Barbering??

by jay.mayhem Sat 31 Mar 2018, 7:36 am

So it seems Daisy is barbering. She's got a horrible eye, it's been there for a while but she won't leave it alone. It's all crusty and she's recently developed a bloody spot due to over grooming. It's just the one eye, I think she had something wrong with it at some point and just never stopped grooming. She's also biting her own tail. I tried washing the eye out with saline drops, but she just made it worse overnight so I'm trying to get her to quit. I'm afraid to introduce her to my colony because of it-- what do I do? We're working on having her out a lot more and giving her things to do, but she's a lazy bum most the time anyway. She just loves sleep. Help?

by CallaLily Sat 31 Mar 2018, 4:13 pm

Was it blood around her eye or porphyrin? Or do you mean there’s an actual wound around her eye?

The red tears (porphyrin) can be a sign of stress or illness. And if her eye is swollen, gunky, and red she may have an infection which would require vet treatment.

If her eye has just been a little watery / slightly irritated, she may just be overly sensitive to the bedding or something in her cage. Usually removing/replacing items that may be the cause helps.

Barbering is when they overgroom themselves or another mouse usually resulting in a neat patch of hair cut short and/or trimmed whiskers (and sometimes it’s so extreme the skin underneath is irritated). Then there is chronic scratching which is basically when a mouse develops a bad habit of excessively scratching themselves to the point of bloodying their skin.

Have you treated for mites? Have you tried switching bedding or removing wood items to see if there’s an allergy? What food/s are you feeding her?

by jay.mayhem Sat 31 Mar 2018, 5:05 pm

It's an actual like scabby red spot on the skin around her eye. We think she had an issue with allergies at one point (I think she had a reaction to the shavings we used to use, we've gone all fleece and newspaper) and hasn't stopped grooming it. She doesn't have any sign of mites or lice at all and she's on vitasmart parakeet with added dog biscuit/mealworms occasionally mixed in. It sounds a lot like chronic scratching? Is there a way to stop that?

I would have pics, but I'm having a camera card issue. Sorry bout that.
Thank you so much

by CallaLily Sat 31 Mar 2018, 9:29 pm

The main thing with chronic scratching is to try to interrupt their scratching habit. You’ll need to spend as much time with her as you can, offer her new things to do - puzzles, toys, etc - and switch things up often. Anything mouse-safe to distract her from digging at herself. Hopefully it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes they relapse.

If that’s what it is, you were right to stop washing the eye out. I’ve seen others dealing with this mention that drops/cleaning/meds sometimes just make them want to mess with it more. Good luck.

by jay.mayhem Sat 31 Mar 2018, 10:05 pm

Thank you. She just lost her buddy recently, so she's getting tons of out time and eventually new friends, but we're trying to keep it interesting. Thank you again for your advice

by Jadamouse Mon 02 Apr 2018, 8:36 pm

sounds like whats happening to one of my mice Sad

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