# Mouse help...possibly over grooming?



## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

I have a group of older mice, one a few months back had to be pts due to OCD scratching, it got to the stage that i thought her ears may be amazingly painful.. So...anyway...

As the group have got older, 2 have changed, one is long haired and now looks like a bedraggled (sp) rat, the other, she keep constantly grooming herself, her fur isnt falling out or anything, its just licking, she keeps licking, so much so the bits she licks is always wet now... 

Any ideas why?


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## Mischievous_Mark (Mar 16, 2008)

freekygeeky said:


> I have a group of older mice, one a few months back had to be pts due to OCD scratching, it got to the stage that i thought her ears may be amazingly painful.. So...anyway...
> 
> As the group have got older, 2 have changed, one is long haired and now looks like a bedraggled (sp) rat, the other, she keep constantly grooming herself, her fur isnt falling out or anything, its just licking, she keeps licking, so much so the bits she licks is always wet now...
> 
> Any ideas why?


thining of hair comes with age and is something which is probly behond your control 

As for the scratching/cleaning perhaps you could have a mite probly, i rmember someone telling me i cant rmember if it was on here or the mouse breeder forum when my mice had mites they continually scratch and after treatment they continuted to do it causing wounds around the head and ears and it was said that they had become familiar with scratching as a way of relief so carried on doing it after treatment and during healing..... whether this is true or not i can only go by what i was told.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

yea the other mouse who was PTS im sure it must of been stress.mites etc..
But this one, over grooming, but only licking, Not scratching, i dont know why 


EDIT here is a pic, this is her looking good, not tooo much licking, today its probably double as bad (VERY bad english their i apologise!)


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

bump after pic added


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## Mischievous_Mark (Mar 16, 2008)

Maybe too much oil in her diet??

Does the food you give them contain striped sun flower seeds and peanuts?


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Mischievous_Mark said:


> Maybe too much oil in her diet??
> 
> Does the food you give them contain striped sun flower seeds and peanuts?



in the mix i get there are the odd penuts, but not enough to cause a prob, each mouse probably gets one every other week ish..
p.s its onyl her no one else..


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## Mischievous_Mark (Mar 16, 2008)

freekygeeky said:


> in the mix i get there are the odd penuts, but not enough to cause a prob, each mouse probably gets one every other week ish..
> p.s its onyl her no one else..


 
Hmm some of my mice sometimes look like that so i switch their diet to something with less fatty foods in and they are fine after a few days....

Perhaps linseed might help, I buy it for myself ( makes my hair nice i just dont like eating 8 tea spoons of it lol) anyway i give half the bag to the mice and rats anmd there coats have improved.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

ok thankyou, maybe ill try pickign out the penuts furst see if that works, then try linseeed
'


Mischievous_Mark said:


> Hmm some of my mice sometimes look like that so i switch their diet to something with less fatty foods in and they are fine after a few days....
> 
> Perhaps linseed might help, I buy it for myself ( makes my hair nice i just dont like eating 8 tea spoons of it lol) anyway i give half the bag to the mice and rats anmd there coats have improved.


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## Mischievous_Mark (Mar 16, 2008)

freekygeeky said:


> ok thankyou, maybe ill try pickign out the penuts furst see if that works, then try linseeed
> '


You can get it at holland and barrett and dont forget ot take 8 tea spoons yourself lol


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