mouse losing fur, gasping

Question
My mouse is about 6-7 months old and is sick (for about 2-3 weeks), his fur is very thin around the nose, head and upper back, he seems to be scratching more then the usual scratch and lately have been starting to make noises (who sounds like myself when having an asthma attack...). I took him to the vet But..
I live in Israel, and raising mice as pets isn't common around here so the vets doesn't really know how to treat them..even the exotic animal vets (which i went to).
The vet injected some antibiotics and something for mites and fleas and gave me antibiotics to give him 2 times a day for 5 days. im on the 4th day and today he started making that noise again and he doesnt seem to get any better...
were using conifer wood (pellets) bedding (ever since we got him about 6 months ago) and feeding him vitakraft's hamster food (we didnt find mice food anywhere.. again,Israel).
I dont know what causes his illness cause he was great for 5 months and I cant get information since the vet doesnt know either.
PLEASE HELP :(
Thank you

Answer
Dear Topaz,

That's really tough when you can't get good vet treatment.  His problem might well be mites and a respiratory infection, which should be treated as it was treated, except if the vet didn't know about mice he may not have known how to treat a mouse and didn't get the treatments right. It's also possible that the mouse has another problem such as ringworm or mange. A mouse vet would have been able to get a skin sample and look under the microscope, and use a black light to look for ringworm.  Ask him if he has a black light.  He may not have thought to use it.

I'm not a vet, I have to stress that, but I do have experience and have talked to a lot of mouse people about illnesses. Could you find out the name of the medication and mite treatment? I may be able to direct you to something better, online if need be.

As for the breathing, that sounds like a serious respiratory problem.  When he is doing that, you can actually give him a steam bath-- go into the shower and turn it on as hot as it goes and stand there, not letting him get wet but so he is breathing in the steam. This should really  help.  Ten minutes is probably about right.

I'll check my mail soon to see if you wrote back with the information, in case i can direct you to some better treatment. Mice go down fast, so it's pretty important to act as soon as possible.

squeaks,

Natasha