# Mouse Swollen Abdomen, Vet was no help



## meegan (Mar 24, 2013)

hi i have 3 mice, all girls and no boys in the house - had them for a year and a half with no babies or pregnancies so no way are any of them pregnant atm

one of my mices stomachs started to swell up like she was pregnant and i freaked out thinking a wild mouse had gotten in somehow (their cage is high up ontop of my wardrobe locked in my room as i have a nosy dog i dont trust around them and isnt allowed in there)

so i took her to the vets to make sure and the vet felt her a bit then said that she had a build up of gas, this made sense as her stomach when pressed gently felt like it was inflated with air. i followed the vets advice of using the same stuff to stimulate human babies to pass gas and went to the supermarket and bought kayo soup, mixed it with water and fed it to her to help her (he said it is the safest method and i should see her swelling start to decrease within 24 hours)

however she hasnt started to go back to normal even after a week of doing this, i started researching on the internet and bloat means she wouldnt be able to toilet normally or at all, well shes always toileted normal poos so im starting to think the vet was wrong plus her fur is silky smooth and shiny not ruffled and dull like shes ill and she has no problem leaping about and climbing with her sisters she isnt lethargic or struggling to get around and she doesnt have heavy breathing as another website suggests is the case with bloat

she isnt fat as her legs are normal size and her head and neck dont have fat rolls either plus she isnt the dominant mouse so she wouldnt be hogging all the food, she regularly lets the dominant mouse snatch her food off her infact

does anyone know what it may be? i had another appointment booked for monday with another vet but i dont know if ill be able to make it as its half an hour away and its suddenly snowed quite thickly so i want to make sure i can take a few steps to relieve her discomfort in the meantime

this is NOT my mouse but as she moves too quickly and i dont want to dig her out of the nest box and stress her to take photos i googled an image that looks just like what my mouse has, this mouse is more swollen than mine but the general pear shape is the same


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## Jazzy (Apr 15, 2009)

I wonder if she could have some sort of stomach tumour?


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

My best guess would be pyrometra or unfortunately a mass. If it is pyrometra and you are seeing no signs of pus or infection from her then I would be worried about closed pyrometra. Having said that I had a mouse who was also the same colour as your girl, she was always far fatter than the others and had the same pear shape as your girl, she lived a full, long life and didn't show any signs of sickness.


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2013)

I would mention pyometra to the vet tbh.


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Pyo could be an option, tumours - mine have had this a lot and looked the same way as your mouse. There could also be a minor obstruction in her body somewhere causing food and gas to build up. To rule out just an ordinary build up of gas you could try a natural live yoghurt - give her just a tiny bit once a day and see how that goes (one of my males had this when he became bloated and over a week it disappeared.) Unfortunately with mice they are too small for the vets to do any type of tests really so all they can do is treat the symptom that is showing - if she doesn't show any other symptoms then your vet won't have anything else to go by  I'd take her back and ask if you can try some antibiotics incase it's pyo (the don't always look ill with something like that until it is too far advanced for them to recover - one of mine has just recovered from it and the only sign of something wrong was a tiny bit of discharge) and at least you can rule those things out. If she doesn't improve with any of those things, then just enjoy her, sometimes you find that a mouse's metabolism slows down as they get older and it might be something as simple as that.


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## meegan (Mar 24, 2013)

oh no, is pyrometra really bad? is it treatable?

my mouse is black and lives with her sisters (litter mates from a small breeder) who are quite slim so im really worried shes not fat and it is something serious like people have mentioned (particularly the tumour thing!)

ive never noticed any blood coming from her and there was none when the vet held her to check her stomach but she did squeak sharply whereas she is normally silent. i put it down to being stressed about being picked up, prodded and held still though


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## meegan (Mar 24, 2013)

zany_toon said:


> Pyo could be an option, tumours - mine have had this a lot and looked the same way as your mouse. There could also be a minor obstruction in her body somewhere causing food and gas to build up. To rule out just an ordinary build up of gas you could try a natural live yoghurt - give her just a tiny bit once a day and see how that goes (one of my males had this when he became bloated and over a week it disappeared.) Unfortunately with mice they are too small for the vets to do any type of tests really so all they can do is treat the symptom that is showing - if she doesn't show any other symptoms then your vet won't have anything else to go by  I'd take her back and ask if you can try some antibiotics incase it's pyo (the don't always look ill with something like that until it is too far advanced for them to recover - one of mine has just recovered from it and the only sign of something wrong was a tiny bit of discharge) and at least you can rule those things out. If she doesn't improve with any of those things, then just enjoy her, sometimes you find that a mouse's metabolism slows down as they get older and it might be something as simple as that.


thank you i will definitely go get some live yogurt and try her on that, unfortunately the vet said he would only be able to investigate properly with a necropsy which obviously wouldnt help her as shed have to die first :l i just thought there would be a scan or blood test or at least something avaliable to be able to see whats going on in her little stomach

is there a particular anti biotic that i can ask for which would work the best?


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

meegan said:


> thank you i will definitely go get some live yogurt and try her on that, unfortunately the vet said he would only be able to investigate properly with a necropsy which obviously wouldnt help her as shed have to die first :l i just thought there would be a scan or blood test or at least something avaliable to be able to see whats going on in her little stomach
> 
> is there a particular anti biotic that i can ask for which would work the best?


Blood tests are a no for mice - they need at least 1ml of blood to run one test with no repeats so if the results were inconclusive and they needed more blood then it would make for a very ill little mouse if it survived without 2ml of blood. And as for scans they are a bit small for them to show all their internal organs withthe available equipment, or at least as far as I know.

Normally a vet will prescribe baytril as it's the only antibiotic licensed for small animals. They might prescribe other antibiotics with it, I know mine did for Blossom when she had pyo she was given baytril and a tiny pinch of antirobe every day but I don't think that is common for vets to do.


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## Becs1051 (Jun 23, 2011)

That picture reminds me of how my Maisie looked last year, I know Maisie is a gerbil and yours is a mouse... Maisie had a HUUUUGE ovarian cyst on one side and a smaller ovarian tumour on the other. This was diagnosed with an x ray and ultrasound - not cheap and required sedation so may not be appropriate for a mouse? Maisie had surgery to remove everything at the beginning of the year and is now doing really well although the first few days were tough. As I say, I realise the situation in a mouse may be slightly different but thought I would mention it. Hope you get to the bottom of your mouse's problem


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