# Very sick mouse



## le0p (Dec 21, 2013)

We had two 6 month old mice. Today we found one mouse dead and the other seems sick or injured. I tried giving him food by hand, he would hold it and put his mouth on it but wasn't taking bites. We gave him some peanut butter, and he ate a bit of that. He's having a lot of trouble moving around and doesn't seem to be drinking. I tried to give him water and he just ignored it. He has a lump on the top of his back and definitely seems to be weak and maybe a bit disoriented.

They were fine a day ago. Both alive and moving around, although I'm not sure how long the lump has been there. It had to have happened in the past week, because they were both out while their cage was being cleaned. They were rolling around in their ball, usual happy-go-lucky selves, loving it. they seemed fine. I've been looking up symptoms and cant seem to pin point what could have gone wrong. We use dust free bedding. His eyes are squinted, but not puffy or discharging. He's not missing any fur. Definitely not breathing heavy, however his breathing seems to be very slow. No mites. He's not coughing or sneezing either. Other than being lethargic and shaky when trying to move around, the only other thing we noticed was this lump on the top of his back. Its not huge, in fact, I thought he was just hunched until he stretched out a bit and noticed it was still there.

When we found them Junk, the one that passed, he was in his tube and Thunder, the other, was laying next to the tube under some fluff very still. I cleaned out the cage and disinfected it. Gave him fresh water, some food and peanut butter. We took out all of the toys and put new fluff in. I'm not sure if this is an illness or if he could be injured. Junk has always been a bit dominant. Especially when they are both re-entered into their enclosure. Junk would always chase Thunder around for a minuet sniffing his rear. We've heard and seen them scuffle a few times, but we never saw blood drawn. Even though they have multiple places to sleep they would often sleep together, so we figured they got along okay. Could this have been a fight and now Thunder is injured? I didn't really examine Junk, but I didn't notice any obvious injuries, bloating, or that same lump.

We can't take Thunder to a vet until Monday so we're looking for any suggestions to what could be wrong and if there's anything we can do for him in the meantime. I feel terrible about Junk, and I really want to see Thunder pull through this any suggestions are much appreciated. Thank you.


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## le0p (Dec 21, 2013)

Thank you for anyone who's looking at this. Unfortunately, Thunder passed over night.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Sorry to here that, it most likely was a fight. Most males can not live together once mature and will start having little scuffles that Lead to a deadly fight. The lump was probably a bite that had swollen up.
If keeping bucks together again in the future (all though I'd advise to just keep seperate as safer) id seperate as soon as scuffeling starts as it can easerly go to far and the lower buck will get stressed. In does I'd allow scuffeling when being introduced if no blood as they are normally social and normally calm down.

Sadly I lost a buck this way when I started in mice, I didn't know they often fight and had had the group for a year together untill one was bred then he attacked the other boy.


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