Buggaboo-boo

 First, a quick reintroduction. This is Junebug: 

She's little. She's white and gray. She's a bit of a nervous nelly. She's very fast. She is seven(ish) months old. She has two sister: Dandelion and Petal. She has lots of aliases including Junie B., Bugaboo, Bug, Buggy, and Little Bug/gy. 

She is one of my current mice. I've already written about her here three times. Which is to say, you can find out more about her in A Climber, The Little Ones, and Mouse Watching - A Play by Play Account. 

Now, a little content warning before we continue. This is about a mouse wound, a human's anxious thoughts, a minor mousey medical procedure, and recovery. Some of the descriptions might be unpleasant and there is a couple of photos of the abscess/wound. This is to say, if you would rather not read about all of that/see any of that, that's okay. Just, stop reading now. 

Still reading? Okay great. 

A few weeks ago, I saw what I thought might be a bump at the base of Junebug's ear. Now, Junebug is exceptionally fast and very nervy. Several months ago, she started obsessively backflipping which prompted me to change their wheel, provide more hideouts and increase their enrichment opportunities, and ultimately buy them a bigger cage. She is difficult to handle. When I reach for it, she jumps around the cage, dodging me and scurrying into boxes.

When I first saw what I thought might be a bump, I caught Junebug and attempted to inspect it, but she was so wiggly I couldn't get a look at it. I tried a couple of days in a row but didn't succeed in inspecting it. Eventually, though, I didn't need to get a "close look" to confirm my suspicions. The bump had grown large enough that its presence was blatant: 

Mice, and other small mammals, are susceptible to tumors. I don't always take mice to the vet when they develop tumors. They can live with them for awhile without it affecting their quality of life. In this instance, though, I wasn't convinced it was a tumor. Junebug is only seven months old--exceptionally young for a mouse to develop tumors--and the placement was atypical. 

Neither factor wholly eliminates a tumor as a possibility, though. I have had other mice who had terminal health issues crop up at a young age. I have also had a mouse who developed a tumor in her ear canal, although she was two years old at the time. 

Considering both of these factors, I thought there was a good chance what Junebug had wasn't a tumor but rather a cyst or an abscess that we might be able to have drained. 

It is not easy to take a mouse to the vet. First, it is not easy to find a vet to take a mouse. Any animal hospital in the country will see your cat or dog, but small mammals are considered "exotics." So if you have a mouse, a hamster, a rat, a guinea pig, a rabbit, a bird, any kind of reptile or amphibian, you have to search for a vet's clinic who will see them and even then often only one or two of the vets there can help you. 

Mice are typically relatively low cost pets. You can buy a mouse from a pet store for less than $10. They don't eat much. Most of their habitat can be formed from packing material. They love toilet paper rolls. You can line their cages with junk mail. They can be useful, too, and will tear up old documents as well as a shredder. If you have to take them to the vet, though? 

The cost to get medical care for a mouse can vary widely and wildly from clinician to clinician. A few years ago, I had a mouse, Marigold, who got extremely ill 3 times in her life. The final time, I decided medical intervention may keep her alive but her quality of life would be so poor that it would be best to not make her go through regiments of medication again. The other times, though, I saw her get very ill and then I found a vet. The first vet charged me $25 to see her, run a test, and send me home with some medicine. Unfortunately, that vet was gone before the next time she got ill. The second vet I took her to was far from my home and charged me $150ish for an examination and medication. I viewed this as costly but expected. Less expected? 

A year or so later, I had another mouse, Hex, who had an eye infection. 

The vet we saw that time charged us over $300 for an examination that took less than 10 minutes during which the vet never once touched the mouse and then prescribed eyedrops. We were a little dumbstruck at the whole experience. 

Luckily, we have settled on a vet that we really like who is good with our larger pets and kind with our smaller pets. Our vet is gentle and respectful and, thankfully, the cost for our small pet care has always been around the $80 mark there--fluctuating some depending on the requirements of the care. 

So, when my wife took our dog in to have his ~shudder~ glands expressed, I asked them to schedule an appointment for Junebug. We opted to wait a bit for our favorite vet to come back--especially because Junebug's behavior hadn't really shifted with the development of her large bump--so the appointment was about a week out. Then I had to push it another two days when a family thing came up. 

I wasn't terribly worried because, as previously mentioned, her behavior was consistent and I hadn't noticed any lethargy or change in appetite. I did, however, get worried because we went out of town for a couple of days and I kept thinking what if it's a cyst that bursts while we're gone and she's just in her cage with her sisters what will that even mean for her, for any of them? 

