Exact dosage of Tetracycline for mouse eye infection

Question
Hi Tamarah,

I have an awfully cute male rescue mouse. His right eye is slightly closed and there seems to be some slight swelling above the eye. I suspect an eye infection. I can't take him to a vet, too expensive, I'm retired on a small fixed income. You said that Tetracycline can be used to arrest a possible infection. I have some Tetracycline that I got on a fish site. It is 500mgs.a capsule. Exactly how much of a capsule should I put in his 1 cup sized water bottle? I "doctor" my animals (cat and fish) successfully, and I need a little advice concerning my mouse. And, don't worry, any advice will be gratefully received, and with no problems to you as far as advice concerning. Also, you might tell your readers, I put non-petroleum vaseline (can get at drug stores), on some mites on my mouse's neck area (with a Q-tip). The vaseline suffocated the mites and was harmless to the mouse if he scratched and/or got it in his mouth. He is much calmer now.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Rita Gordon

Answer
Hi Rita,

500 mg of fish tetracycline can be dissolved into one liter of water, which can then be refrigerated and parsed out to his water bottle as needed.  You can get a liter bottle of drinking water to make the measuring a little easier.  The mouse's bottle needs to be changed every day or two, and the refrigerated solution re-made every three days to stay fresh.  Additionally, both need to be covered from light - a good cover of foil will be more than enough to do the trick.

Another good thing to help eye infections is to make a gently saline solution using just plain salt and warm water (rather than store solutions which may have extra chemicals in them), and to apply this by very lightly dabbing around the eye with a cotton ball one or two times a day.  Just a single dab or two, enough to moisten the eyelid area, is plenty.  The saline calms the eye and helps with infections, as well as soothing any irritated skin or scratches and surface infections.

The bit about petroleum is very interesting, but those little eggs are pretty hardy.  I'll let folks know, but as the medication for mites is fairly inexpensive, I still recommend fixing the problem if possible so that complications can be prevented before they happen.  Thank you for the advice!

Let me know if there is anything else I can help out with,
-Tam