My mice are alomst all sick!!

Question
hi, I have a clan of 10 female mice, And some of the mice are making strange sound's as if there sneezing, clicking type noises. I'm not really sure on which females are making the sound...Maybe it's all of them. I don't know.But I was woundering what I should do! Is there somthing i can do at home for them? There are no vet's in my erea. Do they all have cold's? and how would they have got it? ..... I have been using pine bedding the last few month's on them. I found out some people say it's not good for them...so I'm wanting to switch there bedding, but i don't know to what?. But first I was woundering.what's the best deal for safe bedding for the little one's out there? What kind do you use? And where do you get it?

And how can I treat my mice? will I have to figure out for sure which mice are sick and which one's arn't? will the medicen harm the one's that arn't sick? Please write me back soon! thank you.

Answer
Hi Bree,

Those noises are pretty much the hallmark of an upper respiratory infection.  While it's absolutely possible they could be experiencing discomfort and negative health responses to the pine as well, it seems that you have a URI going around your colony.  While it's very similar to a cold, URIs can be serious if not treated quickly, and are extremely contagious.  Because of that fact, you'll want to treat all of them, which won't be hard since the first at-home treatment I'd recommend is given in the water!  :)

Tetracycline is a general antibiotic you can find at most pet shops.  It can be given in the water, with more serious cases being given the first dose orally (hold each one up and check them out - how do they look?  How is their coat, their eyes?  Are they active and eating, or is their skin loose?  Do they "hunch?"  See if you can ID the ones that are clicking and sneezing).  They will have all been exposed and are sick, though, and the infection takes a little while to show up, so give them ALL medicated water, and continue treatment through the full course whether they get better or not.  Mice who don't seem to respond, or get worse, *need* to see a vet, rescue, or animal specialist of any other kind that has experience with mice.  It's possible they need a different kind of antibiotic if they do not respond, but hopefully the tetracycline will stop it in its tracks and you won't have to worry about that!

Here are instructions written out by Natasha on how to give tetracycline and where to find it:  http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/2/Tetracycline-directions-sneezing-mou

As far as bedding goes, I recommend either aspen or a paper bedding such as Carefresh or Yesterday's News.  I personally use aspen, since I have a lot of cages and aspen can be found at any pet or feed store for very little cost.  If I could afford it, though, it seems that my mice prefer Carefresh, which is on the pricier side but very cozy and tunnel-able.  It just depends on your budget!

Best of luck!
-Tam