Mouse Injuries

Question
So I have three fancy mice. I bought them from the pet store with them all together and they lived fine together for awhile. After awhile though two of them started beating up on one, so I took that one out and they got along for awhile. Then the other two started fighting, so it's been a switching around situation lately, they'll be fine with each other for awhile and then out of nowhere start fighting. Recently it has been Stevie in one cage and Davy and Oli in the other cage, last night I woke up to them squeaking and figured it was a normal riff and Davy would go to his spot in time. When I woke up this morning he had a huge cut on his back and it was bloody. I have washed it out and applied neosporin. He currently is in a temporary housing just so he can heal and not be going through tubes and irritating it more. He is still eating and moving around.

Is there anything else that I can do to help it heal any quicker? And is there anyway that his fur will grow back when it heals?

I'm just trying to figure all of this out, I'm new at owning mice as pets.

Answer
Dear Caitlyn,

What you are finding out is the sad fact that male mice don't live together well.  Sometimes littermates will be friendly for life, but in other cases it is unusual.  These little guys are very territorial and would prefer their own square mile rather than share a square foot!  It's tough to be a male mouse.  If they end up each in a separate cage-- which is likely-- please keep the cages close together because they do actually communicate constantly in high-pitched little squeaks that we can't  hear.  You also have to give a mouse a lot of people-time and physical attention if it lives alone.  You can probably hold them all at once.

As for little Davy, he should have an antibiotic in case of infection.  The one that I use is Tetracycline, which you can buy in a pet store in the fish section.  It comes in capsules of powder.

Mix one capsule powder with about a drop of water to form a light paste.  Pick up the mouse by the scruff of its neck.  This is the loose fur behind its head, and it's how its mom used to carry it, so it doesn't hurt at all.  However, Davy won't be thrilled and he will struggle.  Do your best to get a little bit of the paste into his mouth and wipe some more around his whiskers (not the nose) and on the wound.  Then put a half capsule in a small bottle or a full capsule in a large bottle of water and change that every other day for a week.  

This should retard any infection quickly.  Hopefully Davy will return to good health quickly. Make sure he doesn't get cold and always has food available. Don't put him back with another mouse until he is at least completely healed, if ever : (

I do welcome you to the wonderful world of mice.   I hope the rest of your mosue journey goes well!

squeaks,

Natasha