Hurt paw and decreased appetite

Question
My rabbit Cooper is a 3 year old dwarf holland lop. Late last night while he was eating, mucus started to pour out of his nose, i quickly picked him up and held him pointing downward to help it drain. During this, one of his back nails got caught on something. It wasn't pulled out, it isn't broken, it barely bled, and he licked it clean afterward. I kept a close eye on him all night and he seemed fine. Today i noticed that he's favouring his paw and hasn't eaten many of his pellets or oats. He's drank a normal amount of water, has eaten his timothy hay, and ate the small piece of banana i gave him this morning . Other than his decreased consumption of pellets and his not wanting to move too much he seems okay, but I'm still worried about him. His bag of food was almost done so I've bought a new bag of feed and will start using that one to see if it makes a difference.
What else should i do?

Answer
Dear Nicole,

My primary concern would not be the broken nail.  That will heal, in time, though it is probably sore if it is broken below the nail bed, and a vet might wish to either stabilize it or just cut it off so that it can grow back.

But if Cooper suddenly started producing a lot of mucus, you saved his life with your quick actions:  he very likely had aspirated a bit of food, and his body responded with mucus production to help him choke up the aspirated item.

I would strongly urge you to get Cooper to a good rabbit vet ASAP:

www.rabbit.org/vets

who can do a full exam, especially auscultation of the lungs to see if there is any sign of obstruction or inflammation.  I hope he was able to cough up whatever he inhaled, but even a small amount of foreign matter can be a nidus for infection.  The vet might think it's a wise course of action to put him on antibiotics, prophylactically.

If his trachea is bruised from his ordeal, he might also be in pain, so ask about pain management to get him through the worst of this.

I hope he will be fine once he's under the care of a good rabbit vet.

Dana