SHORT FORM: In summary, woke up to find Zoey in Ellis' habitat. Put Zoey back in her own habitat, then Ellis crawled out of her burrow with this patch of fur missing from her nose. It isn't bleeding but when I first looked at it, it looks like it did initially for a bit but then stopped? I say this because in this patch is flesh coloured but saw like, very tiny bits of blood but it wasn't flowing. She's still eating and moving around though. She seems rattled but otherwise okay.
By the looks of this, does this warrant a vet visit and/or ointment?
LONG FORM: when I first adopted these two I was kll-informed about hamsters. The petsmart employee RECCOMENDED I get two Robo hamsters because "they get lonely" and that the 2-lvl krittertrail was big enough to house both of them
A week later no issues but I learned that this is gravely bad so I bought a big bin, filled it, attached it to the krittertrail. Sometimes they'd squabble with Zoey always winning but nothing would happen. Then another couple weeks later I found Ellis chasing Zoey around the cage and it was definitely fighting, so I separated them. Now they have their own separate bins.
The lids to their bins have big holes at the top for air. Usually the bins were next to each other but I decided since they can still see each other that it could stress them out so I separated the bins. Last night my dad came over so just for the night I pushed their bins next to each other. Throughout most of the night I'd head Zoeys wheel but not Ellis'. Then later only heard Ellis' wheel. So Zoey couldn't have been in Ellis enclosure for more than a few hours.
I really cant say whether or not this warrants a vet visit but better safe than sorry, and it would really be best to go just in case. its probably painful for Ellis and at the very least I'm sure there's an ointment your vet can give that will make it less painful, heal faster, and prevent infection. I don't know this as a fact, but I doubt there's nothing they can give to help.
while its great that you initially separated them when you realized they were fighting (I had the same situation with my 1st pair of robos) I would suggest getting wire mesh and making their cages into proper bin cages to prevent anything like this happening again. there are youtube videos and instructions on this forum about how to do it.
Fortunately, after I submitted this post I was able to find a Vet I could email.
Their technician looked at what I sent them and said it's safe to monitor but to look out for any inflammatory/swelling/bleeding/red/etc etc. Fortunately, both hamsters seem to be doing okay and after checking their burrows I didn't see any blood or skin anywhere.
Ellis' fur has actually grown back very quickly. A bit of a scar is still there, but she's definitely physically very well. And she was emotionally quite shaken up, but it looks like we're on the right track