One mouse dead, worried about others

by ButtonQuail Sun 18 Jun 2023, 6:54 pm

So the other night I was finally able to move my 5 girls to a much bigger enclosure! It was probably quite stressful for them but it was past due. I can't use a normal cage so I have a tank with adequate airflow in a ventilated room that has an air purifier. I change their water bottles once a day and give them Oxbow Garden Select pellets daily and some fresh fruit/veggies about every other day. Usually they have water bottles, but during the change the bottle broke so I set up a water bowl that I saw them drinking out of. 3 of the girls are about a year old: Dusty, Basil, and Chunky Monkey. And the other 2 are about 3 months old: Latte and Mocha.

When I was transferring the mice to the new tank I noticed that Dusty had a lot of bald patches. Basil's fur was a bit thin in places but not as concerning. This definitely started after I brought the new ones in and thought maybe it was stress from not having much space away from the others.

I moved all the mice and watched them for a couple hours. Mocha and Latte are doing fantastic. They slept under the hut I got them (they prefer to bury themselves) and ran on the wheel a ton. The others didn't run around as much but it didn't seem too worrying at the time.

Well tonight I went to check on my girls and I found Basil dead in one of the huts. She was very firm and her belly seemed almost hard. I've never experienced this with any of my other mice that have passed. I just buried her and was searching this forum for reassurance and now am realizing Dusty is probably also sick. Her and Basil are from the same litter so not sure if it could have anything to do with that. I checked for any kind of bugs but didn't find any signs. Also Dusty has been standing in the same spot for long periods of time. I think Monkey is well, she's always been a bit lazy so she's not running but she is moving about and playing with her toys unlike Dusty.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I know vet visit would be ideal. Sadly it's nighttime and the closest vet (regular hours) is ~2 hours away. Not sure about vet with ER hours. Mostly just asking to make sure there's nothing I need to do better when caring for them