Tears, Fears , And Mouse Ears

[mimommy]

Today was one of those days that makes you wish you'd never got out of bed. But before I relate the days events, a little back story...

About 2 1/2 years ago my SIL lived in an 1830's-1850's era farm house--one of the few remaining in our area. She is a vet tech., does volunteer animal rescue, etc. One day--I SWEAR this true!--she called me and said that she had an orphaned field mouse that needed a good home, and that she had been asleep on the couch (a month earlier) and awoke to the poor little baby sleeping on her leg. She said it was healthy and very tame, so I took the mouse in as a family pet. 'Mousy' as we've come to call her, has turned out to be a wonderful and well loved addition to our family. She is sweet and adorable and possibly the best pet I've ever had.

I've often wondered how long a field mouse could live in captivity. I think their average life span in the wild must be only about 2 weeks -2 months, considering that they are prey to nearly every creature on the planet, including humans; around here, if the hawks don't get them the D-Con will. We took to referring to her as "Mr. Jingles" from the Stephen King story The Green Mile because she seemed to have amazing vigor. The little dear was a pampered princess, so much so that she actually was quite overweight until very recently. But she hasn't been looking well lately. She has lost a lot of fur on her sides, lost half of her body mass, started falling of her food dish, favors one of her legs, and may well be blind. So last night we were certain she was dying and had our daughter kind of prepare for the imminent and say goodbye. I thought for sure Mousy would not survive the night. Boy was I in for a shock.

I have a very busy morning routine, because we have a house full of pets, and of course, my daughter needs my help to get ready for school. So I usually feed the dog, cat (and daughter) before the school drop off, then come back home and feed the bunny and mouse and do some chores before heading off to work. This morning I was dreading coming home to find Mousy keeled over. Instead I found her hanging by her leg, suspended from the second story of her two level critter condo by a piece of bedding material that had snagged her leg and formed a tourniquet. I was horrified! I thought she must surely have died a horrible, painful death. But as I reached in to check her tail twitched, and by some miracle I got her free. I had to cut away very carefully at the huge ball of bedding that she must have tugged at with all her might, because it was jammed in the opening of her house. The ankle around which the tourniquet was wrapped was grossly swollen and red above, lame and pearl white below. As soon as she was freed she dragged her poor body to the water bowl and took a good long drink, but I could see I had to get this thing off of her and that the situation was very, very bad. I soaked it in water to loosen it, then delicately picked it loose with my finger tip.

Now imagine the heartache and horror I was feeling, and the incredible pain this animal must have been in. I didn't know WHAT to do for her. I even considered a way to ease her suffering that involved whiskey and honey, but tearfully (SOBBING) called a local vet hospital and asked them to euthanise her right away so she didn't have to suffer. The tech. was incredibly kind on the phone and I got the poor creature safely stowed away in a warm litle shoebox, praying she would die en route--quickly and not so painfully.

As I was driving, and crying, I just kept thinking, "She didn't deserve this. She never asked anything of anybody. Why does she have to suffer? We just wanted to let her die naturally and well loved." I was sort of appeased to realise that the random vet I had called was located less than a mile south of the farm where Mousy was born, and that it was kind of fitting, as the farm itself is kind of well known around here. I thought perhaps I'd ask the owners if we could bury her there, but maybe that would be too weird.

I get to the destinaton of my sad mission, and bring the shoebox inside. The tech takes one look at me and I fall apart, so she leads me directly into the exam room. She leaves to get the doctor and I open the box to comfort Mousy. The poor thing was wretched, scared to death. I picked her up, trying not too disturb the now hideously deformed leg too much, and held her one last time. I put her back in the box and watched her literally drag herself around until the vet came in. The vet comes in, looks at her, yanks her up, flips her over, sets her back down and says, "We are NOT putting this animal to sleep! She's perfectly healthy. Her leg is probably broken, but if she starts to gnaw at it we'll just amputate." Horror of horrors!! WHAT?! Was she kidding me? Then she asks, "How long has her fur been falling out?" I say, "About two months." She says, "Well, rodents have periods, too, and it's pretty likely she has OVARIAN CANCER." ???? Oh my God, it was soooo surreal.

The doc left the room, and brought back a piece of banana, which mousy actually ate. Then my little peanut tried to clean herself, and the vet said, "She's going to be fine. We'll give her some vitamins. Make she sure gets lots of fluids." I stood there in shock, mouth like an 'O', until I finally stammered, "What about the pain?" The crazy psycho sent me home with a syringe full of pain meds and some orange vitamin elixir, and a suffering mouse with a broken leg.

Then I got the call from my daughter's GI. My husband and I went last week to have the celiac panel done on ourselves. TTG tests were negative for both of us. So I guess that means I can't hope for much relief for my 'itis' by going gluten free. Oh well. At least my ankle didn't get destroyed by an accidental tourniquet.

[ravenwoodglass]

What a wonderful vet! I am so glad your little freind is going to be okay. We had a little mouse that one of the cats brought in still alive and I released it outside the back door. The next day during a raging thunderstorm I found it sitting on the back step. I brought it in and she lived happily for quite some time in an old aquarium. Mice can really be quite sweet.

As to the negative test results do go ahead and give the diet a strict try. The blood tests and even the endo are not the final answer, your response to the diet is. Give it a shot you have nothing to loose other than your 'itis'.