Cold mice

Question
aloha Natasha, I think our pet mice are sick.  We have two sisters and a son of one of those.  Yesterday, the son felt a bit colder to the touch than usual, which we attributed to the weather.  However, lastnight, we found him dead in their cage.  He was only about 4 months old.  the girls were fine, warm and active.  However, this morning, we found them sleeping in their food dish, an unusual habit, and they felt a bit colder than normal. My daughter has been holding them for about an hour, and we set up a box for them in the house with a heating light. It's been getting a bit colder here, but where I live in Mt. View, Hawaii, it only gets down to about 50 in DEC-JAN. also, she gave all of them a bath yesterday, and always dries them well. she has done this with all of our mice, with no problems.  Please help! We are very worried. any help would be sooo appreciated!

Answer
Dear Sandi-Lyn,

Healthy  mice never feel cold to the touch.  They have a temperature of about 99 degrees and they work hard to maintain that.  This is why they eat so much-- they have to keep their furnaces going.  If you think about the minute amount of mouse volume compared to its surface area, you will imagine that it is very hard for a mouse to retain the warmth it needs.

Mice are, in nature, somewhat disposable.  That is, nature makes many mice so that some will survive while the others get eaten; unlike another animal which might have a few offspring, each of which is very good at surviving.  A mouse, being more expendable to Mother Nature, has less reserve capacity to remain healthy if something goes wrong.

My point here is that since the mouse uses so much of its energy just to survive when all is well, as soon as a mouse gets very sick in some way, or is dying a natural death, the first thing that happens is that it loses its ability to keep itself warm.  My belief is that often it is this lower temperature which kills the mouse rather than always being the illness.  Thus I do just as you daughter does and try to warm up my mice when something is wrong.  Sometimes this works wonders.  One time I held the sickest little mouse of a batch of poisoned mice all night long in my hands/pocket.  That mouse survived to be a strong adult, whereas the stronger mice all died that night (to my torment).  I feel I've saved other mice in the same way too.  It's not just warmth but also love in a case like that.

Because the first mouse died, it is obvious that the illness is a very serious one; holding the others is the best way to keep them going but there's no guarantee it will keep them long enough to treat them. However, if they survive the night but are still ill in the morning, either a vet trip or, if that is too expensive or difficult, a home course of antibiotics, would be the next course of action.  I explain how to give mice the over-the-counter antibiotic Tetracycline in the following post:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2008/9/Administering-antibiotic-Tetracyclin...

Last,I suggest that mice never be bathed.  They are extremely clean creatures and do a wonderful job staying tidy.  If a mouse is smelly, it means the cage needs cleaning.  Although it may not have been a problem in the past for you, in this case with the mice apparently coming down with something, the bath may have caused them to get a chill which lowered their immune response.  Mice are such delicate things, it is best to always play it safe and never let them get wet or cold.

I hope your mice get well.  Please don't hesitate to ask more questions.  As to the immediate health of the mice, going to the vet is the quickest and surest way to know what to do.  My medical advice comes in when the vet trip isn't feasible.

squeaks,

Natasha