# Mouse with very prominant sores, help please!



## Abwettar (Oct 28, 2013)

A couple of weeks ago I got some mice for an assignment I'm doing at college. I have eight, 6 females and 2 males. Originally the two males were housed together in a plastic hamster cage, but overnight I noticed one of them suddenly had some small scabs on his back end. At first I just assumed they had been fighting and so separated them out. The one with the scabs I left in the original cage and removed the healthy one.

The night that I did this though, the scabby mouse was acting really strange, running around in the cage like crazy and headbutting the sides and just looking really stressed out in general. At this point I moved him into another cage I had, a wire hamster cage. He seemed much less stressed right away so I left it at that.

After a couple of days though I noticed his sores weren't going away, but getting bigger. I've looked on a few mouse forums and my thoughts now are that he might have an allergy to food (he's on hamster food). I have ordered some lab blocks from online but I have to wait for them to arrive.

Today I also went and bought some Johnson's Teat Tree Cream for Small Animals in the hope that this will help. However when I went to put some on I realised his sores look really really bad! It just looks like a huge chunk of his skin is missing like he's been chewing it off or something! It's really horrible to see and I'm so worried about him, but I can't get him to the vets easily so any help would be so much appreciated! Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

I don't know if he could be unhappy because he's on his own now? Should I try to reintroduce him to his brother or leave him on his own? I don't know if mice self mutilate or not but it does kind of look like that


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## pro-petz (Nov 14, 2012)

Firstly your bucks will no longer be able to be re introduced in the future as one or both have reached sexual maturity and it does seem to ba apparent that fighting has started between them, had you kept them together at least one would have been killed.

The open wound will of course be of major concern, as it heals it will like with us humans feel itchy at times for which the mice will do anything from scratch to biting to alleviate the problem.

A antiseptic cream used for baby nappy rash is a good way of helping to alleviate that annoying itch and also help with killing any possible infection. apply using a q-tip as will a saline solution prior to putting on the cream. The wound will heal in time and regain full health providing no secondary infection occurs, however the area that the skin is missing depending on its size may remain a bald batch but would not prevent the buck from mating.


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## Abwettar (Oct 28, 2013)

pro-petz said:


> Firstly your bucks will no longer be able to be re introduced in the future as one or both have reached sexual maturity and it does seem to ba apparent that fighting has started between them, had you kept them together at least one would have been killed.
> 
> The open wound will of course be of major concern, as it heals it will like with us humans feel itchy at times for which the mice will do anything from scratch to biting to alleviate the problem.
> 
> A antiseptic cream used for baby nappy rash is a good way of helping to alleviate that annoying itch and also help with killing any possible infection. apply using a q-tip as will a saline solution prior to putting on the cream. The wound will heal in time and regain full health providing no secondary infection occurs, however the area that the skin is missing depending on its size may remain a bald batch but would not prevent the buck from mating.


Thanks very much for this! I did find another post similar to mine, and the person said that they sorted out their mouse with nappy cream, so I've switched to using that and it does already seem much better! It's drying up around the edges quite nicely, although it does seem quite sore when I apply the cream as my mouse squeaks a little when I do.

And I have realised that I can't reintroduce them, but he does still seem quite lonely. I don't suppose there's a cure for a lonely mouse out there haha, I don't think my parents would be best pleased if I gave him a girlfriend unfortunately!

What is a saline solution though? I keep reading that but not 100% sure what it is? And a q-tip...?

And I've also switched his sawdust to ripped up paper towels as I read that sawdust can be quite irritable to the wounds, so fingers crossed he keeps getting better!


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## visitor (Jan 8, 2011)

Saline is a solution of salt and water.
A Q-tip is a cotton bud


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## pro-petz (Nov 14, 2012)

Saline solution is 1 teaspoon of salt per pint of warm water.
Q=tip is cotton wool usually also used for babies has small amount on each end of a thin plastic tube.

Meadow saline solution is correct but find a quicker heal rate using nappy cream (Sudocrem if in UK) as tends to help with both the infection and the irritation. Saline solution although as some beneficial healing properties is mainly used to clean a wound initially. The nappy cream also acts a barrier.

Although the mouse may feel some pain causing it to squeak when applying the cream so would you if it is a wound that is also very tender. Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline) could also be used as a barrier but from my experience does not have the same healing properties as the nappy cream.


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## Abwettar (Oct 28, 2013)

Ahhh that makes sense  Thankyou again, I am indeed using Sudocrem on him at the current time


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