# HELP! Indoor cat caught mouse!



## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Eww it's 5am and I'm freaking out. I got up to go to the toilet and found Bunk, who is indoor only, playing with a small dead mouse!

My husband got rid of the mouse and now I'm freaking out. I feel physically sick and I can't sleep because I'm worried there are more mice. I also don't want Bunk to touch me and start licking my face like he always does after what he's been touching! 

Firstly does this mean there are probably more mice if he found one?

Secondly should I worry about diseases for him and us? He's not vaccinated and never gets flew treatmend or dewormed because he never ever goes outside.

I feel sick to my stomach and don't know what to do! I'm so shocked, I thought it was a toy at first but then I thought 'I've never seen that toy before!' Then I realised and started freaking right out! I'm just glad he didn't bring it to me and put it on me but that's what I'm scared he'll do with another one. He was just throwing it around! Ewww :-(


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## sarahecp (Aug 22, 2011)

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with a dead mouse and hope you get over the shock of it soon. It is horrible because you you keep thinking about it. Sending you hugs xx

If you've got mice in the house I'm sure Bunk would let know, cats hear the tiniest thing that we can't, but hopefully it's just a one off.

I've no experience of having mice but would expect there to be signs of droppings and things being chewed maybe. Is there any way it could have come in? Bunk being an innie you obviously don't keep doors open. 

As for Bunk, I'm sure he'll be ok, but to put your mind at rest why not give your vet a call this morning and explain what happened, and hopefully they'll reasure you. 

Fingers crossed all will be ok.


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Thanks, I know I'm probably over reacting a bit. He didn't eat it so he's probably ok but I'm going to get some worming stuff and flea treatment tomorrow just in case.

He just came into the bedroom and started trying to snuggle up to me and I had to push him away haha. 

There's been no signs of mice but I think it might've come from behind the cooker and washing machine because a few weeks ago Bunk was acting strangely around that area and he hissed at something. I've only seen him hiss once before and that was when he was ill. I'll get my dad or husband to take a look today.

We live in a middle floor flat and don't have a garden so I can't think it would've just wandered in. Apparently they can get in through holes the size of a penny! I think Bunk's upset that we took his toy away. He's pacing around looking sad and meowing!


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

You should be fleeing and worming him anyway, as you can bring flees in on clothes or shoes and they carry worms! you can also have worm eggs under fingernails etc if you've been in contact with other animals, so really not great that he doesn't have that occasionally at the very least. If it couldn't have wandered in then you've probably got more, but I wouldn't worry. He's obviously good at catching them! Just give him a cuddle and praise his bravery and he's more likely to do it again!


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## idris (Feb 19, 2015)

I live in a row of Victorian terraces and Mice are very much a fact of life here. All it takes is someone to start some home improvements and their mice go on holiday whilst the work is done. I can eradicate mice in this house no problem. But you get more coming. They never actually seem to be gone long. I have seen less evidence of mice since we got mischief. Maybe the smell of cat is off putting. If your kitty did not eat the mouse then I would still worm him, this might not be the first he has caught and he may have eaten one prior. I would not be ringing the vet myself, it's hardly headline news cat kills mouse, if you suspect tho that the mouse has bitten him that's different. I agree with you whole hartedly I would not be accepting really close smooches off a cat that has just been licking a mouse. He deserves a treat. well done kitty I confer upon you the title of MOUSER :Cat


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

I know I should worm and flea him regularly, he's just so awkward with anything like that so I wasn't sure if it was worth the hassle for a small risk. I've learnt now though and will be doing it from now on! 

He's obsessed with licking me and grooming me and does it all the time but I don't want him doing it today! 

He looks really proud of himself at the moment!


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## Charity (Apr 17, 2013)

The mouse would have been much more afraid of you and Bunk than you were of him. You'd be amazed at the places mice can get, they often live in loft spaces so you ask yourself - how did they get up there? I'm sure this one has found his way to your place through pipes or behind walls and is, hopefully, a one off. That was quite an adventure for Bunk . As others have said, just because he's indoors, he still needs flea and worm treatment. Best thing would be to get your husband to pull out appliances and check for signs of droppings behind. I once had to spend a Bank Holiday weekend on my own with a rat in my kitchen, by the time he left I called him Roland!


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Well, not a one off! I just got back to sleep and then heard him making loads of noise, woke up and he had brought another one into the bedroom and was throwing it around on the floor on my side of the bed!!!!!!!!!


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## idris (Feb 19, 2015)

I up your title Bunk to MOUSER EXTRAORDINAIRE


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## sarahecp (Aug 22, 2011)

BunksMum said:


> Well, not a one off! I just got back to sleep and then heard him making loads of noise, woke up and he had brought another one into the bedroom and was throwing it around on the floor on my side of the bed!!!!!!!!!


I'm sorry but this made me laugh! 

At least he's catching them  well done Bunk  

Seb is a hunter and brings things in, mostly frogs that he doesn't harm and then there's the birds  I can cope with things that are still alive, anything dead or half dead I go to pieces!!


