Alright. Here's the deal: I have a female mouse who is pregnant with her second litter, and I've begun to notice signs of a bad respiratory infection. Every time I handle her, she sneezes violently and rubs her nose. I can notice the sneezing inside her enclosure as well. She still eats and is still allowing the young from her first litter to receive milk (hoppers, nibbling on solids, but still dependent on their mother). What is the likelihood of her "getting over" this RI, what causes them in the first place, will her second litter suffer... and ultimately, should I just not bother with waiting for her to get better and feed her off (and have the other female take over her young, who is ALSO pregnant, GUH)?

The first colony I tried to get going, the female got an RI as well, only in this case there was tons of wheezing and whistling. Her health deteriorated fast, and her first litter died in a matter of days, which set me back a while.

Thanks so much for any advice, BP.net'ers!