# One very ill mouse....



## Runaway Mousery (Jul 5, 2012)

Yesterday morning I woke up to a new buck I had still in quarantine, just looking a bit off. Fur seemed a little sparse, a bit lethargic though not entirely inactive...seemed to be resting with his eyes open. I watched him for awhile and he seemed to be having some slight respiratory issues, one or two sneezes. I made a mental note to pick up some antibiotics for him. As soon as I could yesterday evening I picked up some tetracycline and dosed him and his waterbottle. He seemed a bit worse, somewhat dazed and I thought I saw a general lean to his gait once or twice but thought I had imagined it. He was eating and drinking fine.

He was far worse this morning, a very definite lean to one side which is I assumed at the time was possibly an ear infection. But He has continued to degrade with every hour today. At this time he is corkscrewing in the litter. It's gotten violent to the point where it almost seems like a neurological issue. I have done my best every hour and a half to offer him some water from a dropper...which is stressful for him, he's not a very socialized mouse. But I feel like it is all in vain...it's really bad.

Does anyone have any guess as to what I am dealing with here? Should I cull him?


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## Runaway Mousery (Jul 5, 2012)

Sadly, I have had to put this guy down. I can suspect that this may have been a stroke or a brain tumor because of how quickly he deteriorated.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

It could have been a bad infection. Sometimes it takes Baytril to combat something this strong, and sometimes it just cannot be helped. I am sorry that happened, poor guy!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Sorry I didn';t catch this post earlier. I have fond with head tilt that leads to circling, it halps to keep them in a dark confined space, as the light seems to set them off. I usually give them something cozy to hide under; polar fleece is good for that if it's the good quality stuff that packed nice and tight and closely shaved. Just that all by itself calms the mousie so it doesn't circle and circle, which exhausts the poor thing and makes it harder for it to recover. I give children's Benadryl, the liquid stuff (actually I use the cheap generic stuff) in the water starting with a healthy dose smeared on the muzzle and neck. They clean it off and it helps the head tilt or circling. Many of the mice I've treated this way still have a bit of a tilt for the rest of their lives, but if you want to save the thing, it's a start.

I'm kind of iffy on using antibiotics; I question the efficacy. Unless I do it in the first 12 hours after the symptoms starts, it rarely does any good. Yo have to be very confident about wrapping the mousie if you want to give anything by mouth, and that's the only way it's really safe, as they choke and aspirate things given orally quite easily, and that can kill. Of ousrsw, a vet can probably give an injection to jump start treatment, but transporting a sick mouse is stressful and can make things wore instead of better. I also keep mousies in the dark during transport, so they are confused by the changing light as we move down the road.


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## Runaway Mousery (Jul 5, 2012)

Thanks for the thoughts ladies.

I think that this guy was far beyond any help that could have been given, and got that way very quickly. When I say he looked slightly off yesterday morning, I mean very slight - if I had been in more of a hurry I quite possibly would not have even noticed anything was amiss. Even yesterday evening as I went to pick up tetracycline after work, I did so thinking that I was quite possibly just being paranoid. The head tilt and spinning today was to an extreme that was scary to watch...not running in circles, but rather barrel rolling at a high rate of speed. Even when picking him up he would spin to a point where I was afraid that if I held onto him to tightly he would break his own back. Terrible stuff.....I'm thankful that I am such a stickler about quaratining new animals, he was only one day shy of 3 weeks here on a 4 week quarantine.


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