[laoshu]

This poor little pinky was pushed away from the rest of the nest .. at first I noticed how thin it looked compaired to the very fat and healthy litter mates.

I removed him and looked him over to find something I have never seen before.
I thought worms but my mice have recently been wormed and on closer inspection it looks like his stomach (internally) might be broken and has leaked around his intestines.

it also had undigested milk comming out his anus.

has anyone else got any ideas on this?

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[SarahY]

Oh dear, poor little girl That's what it looks like to me too.

Sarah xxx

 

[The Village Mousery]

oh wow, i've never seen anything like that, looks like a birth defect to me but i wouldn't take my word on it.

 

[WillowDragon]

That definately looks wrong, almost like there is no stomach and the milk went straight into the intestines.

 

[Rhasputin]

I rarely suggest culling. But in this case, I will recomend it. That mouse is clearly missing some important organ (wether it be the stomach, or part of the intestines, or otherwise) and is probably very uncomfortable.

Although, the stripes look neat, I wish that was the colour of the skin, and not . . . well . . . some sort of problem. Zebra striped mice might be nice.

 

[Jack Garcia]

I also urge you to euthanize this mouse, if you haven't already.

Mother mice push sick or deformed babies out of the nest because they have no way to cull them, but they know when one isn't going to make it and they would rather use their resources differently. In effect, it is nature's way of culling.

 

[laoshu]

I did cull this poor little thing as soon after the photos were taken, I wouldnt let it suffer as I am sure it would if left.

I just thought it would be good to show the photos out of interest for others or to get a better understanding of what we are looking at.

 

[Rhasputin]

Yes. I will be saving this photo in my health file.
Very useful.

 

[CatWoman]

I would expect that if the stomach or intestine had ruptured, there would be more of a diffuse milky color throughout the entire abdominal cavity, rather than the high level of contrast in those bands.

My guess would be that the stomach is there, but that the pyloric sphincter (the muscle band at the bottom of the stomach that controls the amount of food that exits the stomach into the small intestine) is not fully functional. It looks like the milk isn't being slowed down at all on it's way through and the intestines are being literally flooded.

 

[The secret garden]

I wish it wasnt do small so a autopsy on it im sure it would be veryn interesting.