# What on Earth happened? Epilepsy?



## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Hi guys.

Please, I know this is a long read, but we need answers badly.

So, I'm making this post on behalf of my mother in law. She breeds mice as well and has had a very strange and unpleasant "situation" with a buck. A few months back we had some blue pointed siamese imported from Holland (we live in Denmark). There were 3 of them, a buck and two does. All were from the same litter born in February this year. The buck (Wotan) and one doe (Tinkerbell) moved in with my mother in law, the other doe (Periwinkle) moved in with some of my does. All three of them were well and very nice and calm.

On May 19, Wotan and Tinkerbell were caged together. Two weeks passes without any problems at all. Then my mother in law hears a loud squeaky sound from their cage (she describes it as almost like a whistle), and rushes to look. As she opens and lifts their house, Wotan jumps right up and bites her twice in the hand, very hard so she bleeds a lot. Then he continues to jump/run around the cage like crazy. This he does for 10 seconds or so, then calms down completely and acts like nothing has happened.
She decides to seperate the two mice.
A few days later the same squeaky noise (this time she doesn't open the cage, afraid of getting bitten again), and then he runs very fast around the cage again, exactly the same as the first time.
We write a post on one of the Danish forums, but no one seems to have any idea what happened (no answers at all).

Now, a while passes without anything happening. He's the same calm and lovely mouse as ever. Monday this week, we decide to put Periwinkle in with him (this had been the plan all along, putting them together when he was "done" with Tinkerbell), thinking that he's back to normal and all is well.

Then this morning I get a call from her. While sitting with her coffee, she hears a loud squeaking. Not sure which cage it's from, she goes to take a look. Squeaking again, and she notices it's from Wotan's cage again. There's rustling from inside the house, and again afraid of being bitten, she waits until it settles a bit. She lifts their house and while Wotan is clinging to the inside of the house (it's made of tree), Periwinkle sits there with bloody paws. She seperated puts Periwinkle in a cage of her own to let her calm down. 
While being alone in the cage, Wotan runs around again like crazy inside, and he does this every 20 seconds or so for almost half an hour. Then suddenly he starts moaning loudly (this may sound strange, but this is how she descrbies it. A deep, loud moaning) and shaking horribly. He's ticking/fitting with his head and front paws while sitting on his hind legs. She puts a towel over his cage, hoping he will calm down. Since then, no sounds at all. No rustling, no squeaking, nothing.

I came over a couple of hours ago to take a look at him. As I lift the towel, he sits on top of his house, eating. So that's good. Maybe I should mention that through all of this he's been eating/drinking as usual.
It's very obvious, as I looked at him, that something was wrong. He seemed calm, but there was something about his face and his eyes. I can't explain it, he just looked wrong. We live very close, and visit each other often, so I'm used to looking at him. I opened the cage and started stroking him gently with a finger down his back. But as soon as I tried lifting him, he jumped very high, right out of my hands and down to the floor. I caught him quick as I could and put him in the cage again.

We decided to let him be PTS, which I did shortly after. I'm not doubting for a second that it was the right thing to do, but my mother in law is very sad about it, and we would really like to know if anyone could shed some light on what's been going on.
As the title suggests, we've been talking about epilepsy. My own theory is something in the brain, especially from the way his face looked today.
Another thing is, whether it could be passed on to possible offspring? We plan on keeping every one of them - if any show up - just to be on the safe side. Tinkerbell had gained 18 grams, which she dropped again after being seperated from Wotan. Periwinkle we are unsure of yet. Both girls are perfectly normal, except Periwinkle seems very shaken after this morning. By the way, there's no blood anymore, and no signs of anywhere it could have come from. So that's pretty confusing. Wotan didn't have any wounds or anything either.

If anyone knows anything, please share.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

Epilepsy is a symptom rather than a specific illness.Only xrays and mri scan can reveal the underlying cause of epileptic fits.All you can do is guess.I have occasionally opened a mouse box to find dry blood sprayed over the sides and lid with no obvious wounds.Close inspection usually reveals dry blood in the ear.Maybe tumour or abscess being the cause.No way to draw a conclusion .


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## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Alright. Thanks a lot for the answer.


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## Laigaie (Mar 7, 2011)

I once had a male rat with somewhat similar symptoms. Our vet determined he had a brain tumor. In addition to the random prolonged restlessness and bouts of aggression toward his brother, (followed by normal lazy behavior and grooming of the brother rat) he had a bout of aggression with me in which he LAUNCHED HIMSELF AT MY FACE AND BIT THROUGH MY CONTACT LENS. Yeah. Brain tumors are weird and scary.


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## silverdawn92 (Jan 13, 2013)

My mouse acted like this after he got brain damaged. He acts normally now, except for the rare episode of corkscrewing around and squeaking when he gets stressed. Perhaps your mouse had a brain tumor or had hurt himself somehow to cause this.


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## AnnB (Jan 14, 2011)

I have an epileptic mouse. Before he "fits" he'll squeak and then when the fit starts he'll shake uncontrollably with his head stretched out and his tail raised above his back. It lasts a matter of seconds and then he returns to normal. When the epilepsy first started his character changed and he became much more nervous. The vet has prescribed Metacam and Phenobarb (although I can't get him to take the Phenobarb because he hates the taste). He's been on medication now for six months or more and has improved greatly. I still don't know if he has a brain tumour causing the fits, he's lost the sight in one eye now so whether a tumour caused that or whether he bumped into something and damaged the eye I don't know but the fits are less frequent and he's much less withdrawn and nervous now.


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## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Thanks, Ann, for a little different info. I'm very happy to hear things are actually going quite well for your buck despite it all. I will pass on what you said.


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