Sick mice... are my colonies doomed?

I have a few colonies of mice and ASF rats. I noticed one of them sneezing just over a week ago. I switched everyone from aspen to pine bedding about three weeks ago so I assumed this was an allergic reaction since it was only one mouse. I removed the pine from his colony and replaced it with paper towel for a temporary solution until I could find another type bedding. Yesterday the male mouse is still sneezing and now his 3 ladies are sneezing. I now know this is a virus, not an allergic reaction. Today I noticed one of the females has a crusted eye.

I should note that my colonies do not produce enough to support my whole collection of snakes so I do go out and buy a few extra but the feeder mice I purchase do not come into direct contact with my colonies and are usually fed off as soon as I get home but I am also dumb enough to not wash my hands before reaching into my own colonies's cages after handling the store bought feeders... never thought about it, but I am thinking this may be how this colony got the virus. Just an assumption though.

But I am curious of the chances of my other colonies (mice and ASFs) of getting the virus? I use a rack breeding system and this colony is in the middle of the rack. None of my other colonies seem to be sick, thank goodness and unfortunately for this colony I will be euthanizing them tomorrow. They are still in the room though but have been moved from the rack into a tank across the room for now. So should I be worried about my other colonies?

If you are dealing with a respiratory infection and you have them in a rack and are using a watering system this is not good news.

You can always try to separate the sick ones placing them as far as possible and do a complete cleaning, this includes the rack, tubs and watering system (must be flushed disinfected etc)

Now keep in mind that rats do sneeze to but there is a line between normal sneeze and one due to respiratory issue.

It could still be something simple. New bedding often causes a lot of sneezing and fuss.

If you do believe it's contagious, kill anything that looks sick. Sanitize everything, and handle your healthy colony first, then make sure to sanitize hands before you switch from one rack/colony to another.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

If you are dealing with a respiratory infection and you have them in a rack and are using a watering system this is not good news.

You can always try to separate the sick ones placing them as far as possible and do a complete cleaning, this includes the rack, tubs and watering system (must be flushed disinfected etc)

Now keep in mind that rats do sneeze to but there is a line between normal sneeze and one due to respiratory issue.

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I am not using a water system. I use individual water bottles. I did disinfect everything. I just do not want a huge out break. It is definitely worse. I found the male barely breathing this morning. I just euthanized them all already.

I used to have a lot of problems losing baby chickens in my brooders, kind of the same kind of thing with losses up to 50% in some batches. I started adding oxytetracycline to the water for the first few days after hatch and it solved the problem. In a rack system I would think that adding some antibiotic to the water system would probably be the best thing to get your whole rack under control (the advantages of a rack system). Or for individual water bottles just make a big batch to fill all the bottles. Oxytetracyline powder is cheap and you can get it at any feed store, not sure of the dose but you don't need very much, I think a teaspoon per quart or so... The good thing about feeders is that if only a few are affected you can feed them off.