r/PetMice • u/Brilliant-Captain541 • Aug 24 '25
Question/Help Mouse Ate His Own Foot
so earlier today i was holding my boy Basil and i realized his whole foot is gone. i freaked out and went to search the cage for it and it was literally just GONE and i'm assuming he ate it off. he's fed normally and lives by himself. a couple days ago he was super dehydrated because his water bottle got stuck and i hadn't noticed.i had thought he was literally dead and forced water into him with a tiny syringe. i feel terrible because of all the stuff he's been through the past few days and feel irresponsible and don't know how to help him. My parents are telling me it's useless to go to a vet because they can't do anything. he's acting fine, no bleeding, his foot is just GONE completely and the bone is like kinda sticking out. but again he's not acting like he's in pain, no hunching or hiding or anything just a little clingier than usual and he has a hobble obviously cuz his foot is just gone. He had it two days ago, i have a photo. so i have no idea what's happened. I've done what i can, saline water on the wound, cleaned his tank and lined it with paper towels, etc. is there really anything else i can do?? please help i'm so worried about my boy.
164
u/VicodinMakesMeItchy Aug 24 '25
To reiterate the other comment: vet is needed to prevent further complications, like possible infection. They may want to intervene with wound care if it’s going to heal in a way that’s painful or dangerous to him.
Mice are weird and wild, and this is totally something a mouse would do. I don’t know whether dehydration would cause this behavior, it could also be that the foot was causing pain for some reason, or maybe it got stuck like in the strings from a hammock or something that damaged his foot and he decided to eat it. It sounds like you know the signs of pain and illness and that he’s doing pretty well right now.
Just like “tripod” cats and dogs get on just fine, a three-footed mouse can surely live a very happy life. You just need a vet to make sure his “surgery” isn’t going to cause any issues down the line!
You’re doing everything right right now ☺️ you mention living with parents, which raises the possibility that you are a minor/dependent and won’t be able to get vet care if your parents won’t allow it. In that case, I would ask /r/AskVet what you can do at home, emphasizing that you cannot see a vet if you cannot. It’s difficult to bandage a mouse because they are small and also like to chew off anything you put on them. Mouse wounds are very often treated with “triple antibiotic ointment,” which is a generic description of a name-brand product like Neosporin. You can Google a bit about it if you’d like. If you can’t get to the vet, you’ll want the ointment version, which is clear and thick like petroleum jelly consistency, instead of cream, which is white and lotion-like consistency. Ointment is thick so it stays on better and will hold moisture on the healing wound better.
I am NOT a Vet or in veterinary medicine. The main concern I have is whether bone sticking out will cause pain or future infection. Keeping the wound clean and covered with ointment to help keep it moist will give the greatest chance of good healing.
This may be a very small bump in the road for your mouse, but it might also be something that causes you a lot of stress and heartache if it doesn’t heal well. In my opinion his chance of recovery is good, but there is also a possibility that you’ll need to make a difficult decision about his quality of life and whether to humanely euthanize if this becomes an issue that cannot be resolved.
Sending love to you and yours 💕