Mouse chews her own tail

Question
hey i have a female mouse that was housed with 3 other females .everything has been fine till about 30mins ago when i got out of the shower 1 of my females tail was missing its skin on the bottom of it and now she has begun to nibble on the end of her tail do you know what i can do to help her? i dont know what cause the wound i checked the cage to see if she got it caught on anything, couldnt find a thing so im assuming its either self inflicted or 1 of the others did it but any word of input can help, if i do need to bring her to the vets i will if its not at a massive cost! please help me asap! thanks Lucas

Answer
Dear Lucas,

Some mice have been known to simply chew their tails. It is a very unfortunate psychological problem, and the only thing to do is try to distract her with lots of toys in the cage. There are other ways that mice self-injure, and there is little to be done about it.

I have imagined putting some sort of "mouse-off" on it but anything on her tail would offend her nose because it is too close. And she would try to clean anything off, no matter how vile.

However, it is possible that something else happened, another mouse bite or an injury. You should watch carefully to see whether another mouse is attacking her.

The only reason to go to the vet is if the tail gets infected. Believe it or not, there are dog and cat psychologists (and psychiatric medicine), but I am pretty sure there is no such thing for mice. Watch carefully for infection.

I hope she somehow grows out of it. If she doesn't, she will end up with a short tail. This actually isn't a problem for a caged mouse. So there is no point in worrying. I have heard of a mouse wanting to chew her leg off, and that would be much worse. Mice can even learn to live with even no tail, given a little time. The only real problem is infection.

Best of luck to your little sweetheart.

squeak,

Natasha