And then there was Clara.

After her second birthday, Clara mouse's health rapidly declined. Her left eye clouded over worse and worse and began to swell and her right eye appeared to sink in and become covered over with debris. Clara mouse was not eating or drinking as much and was nowhere near as active as she had been before her birthday. The poor old lady mouse was also having trouble breathing.



I spent a lot of Saturday night holding Clara mouse after cleaning her eyes and trying to get her to take some water with Pedigree. Clara mouse and I sat together in the dark, she insisting to cuddle in my right hand, something her papa mouse Mabel would do when he was alive... After a few hours I put her down in her nesting area with a low hanging water bottle and some easy to eat treats and went off to bed. Every time I woke during my rest time I went to check on her and found that she had been moving some of her bedding around and she even appeared to have eaten some of her food. I even found Clara mouse sitting in her wheel...

Morning came and Clara mouse was still with us. I am holding back on some hope that she would recover like she had in the past. But poor little old lady mouse Clara has had quite the life and it would be selfish to want her to go on in such a state. We spent part of the morning and afternoon together. This time Clara mouse was not as much at ease and having more difficulty breathing and fussing and crying out if I moved too much. We sat together for some time until I needed to go off and do some errands. I put Clara mouse in her nest again and watched her for a short time before leaving. Clara mouse laid in her corner nest and poked up her head chattered at me...

Sunday late-afternoon into Sunday night it looked like Clara was making a comeback. Her poor eyes were still occluded but her breathing was improved. Clara mouse still crawled slowly around her house but she was at least moving around. I cleaned her eyes and tried to get her to take more Pedialyte but she was in fact becoming more and more testy about being handled, like she should be as a grouchy little old lady mouse. She settled down and cuddled in my hand until it was time for her to go back into her house. I scatter her treats around the cage to make it easy for her to nibble.

Monday Clara mouse looked a little better. I found her sitting on her food dish and she appeared to react to me looking in on her. I could see she had been active in her house during the night, moving her bedding and toys around and I saw that she had been eating. Through out the day I checked in on Clara mouse, cleaning her and offering her fluids which she did take some of. I suspect Clara mouse sees well enough because when I brought a cotton pad up to her face to clean her eyes she tried to avoid it. When she was back in her house I saw her crawl over to where there were treats and she also sat up on her own.

I will keep an eye on her. Clara mouse will move on when Clara mouse is ready. Meanwhile she will be snuggled and cuddled and get all the treats she wants.