9-5-10, my swollen belly mouse baby died

Question
Natasha, thanks for getting back to me.  I wrote to you on 9-4-10 about swollen belly having me concerned. He was sqeaking when I wiped/massaged his belly, that started on 9-3-10.  His diet was just the egg/milk mixture I got online. He was eating it fine, pooping too. Thought it was working.  I wish that somewhere online it would tell you only to use this egg/milk mixture to start, then get KMR.  He was hungry and drank it, I thought it was good for him.  Now today, Sunday 9-5-10 I believe it wasn't good for him.  He died about 130pm. Last feeding was 1230pm, which he was not too hungry or responsive to the eyedropper, kindof sleepy acting.  He is a baby, they sleep alot, so I thought ok, don't force it.  I checked on him 115pm, held him, he was breathing slow and he was cold.  It happened then. No where did I find online to not feed cow milk for longer than 1-2 days.  If he took it I thought it was great. I would of got the KMR the next day if I realized it was the only good thing for his digestive tract! Now I feel like a failure. I was looking forward to the 14 days and his eyes opening.  He was going to be part of our family.  Is the swollen belly a sign it was not good food for him? I fed him as much as he wanted to take at each feeding...and fed him every 3-4 hours, which he pooped between feeding and slept. Funmouse.com had pics of size and at 5 days is when I found him. That was my gauge for age but my little guy wasn't growing like those pics. My fault for not feeding KMR, he wasn't getting nutrients to grow. Does cows milk kill babies, or have a bacteria that they can't handle? He wasn't given a fair chance on life, my stupidity. My boyfriend thought that the eqq/milk mixture wasn't a good idea but he chooses to tell me today. Now I feel worse.  I just want to understand where I went wrong.

Answer
Dear Bobbi,

I'm sorry about the little pup. I was afraid he wouldn't make it. Mouse pups are so defenseless and fragile that it's terribly difficult to raise them.  

Cow's milk isn't really good for most animals.  Actually it's not great for people either! I think it is hard to digest the lactose in it. I don't have medical training so I can't help you much more than that.  

I have learned about raising mouse orphans first from the Internet and then from mouse people I got in contact with, notably the other mouse experts.  The person I know who has raised dozens and dozens of orphans actually uses possum milk. But most people say KMR, soy milk, or an infant formula such as pedialyte.  I have seen warnings about cow's milk, which some say can be used in an emergency. Yogurt seems to be a little better than milk. So when I saw that you were using the milk and egg I was worried. You couldn't have known, and it's hard to know what is right and wrong online. I've made a few embarrassing mistakes on this forum (eg misunderstanding how mouse estrus works) and now I can't even get the site to delete the wrong answers that I gave. So a lot of wrong information is easy to find (I had learned the wrong info online myself).

So please don't blame yourself. You couldn't have known. You gave him your best. I have also looked online to try to find statistics for how many mouse foundlings survive, though there are so many variables (age, condition, stress..). People tended to suggest around 50%.  

Best of luck to you.

squeaks,

Natasha