[moustress]

We love to complain about the weather in Minnesota and it's because we get the most extreme range of temps and types of precip. First week of May we had frost warnings in my region; today we have 94F and tropical dewpoints (humidity index). The AC unit that was working OK yesterday was cycling off and on as the compressor couldn't get enough power. Turns out the cooling tubes and fins were quite dirty. I spent about an hour upstairs working the machine so it would cycle on for a minute or two at a time, and I moved cages to the floor as much as possible. It was 86F in the mousery, which is not good at all. My pregnant does were brought out and put right under the AC unit.

As soon as the sun was below the tree line we pulled the AC unit and did a proper cleaning, and ten minutes ago it was putting out cold air minute after minute after minute....here's hoping I don't lose any meeces's from the exposure to heat. I honestly don't know how long the temps was above 80F in there. Nate has promised to monitor the temp in the West Room, where the walk in closet with the mousery is several times a day so I don't have to trudge up and down stairs, because that hurts. I have very bad arthritis in my hips, and my knees have seen better days.

I'm hoping this episode will inform other mousie owners about the need to keep the mousies at a healthy temp in the summer.j Anything 80F or higher can have serious health consequences. I don't like to see the mousery above 76F.

My greatest concern was for Admantine, who is very, very pregnant. She and Adamant represent the state of tricolors in my mousery. This will be her last litter, as she is being retired from breeding after this.

 

[moustress]

Oh, ghodz, I'm so sorry, sg. I lost a doe and babies who were delivered when the AC was off last summer and the temps were in the 90's and I was so distraught I bawled and screamed for quite awhile. I guess I got lucky or maybe just having the fan circulating air in the mousery made the difference. In any case, the AC seems to be working fine today, though we will be monitoring the temps much more closely than before. The only other change I made was to move about a half dozen cages from high shelves to low ones, and I reoriented the big air cleaner so it sucks in cool air and blows it toward the ceiling.

 

[moustress]

Just thought I'd cross post: I'm relieved to say that Adamantine delivered 11 pinkies since last night, and the AC is working fine up there. I'm so glad to see this issue being seriously addressed. Mousies are very small animals and have difficulty maintaining their homeostasis (internal conditions that allow life to continue) in the face of extreme temps or, for that matter, many other stresses.

I put my water blivet that usually lives on a shelf in the mousery in the fridge so they can get a cold drink tonight. that sounds so good that I'm going to go get myself a nice glass of chilled spring water for myself! We need to remember to keep ourselves hydrated too!

 

[moustress]

Good to hear you folks taking your meeces comfort, and more importantly, their health, seriously. Temps of 80F and higher are very bad for mousies and can have serious consequences. Especially pregnant does.