A mouse at the vet

If a mouse is ill, you will have to act quickly. That’s why it’s better to look for the right vet before needing him/her. Then you can take your mouse and go to the vet immediately instead of looking for one maybe for days.
Visit some vets in advance (best before you get your mice) and ask them about their experience with such tiny patients. If the vet is denying, seems to be uninterested or doesn’t he/she talk frankly about his/her experience, you’d better look for another vet.
When you are looking for a vet to neuter your buck(s), don’t balk at asking him/her about the method and his/her success rate. When you don’t get any or only a denying answer, you’d better give a try on a colleague.

Mind the following subjects on your first visit at your new vet:

• How does he/she handle your mouse (carefully, not at the tail)?
• Is he/she in a hurry or does he/she examine the patient soundly?
• Does he/she explain his/her the procedure to you?
• Does he/she explain the findings to you understandably?
• Does he/she explain application and dosage and above that the mode of action of the prescribed medicine?
• Is he/she all set to admit a gap of his/her knowledge or to ask a colleague?

* In urgent cases: Do you have to wait with a life-threatening ill mouse or are you called into the surgery immediately?

If mice are ill, you have to act quickly. But mind the following: * Take used bedding and a handful of hay into the carrier and also food and a piece of vegetable * Take the whole group the vet, if possible * Care for the temperature during the transport (supply warmth in winter, cool them in summer, avoid draft!) * Note down all signs of the illness and everything you have watched (if possible with date and time). That will help you not to forget important things to mention at the vet. * When you have tried household remedies (teas, red light bulbs, ect.) or medicine before you went to the vet, note them down with date, time and dosage. * If you are going to come with an urgent case (e.g. intoxication), call the vet before you go there!

Hint: A data card has proven in praxis on which all known data are noted down (age, origin, the mouse’s history, illnesses and treatments, …). That card may help the vet to find the right diagnosis!

• Sit down in a quite corner of the waiting room. This will avoid unnecessary stress.
• Hand your data card over to the vet.

* Listen soundly to what the vet tells you, make notes if necessary. * Note down name and dosage of the prescribed medicine and when/how often it should be given. Note all further necessary treatments. * Ask whether you have to return or not when no one tells you.

* Follow the advices of your vet concerning medicine in general and the dosage in particular. A wrong or too short application may lead to an over- or underdosage which may worsen the illness or lead to resistances of antibiotics. * Ask for outstanding lab results when appointed.

Some vets tend to recommend having mice separated as long as they are ill. Usually a separation is unnecessary, sometimes even counterproductive because it tends to take lonely mice longer to recover then those in groups.
If an illness is infectious, separating the ill individuals will make no sense since the germs will have spread within the whole group just before you notice the illness. So every individual in this group may have germs in it even though you can’t see a health problem.
Separation often is recommended by the vet after an operation because the conspecifics may chew at the wound. But that happens really seldom. Watch the operated individual in its group. You will only have to separate it, if the others really chew at the wound. In that case make sure that it doesn’t loose the olfactory contact to its group. That avoids total loneliness for the patient and maybe a re-introduction for you and all the mice.
A categorical separation after operations only makes sense for African pygmy dormice because otherwise the group might attack and even eat the patient!

A visit at the vet might become expensive. Save some money for a possible visit and maybe ask about prices in advance.