Mice

[CallaLily]

One our cats has a permanent head tilt now. He'd been acting a little lethargic for a few days and then he started walking in circles so we got him into the vet that day and it was a massive ear infection. (They do a wonderful job of hiding illness.) Anyway, the infection had spread to the facial nerves and inner ear and it progressed to the point where he couldn't stand or straighten his head. Some major antibiotics later he was healed and it's been a slow recovery. He can walk and jump normally now, but he still has a noticeable head tilt that may never go away. The damage to the nerves was too severe. I have to wonder if it's the same with Cheeseburger - pressure on the facial nerves causing her to be sideways.

I meant to comment on this. Thank you for this info! I've often wondered if it was a really bad ear infection, since meds did help, but I wasn't sure if it could explain the lasting effect it's had.

Here's pics of Twix and Cheeseburger. I'll add ones of Bacon and Hashbrown in a bit.

[CallaLily]

Bacon



Chubby Hashbrown



And another cute snuggly pic of Daryl I couldn't resist sharing.



Edit: I almost forgot, that picture of Hashbrown was taken by Bacon. I had my phone down in the tank trying to get decent closeups of them. Bacon was very curious about my phone and came over to investigate. That's when she touched the screen with her nose several times, setting the camera off. This was the best one she took.

[CallaLily]

Ok so I removed anything with wheat from Daryl's diet for 2 weeks to see how it went. I fed him only rye, barley, oats, millet, walnuts, brown rice, wild rice, puffed rice, hemp seeds, flax seeds, squash seeds, mealworms, nori, and some fresh veggies, scrambled eggs, occasional fresh fruit. For a couple days his eyes looked like they were improving (this happens now and then, even with the usual food/setup, for reasons I haven't figured out yet) but then they got worse again. So I have went back to giving him their regular food. It's been a couple days back on his usual diet and his eyes are the same. Not sure if two weeks were enough time but it didn't seem to be making a difference and I was worried about him not getting a balanced diet. Thoughts?

[wodesorel]

Doing an allergen test diet involves doing a two/three ingredient diet for a week or more. The idea is to limit everything to bare basics to see if there is an improvement and if it is diet related over environmental. In his case since it's cycling every few days a week should be enough to give you an idea if that's the problem and it won't affect his nutrition since it's so short. If he gets better you know it's something he's eating, and then you add back one ingredient at a time and wait several days for a reaction before adding another. When there's a reaction you know what the allergy is.

There are just to many possibilities in his mixed diet and too much room for cross contamination to rule out anything. Never assume it's one thing, it can be many. It took me months to realize two of my cats were allergic to both egg and beets because we kept assuming it would one of the big ones. Once we tracked down a food free of both their digestive issues stopped immediately.

[CallaLily]

Ok. I see. I was focused too much on just trying to eliminate wheat. I will start over. Thank you!

[wodesorel]

You're going to feel like your starving him while doing it. The idea of giving anything gruel for days on end is upsetting and like cruel punishment. Just keep focusing on how wonderful it'll be for him if you can identify the problem and make him feel better! For mice, a week of nothing but rice is recommended, with vitamins in the water. If it is food related you'll know within 7 days. And then you can slowly start adding things back slowly every 3-4 days and see if the eyes start back up. (probably a meat and then a nut so it's nutritionally sound quicker.)

[CallaLily]

Ok. Thank you, Wode!!

[CallaLily]

Poor Twix's tumor has grown a lot.

Here's the before that I shared further back in this thread:


Here's tonight:

[wodesorel]

Shoot. And they're positive it's a tumor and not a cyst?

[sugarselections]

Sorry to hear about Twix's tumor. One of my sugar gliders has a large tumor in her abdomen that we've been treating for a while. Her vet and I decided against surgery so we're managing it with anti-inflammatory and pain medications. It's not fun:(

[CallaLily]

He sounded certain it was a tumor. I think I'll call him tomorrow to see about taking her back in. I want to ask about pain meds for her and see what he thinks about an anti-inflammatory. I keep seeing others in similar situations mentioning that same treatment and I'm wondering if it's something we should've started sooner. We'll see what he says.

[wodesorel]

I'm so sorry you two! My heart skipped this week when our vet said "fatty tumor" about the lump on TJ's tail that seemed to show up overnight. I never knew they could grow that fast. In T's case it seems like it may be a hematoma (we're hoping anyway - the cats knocked hubby's hard lunch pail down the steps and he might have gotten hurt) , but the lump is still the same size and he hasn't gotten much movement back in his tail yet. Vet said all we can do is watch him and see what happens over time.

[sugarselections]

For Lark's tumor we've tried a few different things to try to keep her comfortable. Now I'm giving her a dose of Celebrex daily. It's helping, but we may need to raise the dosage.

[Laurie LeAnn]

I rescued a mouse from wal Mart years ago when they used to sell pets like that..it was certain death by snake for them..there were only a few left and this little mouse had a problem..He wobbled a lot when he walked..probably a injury of some sort. I bought him, gave him a home..He live maybe 4 months..at least he didn't die by being a snakes dinner.

[CallaLily]

I'm sure it was the best time of his little life. Glad you helped him, Laurie.