Wild mouse issues with tame mice

Question
QUESTION: IM PANICKING. My mice are usually completely active during the night- just now i have discovered that the mice are not out like thier usual selves. I decide i would see what was going on and when i looked, they were just poofed up in a little ball. I thought that was normal- except that they didn't react to my touch. So i picked them up and they were cold. There eyes were still a little open but they weren't alot. When i touched ones tummy it wriggled abit but didn't move around like it usually would. So i started to panic. I found a hot water bottle and covered it with a cloth then placed the mice on it. (Trying to warm them up) They are both Girls and not that much older than two months- i think. But im really worried! Please tell me what i can do to keep them alive.

ANSWER: Dear Taylor,

As you have figured, a cold mouse is in very bad shape.  You did the best thing:  Warm them up.  Whenever a mouse gets sick for any reason, whether poison, illness, or injury, the first thing that happens is that it can no longer produce the heat it needs to survive.  When it it cold it cannot fight off the problem.  Therefore warming up a mouse is always a good idea.  Then she can try to heal herself.

However, chances are slim.  I'm sorry.  It's crucial that you figure out what happened so it doesn't happen to the next mice.  Did their cage get wet? Cold?  Hot? Did they eat something poisonous? Was anything new in the cage? Were there any poisonous fumes? Were any humans in the house ill recently?

I'm terribly sorry about your little mice.  I hope they survive; but if they don't, know you did the best you could.

squeaks,

Natasha

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

QUESTION: Thanks. :) They warmed up and for a couple of hours they looked better. SADLY one of them did die- but on SURVIVED and is on the mend.
Out where i live it is extremely cold and a couple of male mice have found there way into our house. My mother saw them sitting on top of the females cage and one of them urinated in the water. I washed the bowl out and gave them fresh water- could this have anything to do with there illness?

Today i have placed a mini hot water bottle inside the lone mouse cage just incase. Should i continue to do this?

Thanks HEAPS

Taylor

Answer
Dear Taylor,

I'm so happy that one survived!  I saved a very sick  mouse once by holding her in my hand in my pocket the entire night.  All the other mice in the cage died (it was unintentional poisoning) but she had been the sickest, and she survived to live a long life.  

If the house is cold, the mouse is at risk.  However, she might chew through the hot water bottle, soak her nest, get wet, get cold, and die from that!  You have to be very careful of what you put in the cage.  My mice even chewed through the hard plastic of an ice pack that I had in there to keep them cool. I knew it was nontoxic, but I was hoping they wouldn't do it.  The climate control device must be on the outside of the cage, or be made of glass. Can you keep a heater near the cage?

Yes, it might well have been the wild mouse urine that made them sick.  She should learn to drink out of a water bottle (until then, put her water bowl under something like a little box with a doorway in it). Having wild mice around is a real problem. I've had numerous disasters due to wild mice.  I even saw my mouse follow a wild mouse out of the cage that the wild mouse chewed a hole in!  I caught her and gave her a lecture.  I have also had unexpected babies an an all-girls cage.  The bars were close enough together that my girls couldn't get out, but wild mice are small.  Lastly, they will urinate all around (and on top of) the cage to mark their territory.  The best thing to do is set a live trap and catch the offending mice.  Then let them loose a mile and a half away from the house, or they will return.

Especially because of the cold, your mouse needs friends.  When she seems well, you should get her two girlfriends.  There should always be two mice so that when one dies, there is not a devastated mouse left.  They can die of a broken heart.  I've actually watched this happen.   

Best of luck with everything.  Again, I am so happy that one mouse made it!

squeaks,

Natasha