All my plans went out the window from last night and today (had intended getting in touch with Onyx for a few girls after feeding the mice but ended up dealing with a really ill mousie.)
Scrambled Egg had been running around in his wheel and tubes all day yesterday whilst I'd been cleaning and as normal was still enjoying himself at 10pm. When I went to feed the hoardes at 1am I found that Scramble was in his tube struggling to come out. I lifted him out to find that he had lost all ability to move his entire back end and was dragging himself around. I stayed up with him until 7am to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get any worse. He wasn't moving his back end when I got him to the vet and he's on anti-inflammatories. He's happy enough and not in any pain but I don't know what's casued it - there isn't anything in his cage that he can hurt himself on, he lives alone, there are no wounds (that I can see and I even checked to see if a wasp or bee had managed to get in) and he can't fall anymore than than 3 inches because of the cage he is in. 24 hours later (now at almost 1am again) he is moving his tail again as normal and has some movement in one foot but both legs and the other foot are still hanging limp. A friend has pointed out that there is something similar in rats which is seen by a progressive degeneration in the legs and ability to move them but there hasn't been anything like this in Scramble and he is one of the healthiest mice I've owned (with the exception of scratching his eye a while back and causing oedema.) Has anyone ever come across this before in mice and if so did you find out what caused it and did they improve? I'm trying to think positive seeing as he is still happy enough (currently throwing bedding around and upending his house then having a munch of biscuit) but would like to know what has perhaps caused it so I can keep an eye on all my others incase they develop it in their old age. (Scramble is 16-17 months old.)
Scrambled Egg had been running around in his wheel and tubes all day yesterday whilst I'd been cleaning and as normal was still enjoying himself at 10pm. When I went to feed the hoardes at 1am I found that Scramble was in his tube struggling to come out. I lifted him out to find that he had lost all ability to move his entire back end and was dragging himself around. I stayed up with him until 7am to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get any worse. He wasn't moving his back end when I got him to the vet and he's on anti-inflammatories. He's happy enough and not in any pain but I don't know what's casued it - there isn't anything in his cage that he can hurt himself on, he lives alone, there are no wounds (that I can see and I even checked to see if a wasp or bee had managed to get in) and he can't fall anymore than than 3 inches because of the cage he is in. 24 hours later (now at almost 1am again) he is moving his tail again as normal and has some movement in one foot but both legs and the other foot are still hanging limp. A friend has pointed out that there is something similar in rats which is seen by a progressive degeneration in the legs and ability to move them but there hasn't been anything like this in Scramble and he is one of the healthiest mice I've owned (with the exception of scratching his eye a while back and causing oedema.) Has anyone ever come across this before in mice and if so did you find out what caused it and did they improve? I'm trying to think positive seeing as he is still happy enough (currently throwing bedding around and upending his house then having a munch of biscuit) but would like to know what has perhaps caused it so I can keep an eye on all my others incase they develop it in their old age. (Scramble is 16-17 months old.)
