# Need advice on an injured Deer Mouse



## Cindee (Jul 2, 2015)

I'll try to make this brief. My cat brought in a wild Deer mouse, I think it was in the house for a few days, looked but couldn't find it. I found it 2-1/2 days ago hunched over in front of the heating vent in our bathroom and I didn't see any outwardly signs of injury so I scooped him up and put him outside int the flower bed. I checked a few hours later and he was still there. I realized that he may be injured so I put him in a safe, warm place and started feeding him oatmeal milk (found that on the Internet) with an eye dropper. I also gave him lactated ringers every hour until I went to bed.

I really didn't expect him to make it through the night but he did, however he wasn't very interested in eating. I decided to let him rest and just checked on him every three hours and gave him the oatmeal milk if he would take it. I was told by another mouse person that his biggest problem, if no bones were broken, would be infection from the cat's mouth. So I did some research and found that Clavamox would be the antibiotic of choice. It just so happens that I have some. The task now is how much to give him. I've found two places on the Internet that recommend 6.25 mg BID. I have 62.5 mg tablets so I quartered one then halved it so that I'd have 1/8 tablet which is 7.82 mg. I shaved down quite a bit of it, crushed it, mixed it with a little water and sugar and gave it to him. He's had two doses now and to my delight he's doing much better. He actually ate on his own last night, and he was cleaning himself this morning. When I checked on him a bit ago, he's even sleeping on top of the little blanket that I had him covered with instead of under it. I went out to day and bought some mouse/gerbil food (Sunseed, Sunscription Vita) so I felt that I was doing the right thing...better than the granola cereal he had last night.

Well here's my dilemma....I called the nearest wildlife center which is two hours from us and now I feel like I'm not doing the right thing. Of course, they really wouldn't say other than the food I got is for "pet" mice not "wild" mice and the amount of Clavamox that I'm giving him is way too much but couldn't tell me what the dosage should be. I really think this little guy is coming around and I think I can save him if I could just get a straight answer.

The average Deer mouse weighs between 10-24 grams so let's assume he's somewhere around 18 grams... that seems like a safe number. Does anyone know how much Clavamox a Deer mouse should have. And is the food I bought not good for him?

I'd appreciate any advice you can offer. 

Thank you !

Cindee


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## Cindee (Jul 2, 2015)

Talked with my regular vet today and what I've read on the Internet is correct if it's in tablet form...the dose would be 1/10th of a 62.5 mg tablet. The liquid form would be .0625 or 0.1 ml. He also told me that giving him too much wouldn't kill him, it would just give him diarrhea. I think the wildlife center must have misunderstood me and thought that I was giving him 6.25 ml in liquid form.

Hopefully this info will help others.....To get the dose correct, I crushed two 62.5 mg tablets into a fine powder, put it into a 1/2 oz clear bottle, and added 2 ml of filtered water and a dash of sugar to mask the flavor. The dose that I'm giving him is 0.1 ml. _*NOT* 1.0 ml_...it's 0.1 ml, that's a very tiny amount.

He's doing really well by the way. He loved the mouse food that I bought. He's eating on his own, pooping and peeing normally. I think he got pretty beat up by my cat and just needs a lot of recoup time. He's still a little bit shaky when he walks, more like he's sore rather than something being broken. Of course, I don't know that for sure, but he's doing better every day. I won't release him until I feel 100% certain that he's physically able to fend for himself...but I'll miss him. :-( Funny how quickly we get attached to animals.


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