# Mouse death.



## Fraction (Aug 29, 2011)

Really not having good luck with my mice at the moment. But today it wasn't my ill mouse that died; it was Mozart.

She was fine this morning, as well as earlier today wandering around. I looked over whilst moving some furniture around (like I do maybe once a month) and she was moving around just fine. I looked over again a couple of minutes later, and she wasn't moving and was sat on the top floor of the cage.

Strange. I got up and went to check on her.

She wasn't moving, and her sides looked like they were sucked in. She was still breathing. I scooped her up onto my hand and she only slightly moved her paws to make sure she didn't fall off.

I rang the vets, and they messed me around for five minutes asking me about her, as I haven't brought Mozart up before to them. In that time she was on my hand she was still breathing, but barely blinking and barely moving. When I put her down to grab my bag, I had blood and poop on my fingers from her bum/base of her tail. She didn't move off of her side in the box that I put her in until I scooped her back up.

She died on the way to the vet.

Whilst on the phone to the vet receptionist, I took a photo of Mozart, hoping she'd pull out of it and that I could figure out what happened. The vets didn't know exactly, they assumed a seizure or heart attack or something. Based on the blood and poo though I don't know; since her sister died of a tumor, I'm wondering if *maybe* she had a small tumor or something that burst inside? I don't know.

Photos linked so nobody *has* to see dying mouse pix.
http://i.imgur.com/IpZsOl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/61ckyl.jpg

I can assure that she was definitely alive in the photos, even though she sure as hell doesn't look it. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? This being the second mouse death in such a short time, and seemingly from an entirely different problem, it's a little worrying.


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

Looks like the terminal gasping they do on their way out - big big breaths, can be quite prolonged, generally the intercostal muscles work by themselves so the vacuum created in the thoracic cavity draws the abdominal organs upwards.

Could she have had a knock to the head or fallen from a height? If not that then I would guess at some sort of sudden event causing rapid death such as heart attack/bleed in the brain.


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## Fraction (Aug 29, 2011)

I can't see how she'd have had a knock to the head (she was on the top level of the cage, and I'd have heard if she'd dropped as I was less than 1m away), but a heart attack or something is possible. She definitely died quickly; I'm not even sure if she was conscious when the photo was taken, regardless of the open eyes, from how unresponsive she was.


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## Kallan (Aug 16, 2009)

The terminal gasping is what they do as they die - if you touched the eyes she wouldn't have blinked. She was probably away by that point. The gasping can continue for many minutes before stopping.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

poor girl sorry for your loss, at least you can take comfut in the fact she went quickley.


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## thewesterngate (May 22, 2012)

I'm very sorry, I recently had my favorite rat (a big fellow) die suddenly from what I assume was a stroke. Not as blessedly fast as your girl, but still quick. Poor things don't live long enough.


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