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🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Mouse Vet-Prep Sheet

Exotic-mammal vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it and keep it with your care notes. This helps you prepare for a vet — it is not treatment.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Run the “normal, or should I worry?” check first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

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Mouse — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find an exotic-mammal vet — before you need one

  • Search the AEMV find-a-vet directory (the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), or, in the UK, the RCVS Find-a-Vet tool — or search “exotic / small-mammal vet near me”.
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: “Do you see small / exotic mammals?” Not every vet does. Ask the exam fee while you’re on the phone, so the cost is one less panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My vet
My mouse
What I’m seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Sniffling, sneezing, a chattering noise, nasal discharge or laboured breathing — respiratory infection is common in mice (often Mycoplasma, which has no cure); see a vet
  • Diarrhoea, loss of appetite or weight, a hunched posture, or rough, ruffled fur
  • Any lump or swelling (mammary tumours are common in mice)
  • Scratching, hair loss, scabs or flaky skin (possible mites or skin disease)
  • Overgrown front teeth, or difficulty eating

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm — small mammals chill and dehydrate fast, and cold makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own bedding/carrier with some familiar food.
  • For rabbits and guinea pigs, keep offering their normal hay, greens and water — a gut that stops is an emergency.
  • Bring a fresh dropping or urine sample if you can.
  • Keep it calm and quiet.

⛔ Don’t

  • Don’t give any human or OTC medicines — some common antibiotics are fatal to rabbits and guinea pigs.
  • Don’t withhold food from a rabbit or guinea pig.
  • Don’t let it get cold.
  • Don’t handle it more than necessary.

🎒 What to bring

  • A fresh dropping or urine sample, if you can collect one.
  • Photos and a short video of the behaviour or symptom — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • A note of eating, drinking and toileting over the last day.
  • The animal in a secure, warm carrier.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Enclosure
A large, secure, escape-proof enclosure (a big tank or a cage with very narrow bar spacing — mice squeeze through tiny gaps) with plenty of floor space and, crucially, deep bedding to dig and tunnel in. Add hides, nest sites and things to climb. Keep the enclosure in a settled spot out of direct sun.
Companionship
Mice are social and shouldn’t be kept alone (unless a vet specifically advises it for an aggressive individual). Keep them in compatible single-sex groups: females generally do very well in groups, while adult males are often aggressive toward one another and frequently can’t be housed together — the safest male groups are same-litter brothers grouped before weaning and never disturbed. Never introduce unfamiliar adult males. Keep established groups stable.
Temperature
Mice are very sensitive to heat. Keep the cage out of direct sunlight and away from temperature extremes and high humidity (not a conservatory, garage, bathroom or air-conditioned room), and move it somewhere cooler in a summer heatwave.
Substrate
A deep layer of safe bedding — at least about 2 cm and ideally deeper so they can dig — of non-aspen wood chips, cellulose-based chips or shredded filter paper, plus plenty of nesting material (mice are keen nest-builders). Avoid fine sawdust, wood shavings, aspen, and any fragrant or dyed bedding, which can cause health problems.
Enrichment
Give mice lots to do: deep substrate to burrow, nesting material to build with, tunnels, safe climbing, a solid exercise wheel, and food scattered around the cage to forage for (foraging is a core natural behaviour). Provide safe things to gnaw for their continuously-growing teeth.
Diet
Mice are opportunistic omnivores. Feed a good-quality, balanced mouse food (a proper mix or pellet) as the base, plus small amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables as part of — not on top of — the daily ration, scattered to encourage foraging. Provide constant fresh water. Don’t feed grapes, raisins or rhubarb (poisonous to mice) or lettuce (it causes diarrhoea).
Supplements
None needed on a good-quality, balanced mouse diet.

⚕️ Small mammals are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so any change in eating, droppings, drinking or behaviour is urgent — in rabbits and guinea pigs, not eating or passing no droppings for 12–24 hours can be a life-threatening emergency (gut stasis). They also chill and dehydrate quickly, so keep it warm. Tell the vet about your diet and any remedies you’ve used, and ask for exotic-mammal-safe medicines and doses — several antibiotics that are routine in other pets are dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see small / exotic mammals? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?