Sick mouse, lethargy, recovers briefly with sugar.

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

I have a female fancy mouse that I have had for just under a year and a half, so I know she's an old lady by now. Her name is Rosie. About a week ago I found her unmoving in her cage, she is usually very active and will run about when I put my hand in the cage. However this time she seemed to barely be able to hold herself up. I have to admit that this has happened before, about a year ago, probably within the first two months I had her. I found somewhere online that said to revive her with a little corn syrup mixed with water. So that is what I did again and it worked, but only temporarily. Also since then her back legs seem to be giving her trouble. For the past week she has been up and down between fine and lethargic. When she gets corn syrup and eats she is back to her normal active self and she only limps on her back legs but within a few hours she is unmoving again and when I do get her to move, she drags her back legs behind her or falls over. I also don't think she has been sleeping much. Most of the time when I look at her she is laying down with her eyes open, a behavior I found to be very unusual for her.

I also believe now that she has a URI. Over the past weekend she got so bad that I was sure she was going to die. She was making clicking sounds and squeaking every now and then and couldn't hold her head up, she is also breathing very heavily and her eyes were pulsating. Her left eye still gets crusty and kind of frothy when she is having a down moment.  This only happens when she is "down" rather than up. For a few hours per day she still acts completely normal, right after she eats/drinks. She has only been eating crackers, sunflower seeds, and dried corn, she doesn't seem to have interest in anything else when she is up to eating at all. I put her on tetracycline starting yesterday as per instructions, by you I believe, I found on AllExperts.

I want to get her to a vet but I am afraid of what it's going to cost, especially since I am currently unemployed while taking summer classes and because she is considered a senior citizen at her age. However I would find the money somehow if I knew that she could be cured and live happily for another couple of months. At our current pace though we have both been through a lot and I can't keep staying up every night to hand feed her whenever she gets lethargic.  I don't want to prolong the inevitable, especially if she is suffering.

ANSWER: Dear Marissa,

I need to start by stressing that I have no medical training at all. I am not a vet. I can try to find out what is going on, and I can tell you what I feel the options are. But I cannot promise my advice is medically correct. At this point it is an educated guess.

I do believe you are putting off the inevitable, and she is suffering. I almost never recommend putting a mouse to sleep, but this sounds terrible.

If she has something like diabetes-- and I will try to find out for you-- it just sounds like she is too far gone. And with the URI on top of it, which has gotten to a terrible point. Considering that mice don't show any illness at all until they are terribly sick, she is in absolute misery.

I am going to try to find out what is going on. It may take a few days because there are a few people I would like to talk to. Unless she has a seriously good recovery with the antibiotics, I myself would not wait for the answer. In fact, if you have her put to sleep and don't even want to know anymore, tell me.

Some vets charge almost as much for a euthanization as for a vet visit, so you may want to call around. It costs almost nothing to put a mouse to sleep- it takes about 1/2 ml of the poison they use-- and yet some vets charge as much as for a large animal.

If you bring her in to be euthanized, if you see the vet and not an assistant, of course you can ask if she would instead be curable. Maybe you can find out over the phone if they will be able to at least tell you if your decision is inevitable, or whether, once decided at that time, they might be able to tell you it would make sense to pay for the consultation.

As said, I will speak to some people, including one person I know who has a rat who was quite sick until recently, but is doing well after being diagnosed with and treated for diabetes. So it is up to you whether you wait.

I will change this answer when I have more information, and you will receive an email. If you are not going to be interested in the answer, let me know so I don't write it up. I want to know the answer myself, so it is no trouble. But you may not be interested after the fact.

Poor little lady. Love to her.

Squeaks,

Natasha





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Rosie   QUESTION: I will wait for your answer. She is doing much better today. Since early this morning I have not had to "revive" her at all and she is acting curious and playful as she should be. It's hard to think about putting her down when she's acting as though nothing is wrong. I just want to be sure it's the best option for her. I did talk to a vet on the phone who said diabetes is very possible because mice get it a lot, so she says, but that its impossible to be sure without checking her out. Thank you for all your help. We both really appreciate it.

Answer
Hello Marissa,

I found a person who had exactly the same symptoms, also in a mouse. This person recommends putting her to sleep too:


"I've had a similar experience with one of my mice and it was all because of the pneumonia.
Back when I knew absolutely nothing about mice, one of them got a URI which developed into pneumonia. By the time I was able to afford a vet, my little girl was very skinny, clicky, squeaky, eyes going buggy then not and so on. The day before her vet appointment, she became unable to move. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on a course on antibiotics and I was told to syringe feed her liquids and put some apple juice or something sugary in it also. Every time she got her antibiotics and apply water, she would perk right up and start slowly moving around the cage (like a normal mouse but slow) and would start to eat, but within an hour she was back to being in her house and barely moving.
Your suggestion to put her to sleep was exactly what I would advise. My little girl made it a further week with antibiotics and the water but passed away a few days before her antibiotics course was finished."


I think, although others mentioned things like brain tumors, this is extremely likely to be the same thing.

My way of deciding when to put a pet to sleep is to"ask" Rosie every day whether she is happy to be alive. My guess is that even when she feels Ok, her answer will be "Please, I can't stand the bad times."

I am so sorry. These little squeakers are so loving and dear. When you are mourning, don't ever let anyone say Rosie was "just a mouse." She wasn't. She was a true friend.

squeaks,

Natasha