Why are my mice prolapsing?

[kc261]

In the past 2 days I've had 2 mice with what I believe to be a prolapsed rectum. Basically a pink thing sticking out of their bottom. The first one I soaked in a sugar water solution (had read on here that was a good idea for a prolapsed snake, so I thought it was worth a try), but after some more internet searching, I found that apparently the outlook for a mouse with a prolapsed rectum is not good. Even if it goes back in, it is very likely to prolapse again. The sugar solution did not seem to be having an effect anyway, so I decided to feed it off.

Now, about 24 hours later, I just found a 2nd mouse with the same problem. What's going on? I'm really worried because both of these mice were in my female grow out cage, and those girls represent my first 4 successful litters. I was really looking forward to them getting big enough to breed, because of all the rumors that things go much smoother with the 2nd generation.

Any ideas what to do or what is causing it?

[Brandon Osborne]

In the few times I've seen this, it was from overcrowding and was believed to be from a bacterial infection. I'm not sure how clean you keep your cages, but in overcrowded conditions excess urine can create a wet substrate and mice can develope a condition know as 'wet-tail'. In all cases of prolapse I've seen, they had wet-tail. I'm not sure that is the true cause, but it makes the most sense considering how mice defecate. And you did the right thing by getting rid of them. It's not something that can be treated.....that I know of. Good luck.

[kc261]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I did a quick search on wet-tail, and it seems to be mostly a hamster problem, so I didn't find much about mice with wet-tail. But from a quick overview of the stuff about hamster wet-tail, it doesn't sound like my mice have this. They didn't have any diarrhea that I observed, and certainly no wetness in the area of their bottom other than the prolapse itself.

As far as cleanliness of my cages, I have been cleaning a little less often (about once a week instead of every 4-5 days) since my husband broke his foot and I've been spending 4 hours/day driving him to work, coming home, picking him up, coming home. I am using the Southern States brand of pine pellets, and the cages have never been remotely close to dirty enough for the substrate to be wet (not counting an leaky water bottle incident, but that was a different cage). So while my cages aren't as clean as I'd like, I would not have thought they are dirty enough to cause this sort of problem.

Also, there were 10 (now 8) young females in a 20 gallon tank, so I don't think overcrowding would be the issue.

Any more ideas? Or if anyone still thinks it might be wet-tail or something similar, would the "dri-tail" stuff sold for hamsters work on the mice? Should I treat the rest of the colony or maybe just the ones in that particular cage? Would this treatment be safe for pregnant or nursing females?

[littleindiangirl]

I dont know how a prolapse would happen. Any changes to their diet recently? Are their water bottles all working correctly? Are you sure it was a rectal prolapse?

Sorry I can't be of more help, but hopefully it is just those two animals.

[kc261]

Their diet is the same as it has been since I started the mouse colony: hog food, sunflower seed, wild bird seed, dog food, lentils and split peas, in approximately that order as to which they get the most of.

The water bottle in the cage in question seems fine, but just in case, I just added another one.

I was able to find a photo of a rectal prolapse, and what happened to these 2 mice looks the same, so at this point I'm pretty certain that is what the problem was. The photo is near the top of the page.
http://www.radil.missouri.edu/info/d...sepag/Bac.html

Also, although that picture is on a page about a kind of bacterial infection that can cause a rectal prolapse, most of what I've found talks about it being caused by internal parasites, and at least one place said some strains of mice may just be prone to it. None of those possibilities is good news for my colony.

At this point, assuming I get no new information, I think I'm going to just wait and see, and pray it will just be those 2 and that will be the end of it.

I'd still very much appreciate any thoughts or information anyone else has!

[kc261]

Just when I was thinking enough time had passed that I could write it off as a fluke...

2 more mice prolapsed over the weekend. Another one in my grow up girls cage and one in my grow up boys cage. So it is no longer confined to one cage, but it is (so far) only occurring in young mice. Also, it is one each from 4 different litters, and since not all of my mice came from the same source, I am doubting it is genetic. I also have not seen any signs of diarrhea and/or wetness around their bottoms.

I debated about keeping one or both alive and taking them to the vet today, but that just seemed too cruel. So now I am sort of halfway hoping another one will prolapse at sometime other than on a weekend or holiday, so at least I'll be able to identify what is going on. That will probably cost more than just getting rid of all of my mice and buying new ones to start over, but without knowing what is causing it, how would I know the new ones wouldn't have the same problem?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I never seen it happen with my colony but I recall reading something about prolapsed being link to a bacteria, so I did a little research and here is what I found http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../bc/171544.htm

Hope this helps

[wilomn]

Are they prolapsing scrotums per chance?

[kc261]

I never seen it happen with my colony but I recall reading something about prolapsed being link to a bacteria, so I did a little research and here is what I found http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../bc/171544.htm

Hope this helps

Deb, thanks for that link; it was informative.

It says adults are less susceptible than pups & weanlings to the bacterial infection, which goes along with that I have so far only seen it in my grow up cages. However, if it is the bacterial infection, I should also be seeing other symptoms such as diarrhea, which I'm not.

Further down the page it also mentions pinworms, which seems to be the other likely cause.

So I still have no idea what is causing it. I think I'll just have to take the next one to the vet and see what they say.

[kc261]

Are they prolapsing scrotums per chance?

I don't think so, considering 3 of the 4 were female.