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Can orphan wild mouse bite give me disease?

21 15:11:31

Question
baby mouse
baby mouse  

baby mouse growing
baby mouse growing  
Hi a friend was sweeping her carpet and raised her rug to learn there was a nest of 3 baby mice under there. She didn't want them harmed and she knows i love animals of all kinds. I brought them home and nursed them with a eye dropped. I kept them in a plastic container with a screen lid on a heating pad. Unfortunately i lost 2 as the cats knocked over my container. Truly upset i cried. i do have 1 left. The mouse eyes were not open at the time and now it has grown and is bigger. I fed it vitamin D milk as much as it took from dropper and now he nibbles on mouse food and drinks water from a container. As i open his lid i don't see him til he comes out. He will come out to the sound of my voice and seems to love his home. I plan on keeping him since he was a tiny baby and seems to be happy. My question is: If it does bite which i know all animals do at time, will it be a problem as far as wild rodent disease?

Answer
Dear Tammy,

Although it is unlikely that the mouse would ever bite you intentionally, you are right that it could happen, say if it was in great pain or was terrified.

Any animal bite should be washed with something like hydrogen peroxide and treated with antibacterial cream, and watched for signs of infection, redness or swelling. But you know that.

As for mouse -specific diseases, I believe he is a house mouse, and they carry nothing. If he turns out to be a deer mouse, there is a serious illness called hantavirus which these mice can carry. I believe it has never been transmitted through a bite- because when you read about it, the articles say things like "scientists surmise that it can be transmitted through a bite" which simply means it has never happened.

Another reason not to worry, even if it turns out to be a deer mouse, is that pups do not get the disease from their moms during pregnancy. This little guy had such a small chance of getting it...

And there have been maybe less than 200 cases of hantavirus (which does kill 33% of its victims) in the last 25 years. It is far more prevalent in the Midwest. You can look on the CDC website to see exactly how many cases there have been in your state.

Lastly, the way hantavirus is transmitted is by breathing in dried urine and feces from mouse-infested barns and basements. So try not to stick your face in his cage as you are cleaning it.

However, I can't give you a 100% chance, only a 99.9% chance. If it turns out to be a deer mouse, and you go to sites to read about hantavirus, they will scare you. They want to. They don't want to get sued.

Last but not least you can actually have a blood test done to screen for hantavirus.

I hope I have alleviated your fears for the most part..l or did I just scare you by telling you about hantavirus?

Squeaks n giggles,

Natasha