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## Charity (Apr 17, 2013)

I take it back then . Good work Bunk. Hope this one was dead as well! I hate to say it but there might be a nest somewhere...but let's not go there.


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Yeah this one was dead as well. He looked like he was trying to wrap it up in my pyjamas that were on the floor! My husband is going to work today but my parents are coming over and we are going to pull the washing machine out as im sure that's where they're coming from. I'm in the spare room at the moment and Bunk is trying to get in. I don't want to let him in though in case he's got another present for me!!


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## LisaandPatch (Sep 2, 2013)

Must be the mouse season as Patch has had 3 field mouse this week. The first one he bought inside - realised what it was amongst the leaves when it moved!- I managed to capture and release. The other 2 I found in the garden when hanging washing out, so he'd obviously been having lots of fun. He doesn't eat them yet.

We used on live in a mansionnette and one day returned home to a mouse on the kitchen counter. Wasn't the last either! Our mansionnette was on the first and second floor and so had no garden, but they must have come in through holes in the walls from the ground floor massionnete and then up pipes etc. we pulled everything we could out of the kitchen and blocked any hole no matter how big. Never saw them after that. 

We've lived in our house for 10 years now and until we got Patch nearly 2 years ago, I never knew we had mice!


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## AmsMam (Nov 25, 2014)

idris said:


> I have seen less evidence of mice since we got mischief. Maybe the smell of cat is off putting.


Yup, I lived in a Victorian terrace as a student and shortly after our neighbours got a cute ginger kitten we had a mousesplosion. The landlord got a guy out to deal with them, who said just that, they know there is a cat but terraces are riddled with gaps they can run through so they just move along to a safer place.

We have mice living somewhere around our current house but I have only seen them outside - until we got a cat and she started bringing them indoors to play with. Thanks for that...


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

He's having a nap now and looking very pleased with himself!

Me and my dad think we've discovered where they're coming in, there's a huge hole about the size of a small bowl behind the cupboard by Bunks food bowl and it's in the area that Bunks been sniffing around and acting weird. So we will block that hole later and let the landlord know as well.

I don't feel comfortable sleeping knowing that Bunk could put a mouse on me though so I think I'm going to have to shut him out of the bedroom tonight for the first time ever. He won't be happy! He doesn't usually sleep in here all night but he pops in and out :-(


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## Jiskefet (May 15, 2011)

idris said:


> I up your title Bunk to MOUSER EXTRAORDINAIRE
> View attachment 234437


Your Bunk is like my Steffie, then.
She would catch mice and offer them to me in the middle of the night as a special gift.
I could never get her to understand I don't take breakfast in bed, and most certainly not in the middle of the night.
The one thing that did freak me out is when she brought in a live one and let it loose on the duvet for me to catch. I flapped the duvet and sent the mouse flying, and it disappeared under the bed with Steffie in tow. She decided it was wasted on me and ate it there and then.
So there I was in my bed, listening to mouse bones being crunched between her jaws.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

@BunksMum - I take it you wouldn't be too keen on the idea of feeding a whole prey diet to Bunk then? 

My cats are always bringing in live wood-mice they catch in the woodland below my garden. :Woot Wood mice are such cute little creatures with big ears! :Angelic Luckily my OH and I have become adept over the years at trapping the little critturs humanely and relocating them back where they belong, outdoors.

I have never seen any house mice in our house, which may be due to the sonic mouse repellents we have placed around the house, or maybe our cats have driven them all away!


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## huckybuck (Jan 17, 2014)

We had a mouse living behind the washing machine in the utility where the cats were fed (we had 3 cats at the time) and it used to steal their food and drink their water. I wondered what the smell was one day (old cat food) and pulled oyt the machine to see that he had stock piled the biscuits..it was seat looking up at me FAT!!!!

We have no idea how it got in!!

I've now mice in my hen run and have put humane traps down which they simply take the food out of and mange to get out of. I've got a sonic mouse repellant which doesn't work either. I don't want to resort to killing them but I don't know what else to do..
If anyone has any ideas of what trap to use (non kill and not a cat!!!!) can you let me know???


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## LostSoul (Sep 29, 2012)

I remember the shock i got about 8 years when a mouse ran across my foot in my kitchen...i was 2 floors up and had 4 cats at that time, all 4 cats saw it and not one cat tried to catch it!! 
turned out one of our neighbours on the ground floor had taken off and left everything there, including the food, i made my hubby rip out half of the kitchen until he found where they were getting in and we actually saw the mouse pop into the hole so he blocked it up with a bucket load of cement and i did put traps down under the units even though i had always been against it, i just didnt know what else to do and people kept telling me if i caught them and let them go they would just find their way back and i didnt know was true or not....we were lucky, we never caught any or saw any signs of any others.
we've got them in our shed but theres nothing much in there and they made the cutest little orange and black nest out of some old halloween decorations i didnt have the heart to destroy it...outside they are fine, inside they have to go!