But when we got back to town, there had been no change. I immediately took her in for her appointment and...it was pretty funny. As I may have mentioned, uh, multiple times, Junebug is fast and frantic. Here's a little video of her doing some of her backflips: 

I brought her to the vet in a little box with airholes poked in the top. When the first vet tech reached to open the box, I warned, "She's really fast." I opened the box for her, the vet tech peeked in side and said, of the bump, "Oh, I see it." We closed up the box and waited for the vet. When he came in, I again warned, "She's really fast." He took her out and found that, yes, she was really fast. He frowned, "I'm going to get a towel and someone to help."

Earlier this year, I brought in my hamster, Huckleberry, another notably fast little friend with a bump that needed inspected. This vet was able to hold Huckleberry, exposing his little belly, and prod at the lump on his stomach without issue. With Junebug, though? The vet returned and tried holding her still in a towel. Then, another vet tech entered, and the doctor asked her to try to hold Junebug still, possibly just exposing the ear with the bump, so that he could examine it. 

Junebug leapt up, diving into the sleeve of the vet tech's shirt. "Oh, no!" She laughed, catching Junebug back in the towel. It took a few moments of struggling to wrangle her, but finally the vet tech had Junebug secure and the vet was able to take a sample of fluid from Junebug's bump confirming it wasn't a tumor but rather a cyst. 

This was great news because my little Bugaboo could have that big bump removed. That day! 

Because mice are so small, what they have to do in order to operate on them is first put them in a little glass jar, shaped a bit like a teepee, that they add a bit of gas anesthesia to. This puts the mouse to sleep and they are able to then remove them from the jar to operate. 

The vet and his vet tech weren't gone long before another vet tech came in, holding that little glass teepee with Junebug in it, and saying, "I didn't want to risk getting her out before we were all back in here." 

Mice are small and have fast metabolisms. This means they fall asleep quickly when exposed to the anesthetic, but it wears off quickly as well. As Bug's anesthesia wore off, the vet explained to me that they were able to drain the pus from the cyst and that he then was able to remove the cyst's casing. If he hadn't done this part, there would be a fair chance the cyst would refill with pus and she would have another large lump in record time. 

This meant they opened a hole about 10cm in diameter next to her ear--a small amount for a human but large for a mouse--that they closed up with what the vet described as "essentially a pet-safe superglue."  

He assured me that she wouldn't reopen the wound by scratching at it, but he suggested she be moved into a separate cage from her sisters while she's healing. For 10 days after her operation, I gave her bread with drops of amoxicillin on it twice a day. 

Giving mice medicine is always a little bit funny. Sometimes, it is very difficult. With amoxicillin, the flavor is nice enough that they will usually take it, but anything you have to drip into their mouths they will struggle about. Junebug is extra difficult--fast and jittery--which is why I opted to give her bits of bread that carried her medicine. The amounts are funny, too. They had to give me different droppers from the one that came with the box because her dosage was so small. Literally just a drop or two. 

Anyway, this was to prevent infection and promote her healing. 

She has healed, too, though her ear still isn't quite in the right place on her head. She has finished her antibiotics and, now, there is just the question of reintroducing her to her sisters' cage. 

Throughout the time she has been separated, I have swapped bedding between the two cages with hopes that reintroduction would go more smoothly since they would remain familiar with one another's scents. After Junebug's wound was healed, I started reintroduction by having the three unite in a third location. The trouble is, they were all so anxious at being outside of their cages, they didn't really seem to interact. Since then, I have tried moving Junebug into her sisters' cage for short periods of time. Nearly every time, she has squabbled with Dandelion--they were not all-out brawls that drew blood, but Junebug did some high-pitched squealing and ran away with Dandelion nipping at her legs and tail. One day, we went ten minutes without a chase or a squabble or a pained squeal...but the next day both Dandelion and Petal nipped at her. 

There isn't a conclusion to this story, really. Junebug has always been a bit of an oddball and a handful. Dandelion and Petal seem to have a much more peaceful living situation without her. She would do backflips off the wheel as the others were running--at times literally leaping off them in the process. But they also all would sleep huddled together. They would eat side by side. They work together on seemingly inane tasks like tearing out the cardboard lining of a tissue box, just leaving its glossy exterior. I would like for them to all three get to live together somewhat harmoniously. 

The cyst Bug had could have been an infection that took hold after one of her sisters chomped her ear--the very fact of it might suggest that there hadn't been harmony in the first place. 

I don't know. At this point, I am just going to keep trying different things until I either figure out how to get them to all live together or I figure out that I can't get them all living together again.