# Ill mouse, contagious fur loss, head tilt and sneezing...



## Wilko (Nov 6, 2010)

I have a group of 3 older female mice which I got from a friend. They came to me as adults November last year.
I had a couple of litters out of them, but after moving back in with my parents I stopped breeding. I noticed a patch of missing fur in Missy (a Champagne Tan and the most dominant of the bunch), but wasn't worried as she'd had a patch missing before in the same place, I had kept an eye on it and the fur grew back - which also happened when I had them on the same substrate as now.

But after cleaning all my mice out today, Missy has gotten a lot worse. She's sneezing or chuffing quite a lot, almost constantly, is missing more fur, her skin looks gaunt around her forelegs and shoulders but her belly is large and fat (she definitely isn't pregnant, hasn't been anywhere near a male and her 2 cage mates are definitely female), and has a head tilt (the eye on the side that her head is tilted is also semi closed). All in all, she looks like she's going down hill fast, and her cage mates are also missing some fur. I can't see any mites on any of them and haven't seen any scratching or overgrooming. She's still active as well, running around with her head on one side >.<

I keep all of my mice of Megazorb, which is horsebedding. The bag I've been using for the past month is fairly dusty, so I'm wondering if the hair loss is just a reaction to the bedding dust. I'm worried if whatever Missy has is contagious - luckily I always clean out my younger females (who currently have a surprise litter in there at the moment as well) so it would only be my males that have potentially been exposed to whatever Missy has, from picking it up from the box I put my mice in when cleaning them out. I clean it out after I've cleaned out all my mice, but thought I was illness free so never bothered cleaning between cages as it were.
Can anyone help? I will obviously try and organise taking her to the vets but it's the beginning of the weekend so it's going to have to wait til Monday


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

She sounds like a normal geriatric mouse to me,coming to the end of the road.I'd treat the skin for fungal infection as mice with poor immune systems are much more prone but apart from that I wouldn't expect much improvement in old mice however much you try.I think if you've scheduled a trip to the vet and provided a clean environment and good food then you've done the best you can.


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## Wilko (Nov 6, 2010)

SarahC said:


> She sounds like a normal geriatric mouse to me,coming to the end of the road.I'd treat the skin for fungal infection as mice with poor immune systems are much more prone but apart from that I wouldn't expect much improvement in old mice however much you try.I think if you've scheduled a trip to the vet and provided a clean environment and good food then you've done the best you can.


I'm wondering if it's kinder just to put her to sleep? She's not the same mouse that she used to be and I'm trying to sell my mice anyway as my mum is allergic to them. I'd rather she didn't suffer as I had a soft spot for the bossy lil' thing


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

sounds like it could be the right choice.Even with medical help her demise is likely to continue.It's a personal thing.I try to have my animals put to sleep just at that point where they have started to decline but suffering hasn't set in.Sometimes I've left it a bit long,especially with younger animals.My last dog I had pts I left to long because she was young.I could tell by the vets face that I should have gone sooner  It's a kindness to let them go.


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## Wilko (Nov 6, 2010)

SarahC said:


> sounds like it could be the right choice.Even with medical help her demise is likely to continue.It's a personal thing.I try to have my animals put to sleep just at that point where they have started to decline but suffering hasn't set in.Sometimes I've left it a bit long,especially with younger animals.My last dog I had pts I left to long because she was young.I could tell by the vets face that I should have gone sooner  It's a kindness to let them go.


It is a fine line to tread  I had an older fawn longhaired with a tumour on her leg and left her for a good couple of months as she was still fairly mobile and had a good quality of life. But eventually the lump was so big that she could barely move her leg, so I decided enough was enough  It's never nice but its a part of being responsible for our pets.
I'll probably get her to the vets and have it done properly, and have the other two checked over as well just in case.


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