One of my chins died..

And its my fault. My two chins, Eko and Tuco have to be seperated because they sometimes don't get along. They get along during playtime when I'm watching them but Tuco sometimes chases Eko around and a little fur slip occurs. The other day I had them loose in my room and they seemed to be getting along well. I went to the bathroom and when I came back there was a bunch of fur on the floor. I separated them and Eko just sat in the same spot and wouldn't move. You know somethings wrong when you can pat your chin and they don't try to run away from you and just sit there. I brought Eko to emergency vet (it was about 10pm) and they didn't deal with exotics. They did however give him some pain killer and antibiotics. I brought him home and put him in his cage and he didn't move all night. The next morning I had an appointment at a vet that deals with exotics. They vet said he was going to do an x-ray of him to make sure there were no broken bones. When he came back he said he's never had a chin lay on his back and just stay like that while taking the x-rays, they didn't need to hold him. The vet said no broken bones, but he thinks he's depressed and his core temperature was low because he hasn't been moving around much. He wanted to keep him for a few hours so they put him in an incubator and monitor him and give him some food and water because I don't think he ate or drank anything since his incident with Tuco. I got a phone call from the vet and he said Eko passed away, and he's not sure what happened for him to die so suddenly.

I know I shouldn't have a favorite chin but Eko was mine. My chins are given plenty of play time so I don't think that is what caused his depression. I live in a basement and have a hole in the wall of my room that leads to another large wooden cage and a tunnel from that goes up to ceiling then straight for about 10 feet, then to a y intersection to two more small wood cages mounted from the ceiling. Eko would always greet me in the morning and follow me by going through the tunnels if I had let him out of his cage. Of course me giving him a treat helped him to do that as well. I'm going to miss seeing him waiting there for me every morning and following me around.

Tuco was more of an alpha and I felt like Eko knew I was his protector, because he would run behind me during playtime if Tuco started chasing him. I wasn't there for him this time.

Someone told me I should try to form a closer bond with Tuco, since now I'm essentially his other chin buddy. But I can't shake this feeling of being mad and feeling resentment at him for what he did to Eko, even though I know its his animal nature to do what he did. Its like I want to change his name and forget there ever was an Eko and Tuco, like pretend he is a totally different chin all together.

I'm wrote this because it feels good to just let out how I'm feeling. Thanks for reading and
R.I.P. Eko