Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello everybody

the end of my mouse's tail fell off when my neice (who is 5 years old) picked him up and he tried to get away. it was like the skin around it just sort of "fell off". it exposed the meat and bone. i called the vet office and i got his machine. he's going to be gone until wednesday the emergency vet they refered me to i called them and they said they dont see mice or exotics. they referred me to pitsburg but that's five hours away i can't get there. i dont know what to do. i feel so bad. hes licking his wound. what should i do? my roomate said i should shoot him in the head to put him out of misery but i dont have the heart to do that please help!!!! he is bleeding A LOT please help!!

A tail injury like this will need to be amputated...with teh skin completely torn off, (unless it is a very short length of tail, as in, under a quarter inch) infection can easily get in. Untill yu can get him to a vet, keep your mouse in as clean a cage you can, using just paper towel or unprinted newsprint. Apply some antibiotic ointment on the exposed tail and ideally, wrap it with sterile gauze. Most likely though, the mouse wil just chew it off and lick off the ointment... so applying a dressing won't be easy.

Keep the cage clean, get him to a vet asap to have it treated.
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PHLdyPayne