Has he been bitten?

[nessar]

Noticed this on Barney's nose this morning. You can't see it on the pics but there is another thing nearer to his mouth that looks the same but just a single dot not two.

To my untrained eye, it looks like Annabella has bitten him, the skin is unbroken on the lower mark you can see but there is a pinprick-like cut on the upper one. I don't understand why she would, though.

Any ideas as to what it is?

 

[Hele]

Do they have any levels? Could he have jumped off something and messed up his landing effectively face planting?

Other than that it does look a little like a nip, which I wouldn't be worried about as it would be really easy to damage his skin there so there may not have been much force behind it at all.

Or could he have been trying to get his nose somewhere he shouldn't? Into a treat tub perhaps?

 

[nessar]

Yes, actually I put their box back in their run yesterday, so it is possible he fell whilst jumping off. He is really clumsy but also very good at twisting as he falls so he lands on his feet or side.

It's just with them so close together it makes me think it's a bite.

He's no eating his pellets :? he'll eat his profibre ones but not the VetCare Digestive ones. He doesn't like them overly anyway but he's flat out refusing to eat them today :? He is eating greens fine and with relish and poos look fine so must have been eating hay. Have tried to check his front teeth and I can't see much but he hasn't knocked them out or anything. Bit worried...

 

[Tamsin]

It's tough to say injury or nip. I take it they haven't been behaving any different towards each other?

 

[nessar]

It's tough to say injury or nip. I take it they haven't been behaving any different towards each other?

No, they've been fine, I've been watching them free-range a lot today and yesterday and they haven't had any problems.

They have had issues in the past, but it was chasing, fur pulling and a few nips to the bottom from Annabella, no injuries - once she was an adult she wanted to be dominant but wasn't and Barney wouldn't back down. It would manifest as her camping out in an area and getting territorial over it - I had to partially split and rebond 1-1.5 years ago. Barney has been rather ill (various probs but main is gut problems resulting in a lot of weightloss), and everytime he took a serious down-turn we'd have a bit of chasing and grunting from Annabella, pushing her luck. However, as of about 2 months ago, Barney has started grooming Annabella, whereas before they would just spend their time asking each other to groom them and refusing, which showed their power struggle. But now he is grooming her quite often and also seems less pushy about food, so I think she is now dominant, so I don't know why she would have bitten his nose :?

 

[Tamsin]

It might just have been an accident, perhaps she went for something he had in his mouth and missed. It would be an odd odd spot for a fight wound, as they don't usually fight nose to nose. Plus you'd have expected to see signs in their behaviour or even just fluff around. Or it could well be an injury from something else entirely. It's probably one of those puzzles you won't solve, but hopefully it's a one off

 

[nessar]

It might just have been an accident, perhaps she went for something he had in his mouth and missed. It would be an odd odd spot for a fight wound, as they don't usually fight nose to nose. Plus you'd have expected to see signs in their behaviour or even just fluff around. Or it could well be an injury from something else entirely. It's probably one of those puzzles you won't solve, but hopefully it's a one off

Hopefully, yes. He's definitely feeling rather sorry for himself - I had him in for a couple of hours, trying to get him to eat his pellets. He constantly wanted cuddles and kept snuggling into me, which is typical behaviour of his when he is really under the weather. He also refused his metaclopramide, which is really unusual, as I syringe it mixed with apple juice and he thinks it is a treat. Had to disguise it in bread to get it into him. He is eating hay and veggies fine, and I got him to eat two thirds of his pellets, so I'm not worried about his teeth, but I wish he could talk and tell me what's wrong.