# mouse sneezing or just squeaking?



## Maze

One of my mice has started to make a funny squeaking noise constatly I'm a bit worried cause it looks like hes sneezing but Im not sure what that looks like in mice, If it is what do i do? :shock:


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## ian

He's probably is sneezing, dont worry too much though its really common and sometimes these things just come and go and dont affect the health of the mice involved-it depends on the virus/bacteria which is causing the illness. 
I've been doing a bit of reading up about sneezing lately and this is what I've found but it might not all be 100% accurate as lots of different sources say different things! 
Even after the mouse has stopped sneezing it can still pass the virus onto other mice but I've read that nearly all mice carry the virus anyway. The virus only results in signs of illness such as sneezing when the number of pathogens becomes too much for the mouses immune sytem to fight off, this can be either when the mouses living conditions are not clean enough so the virus is in the bedding and allowed to build up (also ammonia from the urine is bad for the resp tract) or when the mouses immune sytem is weakend through stress or something. 
I would probably avoid breeding from a mouse which is actively ill and sneezing but whether you breed form them again once they have stopped is a personal decision. Until recently I have been culling any mouse that shows signs of respiritory infection but I've realised it was a fairly futile attempt to keep the virus out of my stud especially as I am showing and getting new stock from time to time and theres no way to keep your mice 100% safe. You could keep the mouse in isoation for its whole life and one day it could start sneezing because it would have picked up the virus from its mother and carrying it all its life.


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## Maze

okay thank you! I was really worried 
I just cleaned his cage out thurally to make sure I cleaned the virus away Or at least I hope so.
and I put a little vaporrub on the inside of the lid as I read in another thread about sneezing. Hes calmed down now not sneezing so much so hopefully that helped . 
I'll just keep an eye on him for now.
Thanks a lot.

and @ daisy, just to let you know he's the stone coloured one I got from you incase you wanted to keep an eye on any from the litter. The other is fine though so hopefully nothing serious  I hope not anyways cause I love them! lol


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## ian

Yes the vaporub stuff might help, I haven't tried it but I have read that it has worked for others. Keep him really clean and make sure the urine doesn't build up as that will irritate his resp problems more. Once he has started to sneeze he might never stop but it doesnt necessarily mean any other mice he is in will become ill, just keep an eye on keeping them clean again to reduce the pathogens hanging around.

If he is a new mouse it might have been the stress of the move or adjusting to a new environment, mice really can be quite delicate and the first thignt o be effected always seems to be the respiritory system.


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## daisy

hiya, 
none of his litter mates or parents have been like that, so it could be environmental or traveling like ian said. Alot of the time the stress of a journey (like on the train) can take their immune system down a little. But- it's also one of those things that can just happen, mice are pretty fragile little things after all. I do hope he clears up tho 

if it helps, i've had new mice from excellent breeders who once settled after the journey have been sneezing, only to clear up after a couple of days, so i usually try to stay calm! 

what are you bedding them on? I bed on aubiose and use mircrowaved hay, i swop to kitchen roll instead of hay for some irritations in the occasional mouse.

Daisy


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## Maze

Yes I use auboise too and also tissue paper. I used to use carefresh but it got to expensive and I'd heard a lot of good stuff about auboise so now I use that. Lots cheaper . I did a lot of research on the bedding and litter aspect as I knew this could cause problems and obviously didnt want that for them. 
Hopefully hes just having a bad day .
Thanks a lot for the reasurrance. I hope is it just that.


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## Maze

Do you know how long I should wait because it's been a few days now and he's still sneezing on and off. He doesnt seem that bad or anything I just wanted to know.


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## Maze

does any1 know of anything I could give him that might help as hes still sneezing and he was quite bad during the night I've changed his cage a few times recently but i dont know what else to do I'm quite worried about him  he isnt walking with a hunched back though i dont think so is this good?


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