PETS - Apple

[silverblue]

Last night after transferring my mice back to the big cage, I put Apple in. I looked up no more than a minute later and she was thrashing around in the murine equivalent of a grand mal seizure. It was pretty horrible to watch, and she appeared to be choking to death. Chaos tried to pick her up to tap her back with a finger to clear her airways,

Comments

[tcpip]

*nods* When reading the description it sounded like a stroke. Poor wee thing.

We could not work out a way to humanely euthanise her (I know one sure fire way but I am FAR too squeamish to do it

Nitrous oxide is apparently a pleasant way to go to the big sleep.

[silverblue]

Is it? I might keep some on tap. Fish are easier (clove oil in water will send them into a sort of hibernatory state, then you gradually ad alcohol to it until they expire).

She's still going though! Mind you, I could never keep rats I think, I am far too attached to my mice and I know they are less interactive than ratties would be. Doesn't stop me being tempted.

[tcpip]

Oh, I like mice a lot as well... I used to have them as a boy. Guess my rodents just got bigger as I did..

Home euthanasia techniques here:
http://www.ratfanclub.org/euth.html

[andricongirl]

i was told in ( a container) in the freezer.

a friend once had a lot of baby (feral) mice caught at their work and they called a vet. that was his suggestion.

[ninjakitten]

Wow... I'm sorry you all (including Apple) had to go through that, but she's definitely a fighter, isn't she? I hope she recovers well.

[silverblue]

I hope so, but she is a VERY old mousie :) About 6 months past her time.

[scascot]

I hereby confer upon Apple the title of R.O.U.S. - Rodent of Unusual Stamina.

[bunny_hugger]

I had a mouse have what was apparently a seizure and then slowly recover as you describe. For the rest of his life, he would occasionally have one. My best guess is that he was, in fact, epileptic. I also had a mouse who, it seems, had a stroke. He acted like he was near death for a while, lying on his side and not reacting to things, and then eventually picked himself back up. Over the next few days he recovered most of his motor functioning, although half of his face was sort of slack. He continued to live happily for at least a couple of months after that -- which in mouse terms is nothing to scoff at. So my experiences with those two mice have led me to be slow to euthanize.

I don't know if you have access to it, but I have euthanized mice with ether -- which in my neck of the woods is sold in aerosol cans as auto starting fluid. It is a pretty dangerous thing to mess around with, though.

Oh, and I used to have a mouse named Apple, too.

[silverblue]

That is because Apple is a great name for a mouse. Yeah, I am glad I didn't try to euthanise her now :)

[karjack]

You should get Byakko to a safehouse, just to be sure. If she's unstoppable, you know who her first victim will be.

[silverblue]

They will find nothing after Paws of Fury have been through.