergency vet just yet because we definitely have colds and handling her right now seems like a bad plan. I'm kicking myself because I thought I was well last night and played with them for ages due to the neediness above.

What would chins and hedgies do? Sometimes I wish they'd just be like 'hey I'm sick' like other mammals higher on the food chain! Could the contact sound be 'hey I'm sick?'

Right now she's just staring at me :O

Edit: We do have a theory about the sounds if they're not sickness related. When she makes them I run over to the cage to see what's wrong. She might have me trained.

 

[lauralynne]

Is her food/water intake within her normal range? Still pooping and peeing normally?

 

[tcraighenry]

Oh yeah, she's perfectly fine in that regard. We think she's really trying to get me to come see her. Which is sad, because I can't

The rest of the night she was perfectly normal, if a little subdued

 

[lauralynne]

To me it doesn't sound medical.. I'd keep an eye on her and if you're seeing lethargy, wheezing, etc. you need to seek immediate care. And, just remember, that your gut is often right. If you feel something is "off", monitor closely and seek treatment.

 

[tcraighenry]

We have a feeling she might be manipulating us. She's done this a few times, usually after I've been sick. And of course if she starts displaying any slightly odd behavior we run over to check on her....