respiratory infections

Question

Geisha   QUESTION: hi Tamarah,
I would just like to say thankyou in advance for taking and answering my question. i love the information you provide and have read quite alot of your previous posts regarding respiratory infections.
Ok, so my story is.... bought a mouse from a pet shop as we had a cage and everything with the intention of having mice under the christmas for our little one...but got her early cos we just couldnt not have her(her name is geisha). but they had no other females we wanted, so i ended up going to mouse breeder (mainly just bred for food), and bought 3 from her so Geisha would not be lonely. On the way home, realised one was sneezing...took her to the vet next day and got her on antibiotics and separated her. we also kept her 2 sisters in a separate cage for a couple of weeks to see if they would develop this sneeze. they looked all clear,we introduced them to geigha but after maybe a week one of the 2 started sneezing. so another trip to the vets and the 3 we got from the breeder all in isolation. (we just our fingers crossed that geisha does not get it, she is our special one).
Now my dilemma is, in this time, also acquired another 2 mice (male and female rex) as i wanted to breed them.
we ended up seeing 2 vets(at the same practice). 1st one said that there was pretty much nothing we could do, she was a gonner. 2nd vet more helpful and said that once they get the resp. infection it will always come back and will just have to keep re-treating and make sure anything that made contact with the sick mice is clean before touching the other to avoid spreading.
so my question is (after the novel i have written :)..... is the resp. infection so contagious that they will always have to be separate and that we will always have to make sure we clean everything before we can touch the others? i also dont know if i can afford all these trips to the vets. (i have read about tetracycline in past posts but not sure, will have to try look in a pet store...i asssume it will be the same here in AUS?). i would be interested to know what you would do??? A part of me feels like im being irrisposible to my other micies if i could risk spreading it to them when they are perfectly healthy...esp when i was wanting to breed some to experiment with coat types to sell.....HELP :)

ANSWER: Hi Liz,

Respiratory infections are not internal, but they ARE very contagious.  The part that lasts is the cough - some mice who were sick in the past will have a much less severe rattly cough for the rest of their lives.  That cough is not infectious, though, and they won't get sick again unless they are exposed to new pathogens.

Since URI's are a major pain in the neck, you should act preemptively and get all of the mice who have had ANY exposure to the sick ones (even when they weren't showing signs of illness) on antibiotics, regardless of if they're showing clinical signs yet.  You should be able to get tetracycline in pet shops there, too, but if not see if you can buy the medication from your vet without having to bring everyone in (since they have already seen your mice).  Keep everyone in isolation (or the cages they are in presently without moving them around) for a full 3 weeks - this is the ideal isolation period and is long enough for most diseases to become apparent.  Keep them on tetracycline for the full cycle recommended by your vet (at least 2 weeks), even if they aren't showing anymore signs.  As for any meeces that are currently showing signs, you'll have to watch them more closely.  If their health improves, medicate until the end of the dose cycle and then start the 3-week timer.  Three weeks will give you plenty of time to make sure it really is gone and not just going to come back with more resistance.  If their health declines, you need to see a vet immediately and see about trying a different antibiotic.

When isolating, keep cages far apart from each other and always, always, always wash your hands between handling the mice, even when changing cages.  This should actually go for any time you're working with your rodents - a little good hygiene practices will go a LONG way in protecting your future breeding projects!

As far as your breeding experimentation, have you tried checking out some of the mousie forums like http://mouselovers.com/ ?  They can be a big help when working with coat genetics!  :)

Let me know if you have any more questions about the URI's, or if I missed something!  Best of luck, and I hope they all stay healthy and happy!  :)
-Tam

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QUESTION: Thankyou so much, Tamarah! i just have one more question with regards to the tetracycline or antibiotics (if i can just get it off my vet). you say that ANY mouse exposed AT ALL should be treated. So I would like to put my male and female rex on it as their cage was near the sick one for a short period of time. The female is pregnant an assume is due any day now. Is it unsafe to have her on either the tetracycline and/or antibiotics while pregnant/nursing??? thankyou!

ANSWER: You're right, antibiotics should NOT be given to pregnant or nursing mothers.  If they are still in the same cage and drink from the same water, don't treat either of them.  Even once weaned, it's not advisable to give antibiotics to young mice.  Hopefully they'll be alright, but if you notice any sneezing, you should definitely talk to your vet.

Thanks for asking!!  Congrats on your upcoming litter.  :)

-Tam

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


Geisha   QUESTION: Thankyou Tamarah, i hope i am not getting annoying! i have separated the male (cobalt) from the mamma to-be (Halley), and started him on the tetracycline. I am following directions from either yours or natasha's answers (cant remember :) and have put 1/4 powder tetracycline in his water bottle and paste form on his head to clean off. do i do both of these everyday? and for how long??
Also, another unrelated question. last night i was playing with geisha and we have recently discovered that she likes to be pet and rubbed from her chin to her cheek. doing this last night she started chattering her teeth??? is this a sign she was just enjoying it?
thankyou!!

Answer
Hi again!

No, you're fine, not annoying at all!  This is what I'm here for.  :)  You don't need to continue doing the paste on the head - that's just for the first dose.  From now on all you'll have to do is keep tetracycline in the water bottle and covered from the light.  You can give it for the next 10-14 days from the first dose.

The teeth-chattering is called bruxing and it's a sign she wuvs you.  :)

-Tam