[jo65]

Hi All,

My husband bought our new addition, Minerva, 15 days ago from a shop that had mistakingly put her in with 5 males. The males were extremely small but the shop said that they couldn't guarantee that she wasn't pregnant. At the moment I have a very fat mouse and for the last couple of days she has barely moved, not in my sight anyway. She looks like she is sort of having gut spasms (apologies this is hard to describe). What I need to know is, is this behaviour quite characteristic or could she be in difficulty? Obviously if she needs medical attention I want to get her some pdq. Also, could it be something else other than pregnancy?

Thanks, advice would be gratefully received, Jo X

 

[ian]

Some people say that during the final stages of pregnancy you can see the babies moving around inside which may explain gut spasms? Ive not seen this myself though although mine sometimes get a bit lumpy.

If she is having problems birthing you will probably see her being quite floppy and weak. I woudl imagine she is just preparing to give birth rather than anything wrong because in my experience when my does have had problems with birthing they have shown no real signs of distress and they died very quickly over night. So I hope your doe is ok and soon you'll have a healthy litter. Good Luck.

 

[jo65]

Thanks for that Ian. This morning we separated the two cages so that she was separate from my other two does. After a short while she came out trundling about looking for them and seemed agitated. We reconnected the cages and the other two immediately made a beeline for her and she is now calmer again so we are keeping them together for the interim.

 

[ian]

If she is about to give birth the other does will help her out when the babies arrive so you have done the right thing putting them back together.

 

[jo65]

An update really. I found Minerva lifeless in her cage yesterday morning. As she was the second doe we had lost in a few weeks I sent her for an autopsy to make sure that it wasn't us who had done something wrong in our mousey care. According to the vet it was the stress of pregnancy as she was carrying 13 babies and as far as everyone knew this was her first litter. I really am loathed to buy another mouse from a pet shop though as so far out of 4 mice homed, 2 have died. We shall bring her back home today for burial.

 

[ian]

Thats very sad, I'm sorry. I wouldn't recommend getting mice from a pet shop but if you have no reputable breeders near you you may not have the choice.

 

[SarahC]

it sounds like a large litter for a young female has caused the problem

 

[moustress]

Very sad, but these things happen from time to time. In my 11 years of breeding, I've had this happen twice, and it is very, very sad, and impossible to know exactly what happened with out an autopsy. Times like that made me wish I had even the minimal equipment like the stuff we used in high school for frog dissection so I could take a look.

Heh, there are times I wish I could get a used set of equipment and do my own trangenetic experiments. I read one can find a used setup for around $40,000 to $50,000 US; then I'd need to go back to school..... there are sites where one can find pretty good instructions, like recipes, for creating transgenic critters. Amazing!

 

[ian]

You would only need a scalpel, they cant be too hard to get hold of. I have a friend who works at a zoo and she is real into to dissection and taxidermy so she is quite useful for doing autopsies. Although I find that with mice the cause of death is usually quite obvious, ie massive tumours.

 

[Kallan]

Very sad, but these things happen from time to time. In my 11 years of breeding, I've had this happen twice, and it is very, very sad, and impossible to know exactly what happened with out an autopsy. Times like that made me wish I had even the minimal equipment like the stuff we used in high school for frog dissection so I could take a look.

much

Don't need much - gloves, a scalpel blade and holder, a pair of sharp scissors and a pair of forceps. You can order these online

If it's not a stonking great tumour it can be hard to ID cause of death without taking histological samples from all tissues and ruling out bacterial infections, but some things can be pretty obvious.