Help! What to do with an injured mouse?

H

HowToBe

The Living Force
One of our cats just caught a small mouse and we're trying to figure out what to do with him. The cat had him in his mouth, but I grabbed a cup real quick and kept the cat from moving, and pretty soon he let go. The mouse has a small wound on his stomach, and he doesn't seem to be able to use his back legs. He appears to be a young mouse. He doesn't seem to be bleeding and he can still pull himself around with his front legs. Currently we have him in a small pet carrier for rodents. We've put in some water and celery for him.

We've considered putting him "out of his misery", so to speak, but I don't know if that is appropriate or not. Remarkable recoveries can happen, and I don't know if it's right to deprive him of that chance. But then there's also the question of what to do with him if he does survive... there is a forest nearby where we could set him free.
 
There are a number of vets nearby, but we couldn't afford the bill presently. I found our local animal shelter online, so I'll call them. The mouse is still alive, and appears to have moved around in the carrier, which may be a good sign.
 
I'd try just leaving the poor little guy alone, in a protected, warm, dark place and give him awhile to recover if he can. It sounds like he MIGHT have a broken back, but maybe not...hard to say? All you can really do is give him/her a safe, quiet place to recover, as well as food and water. I think mice especially like grains and fruits.
 
Also straw to hide under and keep cosy, which would be available at any pet store and probably supermarket.
 
I don't want to be rude, but when my cat hunts a small animal, as painful as it is, I leave nature be. I think it's best to respect the animal's natural instincts and not to try to save what he sees as food. After all we all eat and we're also eaten.
Except when he gets the living mouse inside the house, because of diseases, of course.

Sorry if it sounds harsh but eat and being eaten is part of life.
 
skycsil said:
I don't want to be rude, but when my cat hunts a small animal, as painful as it is, I leave nature be. I think it's best to respect the animal's natural instincts and not to try to save what he sees as food. After all we all eat and we're also eaten.
Except when he gets the living mouse inside the house, because of diseases, of course.

Sorry if it sounds harsh but eat and being eaten is part of life.
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While I am open to discussion, I am leaning rather strongly in the same direction. It's part of our world, something I am seeing more clearly now that I returned to a meat-oriented diet. Mouse, cat, and human are all prey/food.

Both of our cats would love to get their paws on a mouse, and it would not be pleasant for the mouse. But it is not especially pleasant for the cats either -- they wander about not seeming to know what to do with themselves because they have nothing to hunt but insects. I am sharing a little of my meat with them, for all it's worth.
 
skycsil said:
I don't want to be rude, but when my cat hunts a small animal, as painful as it is, I leave nature be. I think it's best to respect the animal's natural instincts and not to try to save what he sees as food. After all we all eat and we're also eaten.
Except when he gets the living mouse inside the house, because of diseases, of course.

Sorry if it sounds harsh but eat and being eaten is part of life.
Click to expand...

I agree. I just received a glowing report that kitty consumed two mice within the last 15 minutes.

Let's face it, they are destructive pests in a human environment plus they carry diseases. Over the winter, we had a contest between Mr. Scott and Kitty to see who could get the most mice. (Tons of them come into the house when it is cold.) The score ended up being Mr. Scott - 40 and Kitty - 20. Think about that! 60 mice in our house, and I'm sure we didn't get them all! I'm also sure that Kitty MUST have won because we only counted the mice that we saw her with, not the ones she consumed in privacy!

Now there are large rats living in the woodpile (we've seen them) and they'll be soon going the way of the mice.

We used mini-bombs to get rid of the moles.
 
skycsil said:
I don't want to be rude, but when my cat hunts a small animal, as painful as it is, I leave nature be. I think it's best to respect the animal's natural instincts and not to try to save what he sees as food. After all we all eat and we're also eaten.
Except when he gets the living mouse inside the house, because of diseases, of course.

Sorry if it sounds harsh but eat and being eaten is part of life.
Click to expand...

I'd try just leaving the poor little guy been eaten by the cat, as part of their natural
progression, see?.
Sorry if it sounds harsh but, this remind me what the C’s told:


Q: (L) Is there any way we can prevent Orion abductions?
A: No.
Q: (L) Why?
A: It would interfere with universal law of free will and service to
self.
Q: (L) But we don't want to be abducted. Can't we stop it?
A: Not likely. They have more power than you.
Q: (L) Well then, why can't you help us?
A: Would interfere in natural progression of your race and theirs.
 
