QUESTION 1: How do I get info about medical care?
ANSWER: Contact an exotic vet, (maybe several) or ask a lot of people in your local mouse club. Look also at the Internet!
Buy veterinary books. Those can be hard to find, but very good to read.
QUESTION 2: Is it true that mice can get mites or lice from hay or bedding?
ANSWER: Yes. In the sence that if a mite or louse infested mouse or rat has been in the hay or the bedding sometime the last three weeks and lost some of its parasites in the hay.
Hay generally contain mites, but those "hay mites" are not able to infest mice. Only if there has been a mite or louse infested mouse or rat in the hay or bedding recently your mouse (or rat) can get mites or lice from the hay or bedding! If you buy hay from feed stores that is quite possible, since wild rats and mice can live there.
If you have rats or mice, and want to give them hay you only have to store the hay in an absolutely mice and rat free environment for as long as the lice and mites can possibly ever live without a host (usually 3 weeks for mites and 4 weeks for lice!).
QUESTION 3: Is it true that mice can get mites or lice from rabbits?
ANSWER: No. Mice can only get lice and mites from other mice and from rats.
QUESTION 4: My mouse is scratching/having sores/hair loss. What is wrong and what can I do?
ANSWER: Scratching/sores in combination with hairloss is usually caused by external parasites. Common external parasites are mites, lice and fungus. This mouse probably need treatment against parasites.
QUESTION 5: My mouse is eating his own poop. Whats wrong?
ANSWER: This is unusual, but may happen if the mouse is not well fed. This mouse is lacking something essential in his diet.
QUESTION 6: My mouse has a tumour. How do I know when its time to put him to sleep?
ANSWER: If the tumour is small you might actually be able to save his life by letting a vet remove it. This does not always work, though.
A tumour on a mouse can sometimes grow really big before the mouse has any problems, so it is crucial to look at the mouse to determine if it is in pain or are feeling discomfort.
Any sick mouse always desperately need extra nutritional food, so you'd better buy some baby food for newborn babies or special food for cancer patients (here in Sweden you can buy that a any pharmacy) to give to the mouse.
If the tumour is inside the mouse in general the mouse will not live long. If the tumour it just under the skin, then the mouse may live for months without pain or discomforts as long as you feed it lots of extra nutritional foods.
When the tumour is getting in the way when the mouse is moving then the tumour will get sores on the skin, and that is the beginning to the end. Make sure beforehand that all mouse houses and such in the cage have extra large openings so the tumour can't get stuck anywhere.
When the tumour gets sores that will not heal the mouse do not have long left and should be taken to the vet and be put to sleep. Also if the mouse starts to eat less, or changes its behaviour, especially if a mouse that is very tame starts to withdraw, that is a sure sign of pain.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 11th of August 2006.