Trap didn't kill - ? Feel bad now.

[Ibicella]

The important thing is we try to do our best and with compassion. Circumstance doesn't always permit it, but the fact you care says worlds about you.

Killing is not an easy or a fun thing, but it's often necessary in this world. You did your best. Who knows, mice are pretty resilient and he may well be able to get around still! I've seen many wild mice, rats, and pigeons with mangled or missing feet and limbs still living their lives just fine.

 

[oesdog]

LauraG - Oh I am soooo not alone!!!!!!!! I too confess to setting off the traps while DH sets them often catching himself more than the mice!!!!!!! I had a family in the Airing cupboard inside my house by the hot water boiler. He put traps down - I set them off.

dinahmoe - Sooooooooo like me!!!!! I have a family of mice in the feed store right now. I was cleaning one day and lifted some hay that was behind the feed bins? I didn;t put it there but something told me it wasn;t right because it was wound in a ball. I imediately regretted what I had done because there were little pink bodies wrapped up inside it. I quickly covered it again and laid more straw and even a plastic feed bag over the top to keep the heat in. - Yeah I also threw a hanful of grain - Arnt I sad? They are the ones that are now getting stuck int he feed bins as they are old enough to get in to steal food but when the feed is low they can;t climb out. So I have to check often to rescue them before DH finds them. I am also very careful when I restock - not to pour feed on top of a stranded baby mouse!!!!

Oh - the brooding mice!!! Gosh that was way back in the summertime when Bertha was actually on chicks and Gerty was Jealouse. She wanted to brood too but didn;t want all the hard work. She would sit for a couple of hours and then get board and walk away from the eggs. So the chic-mice were good for her as she could brood them and leave them whenever she wanted. It was sooooooooooo funny. I wish I had photos. I think she will brood again in the spring and I am pretty sure she will have baby mice in her feathers. I haven;t seen any little ones just big ones lately. I will try to post a photo if I catch her with them again.

Today We have really deep snow. - I set 4 traps last night and had two clean kills and one trap set off by snow. - I cannot find the other trap. I am hoping the snow set it off but more likely another mouse got cought in it but has not died and maybe draged it away like the other one? -

I feel bad but the mouse reservation here is kind of FULL and I need to get rid of some of them.

Ibicella - Love the hooded lister RAT! - my sister used to keep them.

Oesdog

 

[geebs]

keeping as pets????

 

[annie3001]

you poor thing, softly for animals. I am the same way. Cant say thats ever happened to me, but one time we had a sick hen. She wasnt improving after 2 weeks and started to smell deathly. We had to (guess you would call it, end her life).
it was real hard.
I learned tho a lesson, to try something else, meds on a chicken. I just thought what i was doing, keeping her in the house and force feeding her might work. Well it didnt.
So it go's......
good luck to you.....

 

[Moxiechick]

I am the same way when it comes to animals.

We sometimes get mice in the house, and routinely rescue them from the cats and dog. I'll hear a "squeek" from somewhere in the house and will go rushing to it's aid! We will then check it over for injuries, and keep it overnight for observation, before letting it loose on the far edge of the property, which borders fields and woods, has a small stream and a compost pile. Everything a mouse could wish for.

Occasionally, we aren't in time and the mouse may be injured. Usually it's just a small wound, which we treat and then release the mouse once they are healed. You would be surprised at the ability of a mouse to recuperate. We once found one that the cats had "de-gloved". The cats had somehow torn the skin right off one of the hind legs.

I was considering euthanizing it, but then remembered from my biology classes that mouse cells and human cells are the same size. Yes, the whole leg had no skin, but inch for inch, that amount of skin on a larger animal would be a minor flesh wound and heal pretty quickly. So, I cleaned the leg with the blue antiseptic wound cleaning stuff we get from the vet (I forget it's name), and then tried to make it as comfy as possible. We were able to rescue a sibling the next day, so he had the comfort of another mouse. The first couple of days he didn't move around much, but then he started perking up. Within a week, he was running on his wheel as fast as his sibling, and within 2 weeks, I could barely tell which leg had been hurt.

I did have one a few weeks ago that had to be put down. When I found him, he had his intestines hanging out of his side, in a little bundle. The hardest thing was, the mouse didn't act like anything was wrong! It was alert and lively.

I thought that maybe if I flushed the intestines with the blue stuff and pushed them back in and closed the wound that he might have a chance, but after trying for a few moments, it became clear that the wound was to small for them to fit back in, even if such a thing would have been possible. Plus his foot had caught in them. I ended up bludgening him with a wooded board. It was one of the hardest things I ever did.

I just sat on the floor and bawled like a baby, telling him I was so sorry! I'm starting to tear up now just thinking about it. I've euthanized fish and bugs before, but this was my first mammal.

Given what I've witnessed with the de-gloved mouse, it is very possible that your mouse may make it. If you want, scatter some seed where you think it may have gone for a few days, until it's leg has a chance to heal.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
You sound very sweet. - I am sure the little fellow will get food as there is much in the coop and he went under it. However I have put more traps out again and killed 2. I know such a paradox of emotion. But without Peppermint oil right now nothing else to do . We are snowed in and the roads impassable. Only 4x4 s can make it in and out. Nearly crashed ours today as it skided across the road. I have to get less mice cause they are eating all the girls food. I have no choice but to cull some of them -

I just want them not to suffer as it truely does upset me much. - Oh the Iodine. - Not good for intestines you need to use sterile water to flush and then pop them back in. You can use supper glue on the wound to close it up. The big thing about intestines is they should NOT be punctured our left to dry out. If they are intact and are still damp then you can pop them gently back in. They can come out of surprisingly small holes but with a little help from some tiny tweezers its possible to open it up that wee bit to pop them back in. Though if your mouse was trailing them in his foot he probably punctured them and best to cull then as he would only have died of peritinitis.

Oesdog - you did right!!!!!