# Clever old mouse!



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

So I have a mouse that is 34 months old. She is an old, dear thing, the first mouse I ever bred. Recently when I went to check on her, ants were attacking her and she was still alive! I got really upset, brought her inside the house for a little recuperation, but she was not doing well. I thought for sure I was going to lose her. I made her some KMR with powdered lab blocks, I figured it would be her last meal, she could have a treat before she passed on.

To my surprise, not only did she love the KMR, she finished the bowl in a couple days. And started looking healthier. So I kept feeding her. And she kept getting better. I think the lab blocks were too hard for her to bite, but when I put powered lab block in water and KMR to make a gruel, she was able to eat no problem.

So she continues to make progress, and is permanently living in my room, no matter what my parents say. Even though she had recovered, I know she only has a month or two left.

The only problem with her eating the gruel, as I'm sure any of you that have fed liquids to your mice before know, is that it gets everywhere! The bowl is nice and heavy, so she can't flip it over, but she walks through it, gets it all over her chest and muzzle. For a while it almost looked like she was losing the fur around her muzzle, because it was wet all the time.

And then it mysteriously cleared up. Today, putting a fresh pot of gruel in there for her, I saw why. She perches on the edge of the bowl like a bird, and then reaches her hand in there and licks it clean! No mess, no fuss!

What a clever old girl! She might be with me for a while yet!


----------



## besty74 (May 26, 2012)

the ants attacking her sounds like something from a horror film, but what an amazing recovery especially for someone so old, she sounds like a sweetheart.


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I use nice solid plastic caps for wet foods. They don't hold much, but it's enough for a day's feeding or so, and my meeces lick them clean, then pick them up and do crazy things with them. I often find very young meeces curled up in one of them or hiding under one, peeking out. I used to use milk bottle caps, but they just got chewed up as they are too soft.


----------



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's a great idea, I'll try that!

As for the ants, yeah it was bad. I cried. They were in her ears, had torn out tufts of fur... My mousery is outside in the shed, and no matter how much poison I lay down, there are always ants. I've lost litters to ants too. I have to be cautious with the poison too, that the mice don't get exposed, and my rats have free reign of the shelves when I'm in there, so I can't leave poison laying around either. I hate ants.


----------



## morning-star (Apr 9, 2011)

awww thats sweet bless her. she's a great old age!

As for ants, find the nests, if you can stab some holes in it (with a garden fork or something) pour ant powder on it, leave it 30 minutes and then pour a couple of kettles full of boiling water on the nest. it'll destroy most of the nest and force them to move. 
- be sure to ant powder around the whole out-side of the shed to stop them trying to find a home there, and put down loads of bait traps.


----------



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Unfortunately, the ant nests are under our house. There's no way for us to get there and attack them. Even if we could, we already have ants in our walls and everything. I have dogs as well, so I couldn't put poison outside the shed, for risk of poisoning my dogs. But the bait traps sound like a good idea, that way it's not open poison laying around, but should still kill them. I'll look into it, thanks!


----------

