All my pets are going crazy

Question
Hello! It's been about a year since I last contacted you. Suddenly all my pets seem to be going crazy. Nothing has changed besides the weather (winter to summer is how California weather goes).

1) I have a crazy old woman mouse. Last year her friend passed because of a heat stroke (I am now paranoid about heat strokes and will not be allowing that to happen again). Anyhow. I tried to introduce her to my other nest and she jut went after them. Drawing some blood. I tried again about 5 months later and same thing, she is ok with them for about 1 hour, then she gets fed up and goes after them, she almost broke my skin once cause she thought my hand was another mouse out of the corner of her eye. It's a no go. So she's a loner and I've been noticing her scratching a lot. Like... ocd level. I cleaned her whole cage just in case and inspected everything. Everything looked clean and well. She still did it. So I took a closer look and nothing seemed to be there. I thought maybe I was making it up. All mice groom a lot. Well today, one day later, I examined her again and am shocked! She has cuts and hair loss and scabs all over her high back, neck, and ear region! She is in bad shape. I put some water on it to flatten the hair so I could see it better. I see little black specks but when she holds still they are all different sizes and look like little bits of the scabs (sorry, kind of gross). I pet her with a wet hand a couple times and everything else looks fine. It's just the neck and ear region that are no good. But really.... really. no good. Like... completely bald and bleeding. Nothing has changed! She's still in the same room. I did move her about a foot more left on her shelf about 2 weeks ago, but that shouldn't cause something like this. She is eating and drinking healthfully. She has plenty of toys that she loves (I made sure she's always busy because she refuses to live with another mouse). Everything is checking out to be normal except this scratching. She's going to be two in August.

What should I do? I am scared she's just going to tear herself to pieces! She wont get along with other mice, and has plenty to keep her busy....

2) One of my two female rats bit her sister, her sister didn't even peep, but it bled a bit. They seem to be getting along fine. I am  not too concerned, but if you have anything to say about that, it'd be great. It healed up in about half a day, but in case worse happens how should I take care of it. I feel useless kind of... putting water on it and cleaning it a bit.

3) My other nest (two female mice) are getting along fine, although one has decided to trim the others hair. So she always looks like she has a terrible hair cut. It's a trim, not a complete balding. She chirps constantly while "getting her hair done", but seems to enjoy it. She doesn't run or anything. They have a whole hair-trimming ritual they do when they first wake up and a special spot to do it. I'm not too concerned because their health is fine, but I am kind of weirded out by it. Should I stop it somehow?

I have no idea what happened. All this stuff just happened in the past 3 days.... and literally nothing has changed....

I'm mainly concerned about the lone mouse. The others sound like weird rituals or mistakes, but hers is really not good.

Thanks!

Answer
Dear Katie,

Are they all still crazy?

Sigh, sorry for the delay. Why is it I am gone for two months and Tamarah gets 13 questions and I come back and get 13 in a week? And then get sick and have to travel and a rat gets sick and another dies... Sorry. This is really too much and I am going to get fired! Not that I get paid, but still.

The first thing to do is to join my Facebook group Rats and Mice are Awesome:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RatsandMiceareAwesome/

And friend me and tell me who you are. I am Ratasha MouseRat.

1. The scratching is probably mites, poor dear thing. It is easily fixed with a vet visit and a Revolution on the back of the neck. All rats and mice in the home must be treated. If that doesn't do it then things like allergies or skin ailments can be investigated. Once everything has been ruled out you may find it has become OCD. But there are lots of things to try first.

2. Rat skin heals so well and so fast! Still, there are times when more is needed than water. An actual rat medicine chest is as varied or maybe more so than a human one, since you may sometimes treat rat issues at home where a human would go to the doctor. The Rat Guide has one I believe.. Let me know if you aren't on Facebook because if you are, all this is super easy to find in our files section.  

3. That is so cute! Consider it styling. :)

I hope the crazy old lady mouse is ok...

Squeaks,

Natasha