Indeed. I have a little girl, don't want her having some weird mouse disease. Once Cassidy brought home a mouse, it almost drove me crazy having the thing inside the house, but it was nowhere to be found. Two days later found it in the laundry room, dead. I think it was my brother who told me that the mouse often dies because he's too scared, so when the cat got it the best thing to do is to leave both alone.
Also, I think a bird or a mouse is far healthier for the cat than any food we can get for them.
 
I understand what yawl are saying, and I agree in principle, but our domestic cats are NOT wild animals, and eating a wild mouse can KILL a house cat....especially here in the US. Here, mice carry some terrible diseases, including HPS....which is exactly why I wouldn't handle the mouse, just leave it alone in the box.

So if I'm not going to let my cat eat wild mice, what to do with an injured one I've taken from a cat is a VERY good question, and one that's come up at our house more than once. It's a living creature, and if I do not NEED to kill it, I won't. If it's a threat, yes, I'll kill it...likewise if it's suffering with no chance of recovery...but preserving what life I can, when I can, even a little tiny life, is very important to me.

I hear what Laura (and my roommate) say about mice being "pests" and I understand the need to kill them IF they invade our living space and won't leave....but personally, I prefer mouse proofing our food so they will go live in the woods where they belong.

That mouse and I have one thing in common, we both want to live. If we can both do that, without endangering each other, kewl.
 
Guardian said:
I'd try just leaving the poor little guy alone, in a protected, warm, dark place and give him awhile to recover if he can. It sounds like he MIGHT have a broken back, but maybe not...hard to say? All you can really do is give him/her a safe, quiet place to recover, as well as food and water. I think mice especially like grains and fruits.
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This mirrors my thoughts exactly. Luckily, my mom has a hamster, so we have rodent food and bedding (by the way, we keep the hamster in a room the cats are never allowed into, and the mouse is being kept in that room).

As far as the comments about letting nature be, I understand, and under different circumstances I might do so. However, my concerns were along the lines of what Guardian wrote. I wasn't aware of the sickness danger, but it makes sense to me that a house cat might not have good enough immunity (lack of wilderness exposure and all that) to handle a potential disease. My primary concern was based on something I read a while back, that rats and mice - especially in residential areas - can have rodent killer in their system, which can poison pets that eat them. Cats are at greater risk because of their typically smaller body mass. Rodents can eat poison in one house, then move to another house where they get eaten by a pet, because the poisons are slow-acting and may take a day or two to kill them. This may be a remote possibility, but I'm wary of chancing it.

For what it's worth, I clicked my tongue and gave the cat a treat (a piece of pure freeze-dried chicken, which they both love). I clicker-train the cats to make all of our lives easier, and the click is basically meant to tell him "That's good, I'll give you a treat for that!" I like to think of it as giving the cats wages for good behavior. :) So even if he didn't get to eat his prey, he got to eat something tasty. :P

Anyway, last time I checked, the mouse was still alive, and had moved next to the water dish from the other corner of the cage!
 
HowToBe said:
...As far as the comments about letting nature be, I understand, and under different circumstances I might do so. However, my concerns were along the lines of what Guardian wrote. I wasn't aware of the sickness danger, but it makes sense to me that a house cat might not have good enough immunity (lack of wilderness exposure and all that) to handle a potential disease. My primary concern was based on something I read a while back, that rats and mice - especially in residential areas - can have rodent killer in their system, which can poison pets that eat them. Cats are at greater risk because of their typically smaller body mass. Rodents can eat poison in one house, then move to another house where they get eaten by a pet, because the poisons are slow-acting and may take a day or two to kill them. This may be a remote possibility, but I'm wary of chancing it...
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It could depend on where you live. Where Guardian lives I would be very concerned about the mouse making the cat sick. Where I live in suburbia, however, the mice left a long, long time ago. If one of our would-be hunters latched on to a mouse, it would most likely be some poor child's pet mouse that escaped and had no idea what was waiting for it out there. :cry:
 
HowToBe said:
Anyway, last time I checked, the mouse was still alive, and had moved next to the water dish from the other corner of the cage!
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I really wouldn't keep it in the house hon, or handle it, get your face close to it etc. You can catch even worse diseases from it than your cat : :scared:
 
HowToBe said:
We've considered putting him "out of his misery", so to speak, but I don't know if that is appropriate or not. Remarkable recoveries can happen, and I don't know if it's right to deprive him of that chance. But then there's also the question of what to do with him if he does survive... there is a forest nearby where we could set him free.
Click to expand...
As I see it, the mouse would already have been out of his misery if you had not intervened. As for the cat 'catching' something from eating a possibly diseased mouse, well.., cats do what they do and maybe that would have been something to let nature control as it does so naturally. It may not be something we 'like' but it is what it is ; nature.
 
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