# Heatstroke, Hydration, or old age?



## Kairi_Hitomi (Jan 28, 2013)

Two days ago. One of my females had died, possibly due to a heatstroke or Dehydration. For past two days or three days it has been getting hot inside my house. Temperatures Outside were at least 102 - 108 but they are now back in the 90s and will be lowering even more. (thank god). My state even had a heat advisory on the first day of these two days of high temperatures where I live. so let me get started on my Problem (long post).:

Now I had planned what I should do the day before of this 2 day heat advisory, on how to keep my mice and the one dwarf hamster cool. I've put both of their water bottles into the freezer so it can freeze and also put their food bowl into the fridge so it can get cool. I could not put a rag or something for a cool spot for the mice, in the freezer because I am living with people that do not really take a liking to mice in general and putting a rag in the freezer would have brought up questions.

So my aunt believes that we should not use air conditioning during the summer time, we should have windows and such open, but at times like these? That barely works... Her room is the coldest in the house. when the air conditioner is on. The second room would be my cousins room, while me and my grandma have the hottest rooms in the house. My room gets hot very quickly that I have to keep the door open... even then the air condition would not circulate inside of my room.

But every hour I would freeze their water bottle or put some ice cubes in it, tap on their bedding to get their attention and push my hand on the silver ball that clicks on the sipper to let them know that their is water there. All but one mouse would come to see what is going on. They would each get a sip but that one. She would wait until later or so. There were also times where one of them would pull the sipper and tug it to get water. I usually solved this by un-tighten the cap from it and they would drink without a care in the world. But the inside of the cage including my room was hot and it felt stuffy. I do not like the heat and when I complain that it is hot in this room out of all people... Then I know that my mice were also feeling the heat, probably having it even worse compared to me. It was that hot that day, that they did not even bother sleep in there din for the first night of high temperatures.

That night on the first day of the heat advisory... It was extremely hot inside of here. I had complained to my boyfriend, worried about my mouse fussing to him that one of them is going to get a heatstroke if this keeps up.. and I do not know what to do. (since everyone was asleep. I could not re-freeze things or grab crushed ice because the fridge make noises and the dogs would have started barking).

An hour before I was about to head to sleep one of them was trying to get water. The water bottle had jammed again. So I fix that and push the clicker a few times after loosening up the cap. The mouse just sniff my hand and back up. or ran into a corner and simply did not bottle with the water bottle. So I was like: "forget it, she'll come to the water bottle when is thirsty" or when one of her sisters comes. Skyla (the one that died) was always known to be a follower...

The next morning I got up and boy it was hot... First thing I did was open my door, then check to see how the mice were doing and bam... Skylar was laying there on the ground her mouth was open slightly and her fur was spiked up, eyes were tight shut... I was angry.... So I took my cousin's dwarf hamster's tank and gave it to her and told her to keep her in her room for two days, because of the heat... I also told her about the mouse had died from a heatstroke and she was like "sure, okay. In fact let me go to check the temperature in the house because it is a little hot in here." So when she did... my cousin always fusses about hot tempatures and then she came to me and was like: "Okay, I've turn the AC up. It is 85 degrees in here!" so she set it down to 75 or 71.

I'm not sure if this is the correct source of temperature for a mouse's room temperature but I will put it down here: "The ideal room temperature for mice should be between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 23 degrees Celsius)". This was from wikiHow.

So today (Wed) ... My aunt had found out that Skyla had passed thanks to my cousin. She told her that she died from a heat stroke and my aunt had laughed and went into my room. Her expression was not "Happy" or cheery. She looked mad, as if her thoughts were "I'm not going to adjust the temperatures in this house because a bunch of small critters can't handle the heat when every other animal can". type of expression. So she explained to me about how she found out my mouse had died from a potential heatstroke. The house is perfectly fine, she does not understand at all and she asked me what temperature does a mouse could possibly gain a heatstroke? I told her the temperature for the ideal room for a mouse on the wikipedia, but then she said this: "Let me ask you a question? If your mouse had died from a heatstroke? Then her wild cousins should also be having a heatstroke." I told her, that they could bury themselves underground or find ways to keep cool.

Wild mice are outside, they can find ways to keep cool. While my mice are domesticated they are trapped in a fish tank, they have to depend on me for their survival. Of course I did not get a chance to tell her that because she cut me off.

My aunt then said that, did I know what the temperature it was be for a human to gain a heat stroke? I told her I do not know, she rolls her eyes and laugh and said "So, you can look up what the temperatures supposed to be for a mouse to have a heat stroke, but not a human being"? Then she went on about the dog who causes trouble in the house (buster) was outside all day today and out in the heat. if anyone who should had a heatstroke, he would been the first.

Now my thoughts on that question was, yes he has been outside all day TODAY but not Monday or Tuesday when the temperatures was sky rocketing. My mouse had passed Monday night obviously because when I woke up Tuesday @ (10 a.m) Skylar's corpse was cold... not even warm and the room had a faint smell of a dead mouse.

I then told her that I had question about this heat stroke and went onto a possible theory that Skyla could have died from a dehydration as well, due to:

1. Their water stopper or the suction kept jamming up during the whole day today, and I had to replace it one with another one. My aunt had agree that it could have been a possibility that she dehydrated. These water bottles are about seven years old now... So I will be getting new water bottles tomorrow. (The water bottle Jammed up once monday and not at all tuesday).

2. If skyla was getting hit with a heatstroke surely the others will be showing signs of it as well. But it was Skyla who was only showing signs...

