# Strange disease



## Lyra (Mar 1, 2013)

I have been struggling with sick mice for over 2 months now... I'm so tired... 

A doe passed away after giving birth, the cause was a disease that I'm still fighting with. So, from the beginning:

The symptoms are like in a URI, the mice are weak and snuffly, they chatter and their fur is looking wrong too. At first, they've had diarrhea as well. A friend who had mice from the same source got their droppings tested, and there were found some kind of Protozoa, so the vet prescribed Metronidazolum for mice - they were treated for 5-7 days (not sure if mine got the right dose, as they didn't drink as much as they did normally without the drug in the water bottles, although there was sugar added to make it less bitter), and some of them died. Those that didn't, didn't get better... One of sick mice got a rectal prolapse during first days of treatment (but still lives!). After that, they've got Fenbendazole, but suggested 4 days of treatment didn't change anything at all. Then was Enrofloxacinum, after first 4 days they stopped sneezing and chattering, although their fur and overall condition still wasn't good. Then, during the 7th day of treatment, they stopped getting any better and started the chattering again...

My vet for some reason doesn't want to take droppings from me for testing. Should I persist?
It isn't airborne, as the when I isolated sick mice into separate cages, none of the others got sick while being in the same room. Mice with disease had contact with others (I know, I did the most stupid thing and ignored quarantine because those mice were from a great breeder...  ), but only one other (distantly related) got sick. There are 2 sick mice left, BUT...

I did foster the litter I've got from the doe I mentioned before. Now, I know it was foolish of me... They were just born, didn't get her milk and I took them from her around half an hour after they were born so I hope they would get milk from healthy doe (not related at all), and be healthy themselves. Well, they're not... Nor is the doe's original daughter, nor is the nanny. Foster mum looks great, though.

When the pups were 2 weeks old, they started to sneeze a little. I hope that would pass, but it didn't - now they are over 5 weeks old and they sneeze a lot. They look fine otherwise, their fur is shiny and all, they don't chatter, they just sneeze ALL THE TIME. I would think it was an allergy, but their foster sister started sneezing at the same time. The worst part is that their nanny started to sneeze around a week ago... And she chattered a little today... And I've found out someone in that cage is eating whiskers now as well - I do have a problem with few does that like to chew on whiskers, but they are not related and were never in the same cage as those.

Or maybe all those symptoms are not the same disease?

Sorry for this long post, but I hope that maybe someone knows what could help me? I'm so tired of this situation, and I have no idea what to do next... Should I cull them all? I've fought so long for them, it hurts to think I may lost them...


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