Poor little Twitch.

Question
QUESTION: Hi! It's Emily again!
I have named the little orphan boy. Twitch. He twitches in his sleep so the name fits :). Well, we may have an emergency, I was watching a video of these two mice matilda and Stuart on YouTube, these videos I have been referring to for visual assistance too. Well this video was about dehydration and bloating. The Matilda mouse was dehydrated and the symptoms were her tail was segmented and her hair sticky and showing some bald spots, just looking dirty, the owner said probably due to her only feeding matilda every three hours. And I realized that Twitch had these symptoms and I had only fed him every three hours!!!! I instantly became panicky. The video said to do half pedialyte/ electrolytes and half formula. I prepared it right away. I estimated his weight in grams (8) divided that by two and found his designated amount of food of 4 ml. 2 ml formula 2 ml pedialyte (Original formula: 1 1/2 tsp. of water 1/2 tsp. of similac) He also has been real sleepy and lethargic the past, say, 2 days. Is he dehydrated? Am I doing anything wrong? Formula okay? HELP!! and thank you so much!! You've been lot of help. I know I have been bombarding you with questions!

ANSWER: Dear Emily,

I'm not a vet or trained in medicine, so my answer has to come from personal experience, research, and mouse common sense. It's really good that you saw the video. I tell people to nurse every 1 1/2 -2 hours. The mother mouse feeds them every half hour!

As for measuring the formula... my personal philosophy is you feed them until they refuse it. Mother mouse doesn't monitor how much they take. If it's hungry it needs more.

Lethargy can be a symptom of many ailments, dehydration certainly being one of them. I recommend continuing with what the video explained, since they are familiar with the condition. It certainly sounds like that is what is happening.

I didn't know "ringtail" appears with dehydration but it makes sense, since the usual cause is low humidity, which means they lose their body moisture to the air too fast. That isn't going to go away; he will probably lose the few bits at the end of his tail. It's ok; tails aren't all that important in the general scheme of things, as long as you have enough to balance. Mice don't know when they look different than other mice, and the round tip they get instead of the pointy one, is cute too.

Could you please send me the link to the video? Thanks!

squeaks,

Natasha
<:3  )--~

update for others' sake:

"Here is the link to the little mouse video about dehydration and bloating. Again, Thank you so much."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYnBNTxUuw&feature=related


-- there are a bunch of videos; I'll have to watch the rest. Thanks!!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again,
Its Emily :) I'm very glad you liked the videos and thought they were useful. Twitch is doing okay but we are still on the formula for dehydration because I am still nervous for him. But he is in a lot of pain on his little booty. He has been going diarrhea for a while but I always thought it was because of the formula being baby formula and possibly being a little too rich for him. He squeals every time he accidentally bumps his butt against my hand or when I have to clean the diarrhea off of him. I saw another question and the person mentioned sitz baths but he doesn't like them it seems and tries to climb out and squeals when I hold him above the water. It is very shallow though. A few days ago I woke up to feed him and he was actually stuck to the turtleneck I laid down for him in his box. When he was asleep he must have "gone" and it dried his poor butt to it. I think it may have really made that area tender. What may relieve him from the pain? Also sincce he doesn't want me to wipe it off he licks it off down there, is that hazardous to him? Could it make him sick? Do I still have to stimulate him to go and if so how do I do it with out hurting him? Thanks again you have been so much help!!! Got him a cage today but we are waiting till he is older to put him in. Any suggestions on the cage would be great too. Again, REALLY appreciate it!!

ANSWER: Dear Emily,

Poor little tyke! Did the diarrhea appear before the new formula with the electrolytes, or after? If it was before, he might have a problem, though there's not much you can do. If it was after, it's a result of the new formula. It should go back to normal. I'm hoping the pain is simply a result of the poop being stuck on him. Is the area red? If he gets clean, the soreness should subside within a few days. One of the videos showed how to give the little guy a warm bath with plain water. Maybe that's the way to go with him. Of course he will probably squeal, but if you can hold his butt under the warm water for a few minutes you should be able to clean it off with a Q tip. Can you perhaps even do it when he is at his happiest feeding moment?

Licking it off is no problem. Mice lick far worse things off of their fur. It's a necessity. Diarrhea, though gross, certainly isn't poisonous to the one it came out of. You do need to keep stimulating him but use your fingers, because they are softer, and palpate his belly more than his bum.

I sure hope he is OK. Those videos have the warning that 75% of orphan pups don't survive, but I'm not sure where she got that statistic. I've also read 50%. I have a feeling it is better than that. I'm trying to get people to let me know what happens when they follow my advice, for better or for worse (I get a LOT of orphan mouse questions), but most people don't. I do get the same person writing back a year later saying "Remember me? I saved that wild mouse. He's doing great. Now I have a question about another mouse..." so that seems a good sign. It also depends a lot on the age and how much trauma the thing went through before you found it. Another point about the mice is that she got them as feeders. Feeders are often not at all bred for health, so maybe that factors in their death. But on the other hand, they go through less trauma, not being attacked by cats or abandoned on the sidewalk. And the ones we find may be ones that the mother knew were defective... so I just don't know. I wish people wrote back. Anyway best of luck for him!

In the following quite long post, I end up explaining about making a cage fun. Forgive me for linking, but I just got 3 mouse questions in 40 minutes.. wtf?

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/2/Deer-mouse-questions-toys.htm

Do let me know what happens!

squeaks,

Natasha
<:3  )--~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello,
It's Emily. Twitch died last night. We were waking up to feed him and we thought he was already had gone but he was still moving. I think it was a seizure. His eyes looked distant and he lay stiff in my hand, he did that open mouth thing a few times but just briefly, he had spasms sometimes when he was touched. It broke my heart how long it took him to finally be at peace. It took an hour and a half. I was glad that I was able to comfort him and hold him, I stroked his head and talked to him so I hope he wasn't scared. Right before he went he stretched out and opened his mouth then settled down again. Then I knew he had left. I hate telling you what happened but I was just wondering if it was a seizure or something more. Thanks to Twitch I learned a lot and have a new love for mice. I'm still heart broken and I couldn't sleep but I know he is okay now. Mousey heaven. Thank you for all you have done!!!

Answer
Dear Emily,

I'm so sorry. I have to admit I didn't have a lot of hope for Twitch, given that he had suffered dehydration. He had definitely grown fond of you in your short time together-- most of his life-- and was very comforted by being in your hand. My  mice have often asked to be held so they could die in my hand- even when they had mouse friends. The human-mouse bond is pretty strong.

He didn't have a seizure. Mice convulse just before they die. It's very hard to watch, for someone not used to it.

Thank you very much for telling me what happened. I really want to know how many of these guys live or don't, so I can give advice or comfort accordingly. This is a very common situation. The woman in the videos actually gets pinkies from the store who would have been feeders, which I find weird and actually perhaps somewhat cruel, since it's not like the snakes are going to eat one less pinky. The breeder will simply breed more. But most people find little lost babies or their cat eats the mother. Or some people buy a baby for their snake and fall in love!

Now that you love mice and have a cage, it's time to find a good private breeder or, barring that, go to a good pet store. If you want only one mouse, get a male, as males have to live alone. If you want more, get three females, because females need to be in twos, and you shouldn't let one mouse be left alone when her friend dies. If you let me know where you live I may be able to find you a good breeder. Most private breeders breed for love, and charge only a minimal adoption fee.

Some little mouse is waiting for you!

sorry squeaks,

Natasha
<:3  )--~