Mouse advice needed

by Dakota Tue 27 Dec 2022, 10:50 pm

I have been owning mice for just under a year now, I've had 31 and currently now still have 29 (boys and girls (boys alone, girls in groups)). I love rodents and have had and currently have gerbils and hamsters also. I got my female fancy mouse Petal from a breeder in late August, along with two other females to add to my group of girls. Although Petal and her sisters were already a few months old, I noticed she was quite small and skinny compared to my other girls. Despite her sister being one of the biggest mice I have ever owned. I kept the three girls together just to monitor them and get them used to me before I introduced them to my girls. After a few days I noticed scabs on Petal's neck and ears, I got the impression that her sisters did not like her as they would sleep together in the hammocks and Petal would be alone. She also wouldn't come out for food unless they were sleeping. Eventually I introduced them to my girls hoping Petal would find one of my other quieter girls to be friends with. The two other girls bonded with my girls straight away and the same thing happened, Petal would be alone out in the open whilst the other girls were in hides. I didn't notice straight away but as I started to look at old videos I realised they would chase her around and bite her. I kept finding her ear bleeding and decided to put her in a cage alone. She seemed to be losing fur and shaking all of the time so I put tea tree cream on her and gave her metacam. Which seemed to work well at first, she soon got better but no matter who I tried her with (even 8 week old babies) she would run away and hide. So for the last few months she has been in a smaller cage alone, but comes downstairs with me everyday and we spend hours together. Two days ago (Christmas) I had her downstairs and she didn't seem herself, she wasn't eating or responding very well so I offered her her favourite treat which is strawberry biscuits that she took, she doesn't have these a lot by any means but I will do whatever to get her to eat. She still wasn't doing well so I gave her some metacam as it seemed to work really well before and she was brighter for the rest of the day and then she went to bed and ate some of her mouse food and safe vegetables. The next day she was dead and her head was covered with blood. There is nothing at all even remotely sharp in her enclosure and absolutely no way anything could get inside to her. This immediately concerned me as less than a week ago my female gerbil passed with blood covering her head too, with no sharp objects also and was alone as her sister had passed a few weeks before. At first I wrote my female gerbil off as having masses in the ear which is common in gerbils (I thought this as the blood came from her ear). I am absolutely devastated and would be even more so to find out this is my fault, please if you have any ideas, and thank you for taking the time to read and respond