# Advice re antibiotics for pet mouse.



## susan cornthwaite (Sep 17, 2020)

I need some advice please.

Until recently I had 4 pet mice. 1 neutered male and 3 female ( two of which were sisters)

All lived happily together. All shared the same cage / food / exercise wheels etc. One of the sisters was much fatter than all the rest and developed a respiratory infection Despite antibiotics from the vet she died. I had separated her from the others and made sure the cage was clean.

The others showed no signs of any infection, but her sister was constantly looking for her and started pinning and refused to eat or drink.

Despite best efforts from me and the other little female who kept nuzzling her she also unfortunately died.

The male is very laid back and does socialise with the other mice but also like his own company.

Worried that the remaining female might get lonely, I waited a week and then went to the pet shop.

They had two females for sale, They advised me that one had been returned by another customer, was traumatised and the two must go together.

I bought both, took them home, left them to settle down the first night.

The second night, I cleaned out my cage so that it would be neutral territory and slowly put all the mice in the newly cleaned cage. After some hesitation all seemed well. Until later when I saw the so called traumatised mouse dig its front paws in to the rear of my female and prove that it was indeed a male.

I separated it and returned it to the pet shop explaining it was a male.

My female is slightly skittish and even more so without the other females. A day or so later I noticed a swelling on her right side near her back leg where Mr mouse’s paws were. As it had developed very quickly, the vet assumed an abcess. She tried to drain it by drawing the fluid but found it was mostly blood. The mouse shows no distress is moving, eating and drinking normally. She has prescribed antibiotics, but says they are not licensed for a mouse and does not know what will happen. The antibiotics are Synulox palatable drops. She also advised she did not know how they would affect things if the little mouse was in fact pregnant. I’d previously thought I would deal with this if it happened.


I’m unsure what to do. If I give the antibiotics, I don’t want to cause any problems. If I don’t and she has an infection. I just don’t want to loose another little mouse. luckily the second one from the pet shop was to small / young to be the object of Mr mouse’s affections. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks


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## Beth78 (Jul 4, 2019)

I have used Synulox with rats and it cleared up a resp infection nicely, no experience of mice though I'm afraid.

I mixed the antibiotics with some penut butter and ready break so I knew they were being taken.

Good luck


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