Mouse skin problem - Please help!

I have a pet mouse who is a year old. Yesterday I noticed that he's
scratching in the area of his ears, but it looked like he could be
just grooming himself.

However, I know that one of his brothers, who was owned by my friend,
had something like that before. It was very very sad, because the
mouse was scratching everywhere on his body, got covered in bloody
wounds and got pretty much bald everywhere he scratched (which was in
most places, even on his tail - he was just eating himself, or
something else was eating him). His owner couldn't figure out what was
wrong with him, and even though he tried everything, the mouse died
this summer. The mouse was probably about 8-9 months old.

I looked at my mouse this morning, and he was scratching again. This
time I saw red spots below his ears - he was definitely scratching too
much, or he has some kind of rash. I'm just afraid he might be getting
what his brother died from.

If anybody had any experience with that, please help me!

(I also posted on rec.pets because I didn't know about this group then)

It's not uncommon for mice to get mites from bedding or even food. The
mites will make your mouse very itchy. Mites are controlled by specific
medications, and one that you can easily get is Ivermectin. It is available
as a paste dewormer for horses (Equimectrin, Ivomec and several other
brands). You can go to your vet, and have the mouse treated there, or you
can go to www.RMCA.org and look up the dosage of horse paste to use. You
can then go to any horse supply/tack shop and get the paste, and give your
mouse the correct amount for his weight, according to the correct dosage.
If you freeze the bedding before using it, the cold kills the mites.

Good luck,

Y.

--
Lucat bene si ergo
Fortibus es inaero
O nobil demis trux
Sum es causen summit dux
-- Anon


Tatiana Racheva <racheva.DeleteThis@wam.umd.edu> wrote in message
news:408113c5.0312180253.3b47a7df@posting.google.com...
> I have a pet mouse who is a year old. Yesterday I noticed that he's
> scratching in the area of his ears, but it looked like he could be
> just grooming himself.
>
> However, I know that one of his brothers, who was owned by my friend,
> had something like that before. It was very very sad, because the
> mouse was scratching everywhere on his body, got covered in bloody
> wounds and got pretty much bald everywhere he scratched (which was in
> most places, even on his tail - he was just eating himself, or
> something else was eating him). His owner couldn't figure out what was
> wrong with him, and even though he tried everything, the mouse died
> this summer. The mouse was probably about 8-9 months old.
>
> I looked at my mouse this morning, and he was scratching again. This
> time I saw red spots below his ears - he was definitely scratching too
> much, or he has some kind of rash. I'm just afraid he might be getting
> what his brother died from.
>
> If anybody had any experience with that, please help me!
>
> (I also posted on rec.pets because I didn't know about this group then)