mouse badly hurt by cat

Question
hi, i found my cat playing with a mouse and i took it away from him and but him in a cage with food and water.at first he would only walk with his two front legs and know he uses one of his back legs and his two front legs. will he live? right now he is in a quiet place with a heat pad because i read on other websites to keep the warm with fresh food and water in witch i am. please help me!!!!

Answer
Dear Lilly,

Mice sometimes survive a cat attack, and they sometimes survive severe injury. However, severe injury *from* a cat attack is pretty bad. Even a small cat bite can easily kill a  mouse because the bacteria in their saliva is very deadly. Have you heard of Cat Scratch Fever? That is when people get sick just from cat scratches; their bites are worse. My indoor cat (never been out) bit my mother's wrist once in play, and a few hours later she was in the emergency room. So you can imagine what it does to a mouse.

With a pet mouse I send people to a pet store for an over the counter antibiotic, but it would be too hard to get an antibiotic into a wild mouse, and terribly traumatic for him. But keeping him warm is absolutely the best thing to do. Mice have to work very hard to keep warm, and so if you keep him warm instead, he can use the energy he would have used for that, to fight the infection. Put a little flavored yogurt (soy if possible) in an easy to access place.

If he survives the infection, or managed not to get infected, he will not survive in the wild as a three legged mouse, but he would survive in a cage.

I certainly wish him the very best of luck.
squeaks,

Natasha