Walking slow then her usual self, fur looked damped yet stressed out, goes into the corner and heavily pants at times. Skyla also refused to come near the water bottle unless one of her sisters were getting a sip. Though I did see skyla get water earlier successfully at times.

She also said that skyla could have died due to old age. Now, I got these guys in 2013, it is now 2016, I had posted a topic here before about my elderly mouse named Blu that was dragging her legs around the whole cage. During that time that I've had posted that topic of Blu I've have had kept Skyla and her batch for at least one month and the two white twins that came before skyla and her pack 4 months ago. The twins they look like kids to back then to be honest... 4 months later down the road they have look like a full grown mouse. Now today, all of them are still jumpy hyper active and crazy. Running around, climbing things... Nothing compared to my 3 year old Blu, (shaggy fur, wobbly, hunched back walking funny and slow). So I do not know what their age is... All I know is that I had them for three years now. So could not be due to old age... But I cannot rule this question out.

At the end of this debate she had put the blame of Skyla's death on me and how she knows about mice and other animals and what chances they can gain a heat stroke. She never owned a mice before. One time... She had suggested during a night before we had a winter storm, a wild mouse was caught by the cats and my cousin had moved it and trapped it somewhere safe, we put the cats up at that time too. My aunt had insisted on instead of releasing it that night we could have put it inside the tank with the other mice (Bad Idea...), or put the mice inside the cleaning/ temporarily tank where I put my mice in while I clean the room... (another bad Ideal).

In this house my aunt is always right and you are always wrong. Now if I were to blame the death of how her fish died because she did not properly clean their tank out or feed it everyday or every other day Or how my cousin's first dawrf hamster died because her cat decided to go into my cousin's room and pop the cage lid open and went ham on the poor little thing. On her, She would have gotten mad.

I made sure my mice have had clean fresh water everyday. I only freeze their bottles when the house is hot. I had lived with my aunt before hand and before I even became a full committed mouse owner. twelve years ago, She would work during the summer. She works inside of a building and I am pretty sure the building is cool, while the rest of us are at home suffering in the heat. Ha I remember that day I had fell to the floor in the bathroom because it was that hot in the house. My cousin had to plead for my aunt to let us turn the air conditioner on that day/year.

When I had lived with other people the summer time was not a problem for my mice, they never went through something like this. Why all of a sudden that I had moved back into the house that only believes in no air conditioning during the summer and no heat during the winter, that my mice are having problems?

Her words that this is all my fault. Really hurt me. She was not in the house Monday or Tuesday with this heat advisory. Me and my grandma complained about the heat and it was my cousin who adjusted the AC temperatures... My pillows were blocking ventilation in the room, I was moved into a room where it use to be a temporarily storage, but some of the stuff moved all expect a wagon... that is covering the vent some.

My room is now at a comfortable level, and the rest of the mice are doing fine, happy and active. They are having no trouble in getting water. I am somewhat hurt that Skyla had passed due this incident. She looked way to young and jumpy to lose her life so quickly. She may not been my favorite mouse out of the bunch, but she was still had a warmth spot in my heart. When I first brought her and her sister's from the pet store. Skyla was alone in one tank... I'm not sure for how long though, but she clicked with the other mice I got from the same tank beside her... She was very mischievous when one mouse acted mischief... she was always a follower.. never was the one to follow or take action and a very close friend to Holly. She will be missed...

I wish to know what was the cause of this mysterious death? Was it a heatstroke or dehydration? and if it was a heatstroke what I can do to prevent this mistake from happening in the future? And was I really at fault here? Or could she had simply died of old age? (I highly doubt it).


----------



## Lilly (Nov 21, 2015)

First off it wasn't your fault, you did all you could so don't blame yourself.

Secondly it can be very hard to tell what the actual cause of death is even for people who have mice die in their own mousery, all you can do is suspect whatever reason sometimes, and sometimes there is just no reason you can find.

A couple of things I can think of for if it gets hot again is to have little ice packs that you can put in there or under their nest area of a glass cage, i know you said rags wouldn't be good but the ice packs you can freeze could just as easily be for yourself. Also you can have cucumber, celery, carrots in a bag of water in the fridge and offer them throughout the day which will give them quite a bit more cool moisture options and mean they can still get liquid even if the bottle jams up.

3 years is a very good age for mice though, and many do not even make it that long but if mice are anything like people then older ones find it more difficult to cope with extremes in temperature and mice can go downhill very fast. So it is likely a combination of age, temperature and then that leading her to not drink enough either.

That situation though doesn't sound very good for anyone involved though, I know when my ac broke and it was 90+ for a few days inside (thankfully lost no adults but a mum munched her litter) my toddler was obviously in distress and would lie flat out on the floor or be really clingy and lethargic.

As far as your aunt's question goes, its a silly one, there is no temperature where people get heatstroke externally. Heat stroke is when your internal temperature reaches over 104, but before that you can get heat exhaustion and both of those are from prolonged exposure to heat as well as physical exersion... that heat does not have to be 104 degree heat though but hot enough or long enough that your body cannot keep up with regulating your internal temperature. Also if it is very humid so your sweat cannot evaporate enough to cool you down your body temperature will rise.


----------



## Aprilsmum (Jun 10, 2016)

From someone whos own stupidity and inexperiance lost me all my mice in one day due to heatstroke skylars death does sound heatstroke related as you say he fur looked damp. As were my heatstroke victims. It isnt your fault.


----------