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## auspiciousmind (Sep 2, 2012)

Before I started reading this I'd undone my belt on my jeans... It's sticking out straight. I read this thread on my phone and as I was walking across the kitchen I jumped out of my skin thinking I'd seen a mouse... It was my belt :Shamefullyembarrased

Only one of my cats goes outdoors so she's monitored when coming back in.. As before the other cats came here she could go in and out freely... A prolific hunter.. So I've seen more than my fair share of mice, gigantic rats :Vomit, shrews, rabbits, birds - both alive and dead. I did get used to it though... Although I couldn't bring myself to look at Button for a few hours afterwards lol. 

Can't really advise much more than anyone else above re: worming, flea treatment being important. I noticed nobody mentioned vaccinations though and personally even though mine are indoor cats I make sure they have their initial and their first booster jabs (at least) - Your cat may not go outside but what if he has to have a trip to the vets for dental work etc? What if you bring something in on your clothes?

Hope your okay and you don't get any more visitors!


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## GingerNinja (Mar 23, 2014)

Years ago we would find dead mice in shoes etc. I once tried to save one I'd cornered by the front door, it ran straight up my arm and jumped off my shoulder


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## Jaf (Apr 17, 2014)

When I was a kid we had 2 useless cats so got a humane mouse trap. Dad put it on the side, meaning to take it to a field later. One of the cats, Eva, patted the trap off the counter top...let the mouse out which ran off to safety!

Jaffy waffy pussy catty (Jaf to his friends) was an excellent mouser. But he used to like eating them in my parents' bedroom. Crunch, crunch. One day my mum said there was a horrible smell in the room...a few days later they found a mouse under the pillow!

Don't have nightmares!


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

@huckybuck - these are the mouse traps I use, and they work well. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pest-Stop-Humane-mouse-trap/dp/B003D5WQFG


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## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

I disagree that an indoor cats should be treated for fleas and worms. There is absolutely no reason for it. That is one of the benefits of keeping a cat inside, poisons are not needed.

If the mouse was tiny, it was probably a juvenile, which indicates a nest, I am sorry to say. However, it may also indicate that the mother has already been caught/killed, and this one just happened to roam into the wrong place.

Since Bunk did not eat the mouse he is not at risk for internal parasites. I'm sorry you are so grossed out though. Eventually that will fade.


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## oliviarussian (Sep 2, 2010)

Only ever seen one mouse here, I'm on the first floor of a Victorian 4 floor house so I suspect it came up the chimney 

I was awoken by the most ungodly noise coming from Mika, I have never heard anything like it and thought he was having a fit, I ran into the lounge to find his head wedged behind a cabinet and as I moved the cabinet the mouse ran out across the room and was caught by Mika who proceeded to toy with it, letting it go and catching it again.... I am at this point standing on a chair screaming (like in the Tom and Jerry cartoons)...: It finally made a bolt for the fireplace and disappeared up the chimney again.... Mika didn't move from that spot all night long, just watching and waiting for its return, my brave protector!!!!!


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Thanks for all of your help everyone!

We stuffed the hole we found with wire wool last night, and put loads of cotton wool with peppermint on behind our appliances as apparently mice can't stand the smell.

I had to sleep with the bedroom door closed last night because I couldn't relax and Bunk came scratching and meowing at 6am. I let him in and checked the living room/kitchen and no mice. Yay! Hopefully we've solved the problem, and I'm cuddling Bunk again and feeling a lot better. I think Bunk is a bit disappointed that he didn't get to catch any more mice last night though!

Obviously I don't want to speak to soon though.


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## huckybuck (Jan 17, 2014)

chillminx said:


> @huckybuck - these are the mouse traps I use, and they work well.
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pest-Stop-Humane-mouse-trap/dp/B003D5WQFG


Thanks @chillminx I used these ages ago but haven't recently. I'll try again - they liked peanut butter last time!


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Ok I'm a bit concerned now because Bunk just properly tried to bite me, and he's never done that before. His personality seems to have changed towards me since the mice and he really tried to sink his teeth into my leg three times for no reason.

Could he be wound up by the mice, or saving energy to hunt more because he's had a taste?


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

BunksMum said:


> Ok I'm a bit concerned now because Bunk just properly tried to bite me, and he's never done that before. His personality seems to have changed towards me since the mice and he really tried to sink his teeth into my leg three times for no reason.
> 
> Could he be wound up by the mice, or saving energy to hunt more because he's had a taste?


Sounds like he could be protesting because you spoiled his mouse hunting game by blocking up the hole!


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## BunksMum (Sep 26, 2013)

Aww we never fall out! I hope he gets over it soon!


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## zedder (Aug 21, 2013)

Look on the bright side if you've got mice it means you won't have rats unfortunately mice are harder to get rid of.advice is get rid of there food source tidy up and if it were me I'd worm my cat but ask a vet if its necessary or not.


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