Post respiratory infection

by anniecallister Tue 02 Feb 2021, 9:24 pm

I am a new mice owner. One of our mice got a respiratory infection just a couple weeks after we got her. I couldn't find a vet in my area that could schedule her within the week. So I tracked down some Baytril and used an old human prescription of Doxyclycline. I've just been guessing on the amount of each medicine, erring on the too little side. With a heating pad, pedialyte w/baytril, banana & yogurt mixed with Doxycycline she has improved immensely and is almost completely back to her old self. She just still needs to gain more of her weight that she lost back. It's been about 10 days since she got sick and has been improving. When do I know if she is better? How long should I continue the meds? And when can I re-introduce the other mouse back in with her? They seem pretty lonely without each other. Should I put Baytril in their water feeder even when the two mice are back together? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.

by River Tue 02 Feb 2021, 10:01 pm

There are resources out there for how to properly dose mice, since they're such common lab animals. It's a bit risky to just guess the dosages, but it's been done. Glad she's doing well! If she's not showing symptoms I would probably stop treatment now, if I'm remembering right then 2 weeks is the normal time frame for antibiotic treatment. They can have a bit of plain unsweetened Greek yogurt to act as a probiotic, though mine didn't quite like it.

We don't usually separate mice when one gets sick, because if they were together at that point then the other mouse has already been exposed. They can probably go back together fine, though I'd wait for confirmation on that. Go through the reintroduction process again to be on the safe side when you do reintroduce, though.

Millet spray and oatmeal is a good option for underweight rodents, though I'd keep an eye on it.

by anniecallister Tue 02 Feb 2021, 10:43 pm

Thank you for your response. That's good to know about not separating the mice in the future if this happens again. Is it normal that one mice can get a respiratory infections while it's littermates don't? I did find those dosage sites and did my best to get the dosage right. I was pretty nervous about it though. I forgot to say I also gave her albuterol nebulizer treatments with baytril in the nebulizer. That helped a lot as well. I'll give her some millet and oats to fatten her up. Thank you very much again for your help. I'll make sure to go through the reintroduction process. Btw, should I just keep the heating pad in there for good? She seems to love it. It's one of those stuck under the glass terrarium lizard heating pads that stick to the bottom.

by Dee67 Sun 07 Feb 2021, 10:31 pm

Wow, you sure are a good mouse mom, you did a lot for your mousie. I worry about heating pads long term myself but see what others think. I'm just glad she's doing better, thanks to your efforts. Mice have different immune systems and different genetic predispositions, so it is not strange that one can get sick and not another, same as 1 child might get sick but not another.

by anniecallister Mon 08 Feb 2021, 1:18 pm

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it!

by mikio Mon 15 Mar 2021, 7:34 pm

I'm so glad to read this post as I'm having a very similar issue. My little girl started "chattering" about 2 weeks ago, and I thought she was just being vocal. But, she's been doing it more and more and now it's contact. From what I've been reading, she has a respiratory infection.

I have some human doxycycline left over from when my dog had an issue (100mg), and would love some help on exactly how to dose. No vets in my area treat rodents, so I'm really worried. From what I understand when researching, it's dosed at 5mg/kg for a mouse - my adult mouse is 25g - far, far less than a kilogram!!! Do you have any idea in how to dose for an animal so small? I mean, that would be like a spec of dust in a 100mg pill, lol.

Anniecallister, I'd love some advice on exactly how you did it (pill dosage? crushed them up and divided the powder? did you use both baytril and doxy? etc.). I've used baytril in the past for an RI in my red tail boa and had no idea you could use it for rodents.

Thanks for any help you can give!!

by anniecallister Tue 16 Mar 2021, 1:09 am

Hi there,
I'm sorry your mouse is sick Sad

. I'm obviously no expert at all, but I'll tell you what I did.
I also had doxycycline 100mg pills. I just halved it 4 times(100mg/50/25/12.5/6mg-ish) First, I dissolved it in a little water and tried to syringe feed it to her. This mostly worked, but she wriggled and resisted a lot. Most of it didn't even get in her mouth. I was so afraid of her aspirating that I think I only did this 4-6 times(2 or 3 days(2x/day)). Then I smashed up a little banana with a little jam and yogurt and put the doxycycline AND a few drops of Baytril it in there. She would never eat all of it before I took it out of the cage to refill it so I don't actually know how much of the meds she ended up getting each time. For some reason, I was less worried about the Baytril dosage. I also put a little water in a shallow cap and put a few drops of Baytril in that as well. So whenever she drank from it she got a little Baytril as well. My son has asthma so we always have albuterol around. I put the albuterol and a few drops of Baytril in the nebulizer and gave her nebulizer treatments once a day. I could tell this gave her some relief as her breathing finally slowed down and she was able to sleep after those treatments. The first two days I think I tried to give her meds 3x/day. Then i could tell they were helping and I went to 2x/day for 10 days or so. Then I did it once a day for a couple days. I put a tiny bit of Baytril in the water bottle after that just for good measure. I put a very small heating pad under the glass tank and that really helped in the beginning when she was so sick she couldn't stay warm.

Good luck. You can do it!

by mikio Tue 16 Mar 2021, 12:13 pm

Hi there, thanks so much for getting back to me! Love

Ok, I've done the same with the doxycycline pills. I put a bit in a small amount of peanut butter and that was the only food I put in her dish. I picked that because she couldn't "carry it away" and stash it somewhere because it's too sticky :-) I sat and watched, praying she would eat it. Within 5 mins she came out and ate it all up. I was SO relieved. Then I added her regular food to the bowl. This morning, I did the same thing with a bit of banana. She's normally sleeping but I coaxed her out and even though it took a while, she did the same thing. I've just ordered the baytril, but it will take a few days to get here. It's next to impossible for me to factor how much she'll get in water as she always spills it everywhere if it's not in a bottle, but I'll add it in water. I'll do the doxycycline 3/day for a couple of days then down to two, as you did. Can I ask how long it was before she improved? I'm so distressed to here the little clicking/tutting noises now all the time Sad

The good news is, it pretty much stops when she sleeps.

The albutrol/nebulizer treatments sound like SUCH a good idea! Brilliant!!! It looks like albutrol is by prescription, but I wonder if there is some way I could emulate what you're doing with something non-prescription. Hmm. Maybe the pharmacist can recommend something Scratch

I'm going to bake some cookies this afternoon because it's the one treat she absolutely LOVES that I can easily add doxy to. She also loves blueberries, so I can put some in that, too. I never thought about jam/yogurt, so that's something to try.

Thank you again!!! It's breaking my heart that she's not her normal 'speedy gonzales' all evening in her wheel...

by Dee67 Thu 18 Mar 2021, 1:19 am

Let us know how she does. Sounds promising.

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