Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and I'm just looking for some advice really, I hope someone can help.
A week ago today, one of our horses at the yard dug up a mouse nest in the corner of her stable killing all the occupants including one adult except for one baby mouse who after doing a little research was probably about 2 weeks old as she had fur but her eyes were still shut.
I put her into a pot full of hay at the time and made the decisionto take her home and see if I could help her survive.
I transferred her to a small tub of cotton wool where she happily snuggled and did some research online which said I should try to feed her puppy milk (goats milk) warmed up a little every few hours or so through a pepette and so that's exactly what I did. I also kept her box ontop of a warm hot water bottle and made sure it didn't get too warm.
She didn't really take the milk very well to begin with, for all I knew she might have been injured in her ordeal but I persisted for two days and by then she was more accepting. I even took her to work with me to ensure she was fed and warm.
On the third day, her eyes opened and all of a sudden she came to life! After each feed which she would zoom around her box, she was still only roughly the size of a 50p.
This is when I bought her a hamster cage because I was worried she would launch herself out of her box and injure herself. She would happily snuggle into her little plastic house that was stuffed with the animal safe fluffy bedding.
So she no longer had the hot water bottle and I admit I didn't give her milk
quite as regulary, probably only 3 times a day.
I also gave her little trimmings of celery leaves which she munched on happily.
However as the days progressed she became more sleepy and less responsive.
When I got her out to give her her milk this morning she was barely breathing, straight away I placed her on top of a warm hot water bottle and tried massaging her very gently to see if I could stimulate her in any way but she died in my hands.
Im not gonna lie, I was devastated! It really upset me that this little life that I was responsible for just slipped away. I know it was only a mouse, but that's not the point.
I'm going to buy a book on rearing baby mice so that if I find myself in the same position again one day, I will have more knowledge.
Can somebody give me sone idea of what I might have done wrong?
I have some lovely photos of her, is there any way I can put them on here for you to see?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.