Itchy, sneezy, balding, sick mouse

Question
Hi Natasha! My mouse needs help!
About less than 2 weeks ago I bought this really sweet and adorable male fancy mouse from Petco. It was really energetic until a few days ago I started seeing it scratching/cleaning itself a lot. Also its heart is racing or it's panting/gasping, I can't really tell but I'm very worried about it. I think its hair got thinner, I wonder if there's mites? I'm using Carefresh bedding and I read somewhere online that this brand sometimes carries mites? I changed bedding every 3 days but then I noticed yesterday that maybe it's the bedding that makes it sneeze. I don't know whether I should keep doing that or change another brand of bedding. Besides the itchiness, hair loss and heavy breathing, my mouse made some clicking noise a few times. Currently it's staying in a small plastic carrier. I don't have much money to get a large cage and I was DIYing a habitat out of a storage bin. What should I do besides taking it to the vet? I'm a college student, I can't really afford vet fee as I heard that mouse check up is as expensive as dog/cat check ups. Do you think I can use your treatments like Tetracycline, ivermectin,spray and bath? Can I combine the treatments and use them together? I don't know what to do now I really don't want to lose my mouse. It's such a sweetheart it never bit me once when I handle it, and when it senses me near by it always drops what it's doing and runs to me trying to sniff through the walls. Can you tell me around how much is seeing a vet for mouse? I'll see what I can do if going to a vet is the only way.

Thank you very much,
Jean

Answer
Dear Jean,

Yes, mouse vet costs are as bad as for larger animals. Actually mouse medicine is harder because they are so little! The only think that should be less expensive is medication, because they don't need much. Still, your mousie is quite sick, so if you CAN bring him to the vet, it will greatly improve his chances. But here are the home remedies.

The itchiness with the sneezing might mean an allergy, or two separate problems.

In the following post I described both how to deal with possible allergies and how to treat for mites using the pyrethrin spray from 8 in 1, including where to get the spray.  

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/6/Itchy-Mouse-2.htm

You should not treat for mites in more than one way at once; that is, use *either* the 8 in 1 *or* the ivermectin ( I never recommend a bath for a mouse), which I describe here:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/9/cure-mouse-mites-ivermectin.htm

The reason I usually recommend the pyrethrin spray is that it is easier to obtain.

If the problem is mites then the mouse may have a respiratory infection on top of that. That's not so unusual-- one condition lowers the immune response, which allows the other condition to become a problem more easily.  One post describing the use of Tetracycline, available over the counter, is linked below:  

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/6/respiratory-infection-mouse-colony.h...

It's hard to know what to do first with so many options. But because the mouse sounds so sick,  it's more important to heal him now and figure out what the problem was later; so I recommend changing bedding and food, and treating with Tetracycline and the mite spray, all at once. Don't wait till you can buy new bedding and food-- until you can get some, even if just for a few hours, give him something simple like paper towels in the nest and oatmeal to eat.  Once the mouse is Ok you can try the old bedding and food again.

Last (maybe should have been first) if he is actually gasping with an open mouth, you should give him a steam bath right away to help him to breathe. Turn on the hot water in the shower until the shower or room is full of steam. Hold him in the steam but don't let him get wet, for 5-10 minutes.

I wish him the best of luck and health.

squeaks,

Natasha