# Tape Worms in mice



## stephisme (Oct 13, 2012)

Hey Everyone,

I posted here a few weeks ago about my constipated obese mouse. She seemed to gt better after I gave her bene-bac.

Now she is constipated again and has lost A LOT of weight and is a bit hunched. Oddly enough she is extremely active and still eating though. But she looks sick.

I was unable to find a local vet here but after calling around (out of state) I got a vet who told me it sounded like a tape worm... which I have no idea how she would have gotten. The vet was very nice but could not prescribe anything being out of state.

Has anyone experienced this? I just do not see how she would have gotten it because we don't have cats or anything here. I did some research online and found out about ivermectin, but am not sure if that would work for tapeworms. I would be able to get it online.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## pro-petz (Nov 14, 2012)

Tapeworms in mice is not common as they normally suffer with roundworm. Ivermectin is unlikely to get rid of tapeworms.

Depending on what you feed your mouse it is possible to have eaten an egg off some sort of vegetable or even hay.

The nearest suggestion for its treatment would be a product called Droncit spot on for cats and is available without veterinary prescription and available online. Doage is one tube per 2.5KG body weight, this is the product that is effective against the cat tapeworm whose intermediary host is a rat or mouse.


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## stephisme (Oct 13, 2012)

Thanks for the reply.

I have given her hay but I baked it first incase their were mites or anything. Would it have been able to survive being baked? We did have a beetle once in our gerbils tank but only one and froze their food after that.

Could it be possible that another parasite can cause the same symptoms?


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## pro-petz (Nov 14, 2012)

As you have spoken with a vet whom is certainly more qualified than most on this forum we all have accept his opinion and diagnosis.

Even then it is very difficult to diagnose something by word or picture, a physical examination is best as one can take respiartory rate, heart rate, temperature, general physical fitness of the animal into consideration in determining what the cause of the ailment is.

Alot of other factors also come into diagnosis like general husbandary, feeding environment etc. Your other thread on constipation if it is the same mouse then dietry requirements need to be changed for it as in higher fibre content. Any sudden change in diet can result in usually diorhea but constipation may also be a result especally if fibre content is too low.

Sudden changes in diet may also be the cause of weight loss as can stress, there are so many factors that only you as the owner and observer will know the answer to, have you change the location of the cage, change of diet, heating, lighting, amount of handling, even something like change in soap you use to wash your hands with all may cause in certain circumstances stress to a mouse and produce undesirable effects.

Another cause of drastic weight loss over a short time frame is tumours or other external air borne viruses which are hard to detect the source.


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## stephisme (Oct 13, 2012)

Thanks again for the reply.

When I typed in Droncit in Amazon I got this: http://www.amazon.com/Tradewinds-Feline ... ds=Droncit

Does that look right to you? I guess I would smush the tablets up into a powder and then add it to water or something like that. I have treated mice with anti-biotics before and had to use distilled water, is that typically how this is done?

As far as sudden changes in diet, there really has not been any. I tried introducing veggies but she would not eat it. I also tried apple sauce and other baby foods with no luck. No new bedding or environment changes. She has become more friendly and looks to come out when you put your food in to feed her though (she will go onto your hand). It's just so odd because she is active and eating.

Thanks again


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## pro-petz (Nov 14, 2012)

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/dog-worming-...ncit-spot-on-wormer-4-tube-pack-for-cats-p-94 also available in drop format.

If you are in the USA do not know where you would get it from in the liquid state/ Hope that helps


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