periodically sneezing mouse

Question
Hi Natasha,

I've asked you about my sneezing mouse before and I took her to vet right away.
She received anti-biotic treatment but did not make difference, then her sneezing and chirping
Faded away. Its been about 3 month since and she had this weird sneezing "episode" that she was beathing with her mouth open and almost look like she is seriously ill. The first. Time she had this episode last week, the episode lasted about 20 min during which she was beathing hard, sneezing, very inactive and looking weak. She did not even eat her favorite treats. I really thought she was in a big trouble. I can also hear some mucus when she was breathing. But then, all of sudden she was completely normal and started to run around as usual and no mucus sound or hard beathing. We thought she was choking on her food at the time. That's what it looked like.

Folloing day, she had the same episode which again lasted about 30 min. Then she was totally ok. 3rd day, she had the same episode but this time lasted over an hour. It was over the weekend, so we had to wait 2 more days to take her to vet. During those 2 days, she had not episode.

I then took her to vet (different on than the first as I was not happy with the first one) and the vet said snot likely respiratory infection because while she was in vet office, she only sneeze a few times and no hard breathing or anything like that happened. Vet said if it was respiratory infection, the symptoms will be more consistant and she would not have a day with no symptoms. Vet suspects allergy and gave us benedril to give to her only if she has the episode.

She had no symptoms for 2 days. She was active, ate well and completely fine other than occasional sneeze here and there.

But yesterday, she had the episode for an hour. And today she started to have the episode again and its lasting 4 hours. I'm worried but due to weekend, vet it not available until Monday. She looks really weak and sick. Is there any opinion you can share with me or any advise???
I gave he benedril, but since this is a medicine I have to drop in her nose, its hard to say if the medication really went down her nose......

I am really worried for she is a special mouse to my husband and I.
I cannot think of any allergen which maybe causing this violent episode.
I have not changed bedding or food for at least 3 month.

Please help!!!

Answer
Dear Kiwi,

The next step that I would take is to strip down her environment to as hypoallergenic a situation as possible and see what happens. This is going to be complicated, but you love her very much so I'm sure you won't  mind.

Clean her cage and plastic/metal accessories just by washing thoroughly with with water. Then just give her paper towels as bedding. For food give her oats. Make sure you use no chemicals in the room at all-- no air freshener, furniture polish, cleaning agents, etc. Do this for 4-5 days or until she has another fit, in which case you know it's not allergies. That is important information for the vet to know.

After that, start to add types of food. If she has a seed mix, you will want to separate out the seeds by hand! You can change something every day, but if she sneezes you will want to go back about three days worth of materials. At some point when she has a somewhat varied diet, the change you can make is to give her decent bedding again. If you use wood, the *only* safe kind is aspen. Do sunflower seeds, and then corn, last, because they are common allergens.

As I said, go back three days' worth of changes if she begins sneezing again, and try something else instead of what you tried. This way you will find out what she is allergic to. During this time you will not want to give her the Benadryl, because if you do you  may never identify the allergen.

If she sneezes regardless of environment, the next thing is to try another antibiotic (or try that first, which might be simpler!). Mice are always carriers of a respiratory bacteria called Mycoplasma pulmonis (myco). When they get sick, they either have myco, or myco *and* something else (a secondary infection). Usually treating them for one is sufficient, and their symptoms will subside. Common antibiotic treatments for myco are Baytril or Doxycycline. Amoxicillin is often used against a secondary infection. However, Amoxicillin and Baytril work against each other (my vet didn't know this, so your vet might not either); Amoxicillin and Doxycycline are a good combination. Hopefully your vet is open to suggestion. It is important to get a vet who is quite experienced in rats and mice, because they are simply quite different from dogs and cats. You may want to call around, and if you do, be sure to ask how many mice the vet has treated in the past month or so. Although antibiotics usually make somewhat of a difference in three-four days, you should give them a week to see if it works.

If the antibiotics and the allergen tests don't work, I would recommend both trying to find a vet to ask online or on the phone (try the link I mention in my profile-- tell me if the link no longer works), and writing back to me. I have a dozen or so mouse connections who may be able to help if I contact them.

Best of luck and health to your special little mouse. She is very lucky to have such loving people companions.

squeaks,

Natasha
<:3  )--~