Old mice suddenly dying?

by lilacjabl Wed 05 Oct 2022, 10:45 am

As of last week, I had a group of 5 female mice. They were all quite old ladies, with two of them being 2 and a half, and the other three being around 2. All of them were fine, showing no signs of illness, and then I woke up to find two of them dead the same morning. Thought nothing of it, and while it was a sad situation, I knew that they had lived long and happy lives. The day of their death was a particularly cold day here in the UK so I assumed it was due to the sudden change in weather. I had moved on and cleaned their cage as a precaution etc, and then 2 days later I wake up to see one of the mice from the younger group is very disorientated and struggling to eat and drink. I spend a few hours monitoring her, and after no improvement I call my vet for advice. She asks me to bring her in, so I do, and I have been told that she has either had a severe seizure or a stroke. The vet didn't seem to dwell on the death of the other mice nor did she seem particularly concerned due to their age, but I'm just wondering if there is any possible correlation between the two? Said mouse has only gotten worse, and we have a vet appointment for her later, it is looking very likely that she is going to be put to sleep. after this I will only have two mice left, and would be so upset if either of them were to die so close to the others.

On a separate note, what would be recommended for me to do with the final two mice? I do plan to keep owning mice after my current group move on, but I don't want to inevitably be left with only one mouse. I have heard that lone mice can become very lonely and depressed, especially after previously being a part of a group. I would consider purchasing or rescuing another couple of mice, but I have also heard that it isn't great to mix different ages of mice. One of the mice left in our group is very dominating over the other mice, and while they don't argue anymore they definitely weren't the easiest group to bond. There just doesn't seem like an ideal outcome here and it's really upsetting.