Mouse much sicker than we thought

Question

Ms Tarly   Hi Natasha

Unfortunately Ms Tarly passed away last night :(. For a brief while she seemed a lot better and was walking around and eating, which she hadn't been doing previously. A few hours later though she'd passed away. She still looked quite healthy in the end but unfortunately the infection must have been too much for her. I've uploaded a picture of her which we took just before she passed.

Just thought I'd keep you updated. Thank you very much for your help, I really appreciate it.

Hopefully she made her way safely to mousey heaven.

Answer
Dear Jaye,

Thank you for the update. Poor little Ms Tarly was so pretty.

Because  mice are prey animals, they don't seem sick until they are quite sick. So it is easy to underestimate the problem. The symptoms that you described were all very scary mouse symptoms, and to an experienced mouse person, the Ms Tarly in the photo looks quite ill. People get sick and look and sound terrible and go to bed for two weeks but we don't worry for an instant because we know they will be fine. If a mouse felt that way, you would never know. This is why, with mice and rats, you really have to examine every tiny change in behavior.

My pet rat had a tumor in him the size of a hockey puck and once I knew something was wrong (it shifted), he still looked and acted fine. In talking to rat people I found out that the signs I had been missing were that he slept in different places and was clingy. The other sign people told me to look for was slightly squinted eyes. He must have been in agony for months. I had no idea.

People often say that pets go Over the Rainbow Bridge when they pass away. On the other side of the Bridge each mouse or other companion has everything they could want- flowers made of cheese and popcorn, lots of wonderful wheels, etc. It is kind of a nice idea.

Squeaks,

Natasha