[Raindropmousery]

I have a champange doe and she keeps putting on more and more weight even though i have cut her food right down to hardly anything she is still putting on weight i dont often see her eating either i just dont no why she keeps getting bigger she is huge and weighs about 137g. I am extreamly worried as the weight is putting a big strain on her organs and she is breathing heavy and i worried if she doesnt loose weight soon she will die. She is about 7 months old.

Today when i got her out i felt her stomach and it feels like her belly is full of air and if you touch it it moves it feels just like a ballon she is mainly bulging out at the sides as is now struggling to walk as she is so big her belly fits the size of my palm she is just the biggest mouse i have ever seen. She has been getting bigger and bigger over the last few months.

Any ideas what the problem could be is it bloat? is it a reaction to food or something? Or is it something else?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

rachel

 

[Cait]

What do you feed? Some mice are genetically obese and no amount of dieting helps. Also, do you have a photo?

 

[Raindropmousery]

I feed a mix of wild bird, rabbit mix, fruity rodent mix and cat or dog bisc but iv stoped giving her dog or cat bisc.

I have got a pic just tried taking it off my phone but my computers mucking about so will try and take one with my camera.

 

[Jack Garcia]

Have you also considered worms?

 

[Raindropmousery]

yes i have treated her for that and any other parasites.

 

[Kage Davies]

I had one like that, but she ate and ate and ate. She was stealing all of the food. Maybe she is eating in secret? Check the sugar levels of those fruity rodent mix... Also, I had one doe literally puff up so fat all her fur stood on end because of an internal infection, if you held her close you could hear her insides gurgling, like when people get empty stomachs. And my friend also had a very large mouse the vet X rayed for stomach or internal tumours.

Lastly, I do have a fat buck who is just fat. But he's solidly round, without much wibble to his belly, if you see. Cutting his food does change his weight, but it also seems to effect his overal condition.

Hope something in there might be helpful XD.

 

[Raindropmousery]

Thanks kage very helpful info i am not giving her the fruity mix any more she just has plain boring rabbit mix which has some grain bits in it too but it doesnt make a difference her belly feels litterally like a ballon its just like its full of air. Hopfully it will be sorted in the end will just have to keep trying all different things.

 

[Raindropmousery]

Finally managed to take a pic of her

 

[moustress]

Impressive oinker!

 

[Norman's Mom]

Have you taken her to a vet? She may have a tumor growing inside her abdomen there....something that is blocking proper digestive processes.

How is her toilet? Are her poo's normal? Do you know if she is eliminating at all?

If she feels like she's full of air, sometimes giving her a mix of White Karo syrup and water will help her pass the gas, but darling, I hate to alarm you...you should be worried. It's not normal, and very few mice pull out of this, if it is gas in there, you will most certainly have to maintain her and watch her closely and when you see her bloat again, you'll have to try to relieve it for her, again...most times for the rest of their lives.

The Karo Syrup....find it in *any* grocery store...most often it's found where you find pancake syrup. Get the *WHITE* one, not the dark. Come home, heat up a 2 tablespoons of water in the microwave so that it's hot, hot, hot. Then pour a tablespoon of Karo syrup in the hot water, mix until melted. Wait for the mixture to cool enough and offer her some...try to get her to drink .1 to .2 ml of it...if she wants to drink more, let her....let her have as much as she wants. It's sweet, mice normally love it, it tastes good. It also works fairly fast, and she should be in a Qt tank and you need to be prepared for some diarrhea. Give this mix to her twice a day until you feel the bloat to be gone, and make sure she stays hydrated, especially if you see diarrhea. This is a common remedy for baby gas, and it is as safe as possible, it won't hurt her at all to give her as much as you want for as long as she is bloated. I did put my girl on an all Rice/Oatmeal-KMR diet for a two days to help clean out her system and sort of "restart" it with her normal seed mix, and that seemed to help.. Just remember to take anything you soak in KMR or any fresh foods out after 2 hours, or it goes bad.

My vet recommended it to me, and while my poor little girl didn't live long, the tumor growing inside finally was too much, it did make her comfortable for the remaining few months of her life....this mix gave me two extra months with he and she didn't pass bloated and so tight and full of air...which is horribly painful.

If gas isn't her problem, this remedy still won't have hurt her to give it to her, but it'll help rule out a problem for you. As I said, it works *fast*, my girl's bloat was *gone* in less than 12 hours after starting her on this Karo/water

 

[Raindropmousery]

Thanks for the help. No i havnt taken her to a vet but cannot feel any lumps and have had alot of experience with tumors in mice she does feel like she is full of air so will try what you suggested she has not got any bigger recently but has been this size for 3-4 months now i have cut her food right down and am feeding her very boring food with out any really fattening stuff in. She is toileting normally she lives with 4 other does and they all look fine one a little chubby but only slightly but this girl is enormas and obviously it is putting alot of strain on her legs and organs. Hopfully it is just gas but she does weigh alot she is 140g comparied to her good sized house mate that weighs 55g they are both the same length and are both exhabition mice the fat one is a champange and her house mate a weighed is a dove tan.

 

[moustress]

I think she's just fat. You can see rolls of fat around her neck and on her forelimbs.

 

[Kage Davies]

Yer. To be honest my real fattie was just the same.

 

[Norman's Mom]

If it is air, you'll see a dramatic decrease in her size within the first 24 hours. If you don't see this decrease, I wouldn't give her anymore of the Karo/water mix. It won't hurt her, but it's not something she should have if she doesn't have gas.

She *might* be just fat, but if that is the case, that is a really fat mouse, and you are right, it is unhealthy. As for Tumors...if there is one deep inside her digestive tract, you won't be able to feel it. The only way to know if she had a tumor in that case is to have a Necropsy done when she leaves for the Rainbow Bridge. If she's stabilized and been like this for months, then it is probably just the weight issue....a true bloated mouse doesn't live very long at all because they can't go to the bathroom.

It's hard to get fatties to lose weight, especially if it's genetic...I am curious, you said she's on a boring diet...does that mean that you are feeding all your girls her diet? A vet may be able to help you concoct a healthy diet for her too.

 

[Raindropmousery]

Yes all the girls in with her are on the same diet of her too as some of them are actually her sisters and they are a little chubby too they are all on a very plain diet with no sunflower seeds or any thing like that i have been told the recomended amount of food per mouse per day is 7g so i am putting 5 x 7g for all 5 girls obviously i dont know how much each mouse is eating but there is allway alittle food left the smallest one allways seems to be out eating and i hardly see the others out eating. I have thought about seperating her but this is ashame she doesnt seem to have put any more weight on recently and i often weigh her just to make sure if she goes up any more then i will have to seperate her also i am hoping to get a much bigger cage so she can move round alot more and loose some weight hopefully. She is still only young too which is ashame.

 

[Lizzle]

I'm no vet, but I question Hirshsprung Disease - also known as Megacolon, although I think your mouse simply looks.. fat (her head looks fat, as do her limbs). Have you tried feeding her only fruits and veggies for one day to see if that makes any difference? If she has a megacolon, it might help her poo.

 

[Lizzle]

Oh, it just struck me - I bet she has an underactive thyroid. Ironically enough, my father is getting his thyroid today removed because he has severe hypothyroidism (he wouldn't eat much and is overweight, lethargic, etc). I'm not sure anything can be done about this by a vet, though.