mouse in the house:

gailuvscats

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My spikey will sit in front of the diswasher and stare at the tiny opening next to it for hours. I presume there is a mouse lurking. My question is: should I try to get rid of the mice with what? Or just let nature (spike) take it's course. If Spike gets the mouse, can he get sick from it? When my sparky was alive, I one time found a nest of dead mice in the basement. I don't think she ate any, and she was ok, but she did die earlier than her 17 year old sister who is still kickin.
any advice?
 

gailc

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Are you sure there isn't a cat toy or something else other than a mouse??
Of course there hearing is much better than ours. My cats eat mice all the time-but they usually leave parts for us!! They might get worms from it??
 

yayi

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Your sparky was like my cats. They kill but don't eat them. I guess it depends on the cat whether they find mice tasty or not.
 

musicteacher

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My cats did that at my last apartment, that was mouse haven due to a messy neighboring tennant. Alex would always be the one to catch them, and he would take them into the bathroom and try to play with them. He only killed two, one of which he played with to death and the other I think died of fright because I found it floating in the water dish. It must have died and then they put it in there. Neither of the cats ever ate any part of the mice they caught. I think they just found the mice fun to play with.
 

mrspotts66

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mice also carry toxoplasmosis. not good. can you put an s.o.s. (brillo) pad in the hole and shove it way back? that'll keep the mouse from getting into the room (they don't like to chew through steel wool pads). just make sure it's far enough back that spikey can't get it out.

spikey could just be seeing a cobweb moving back there, too. my mom had a cat that would stare at the ceiling for hours. she was the "cobweb hunter" for years!
 

zak&rocky

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I would be very concerned if someone had set pesticides out for the mice. If kitty eats a mouse that has eaten that, they could get sick. Getting worms is possible, but if you worm kitty if you know it got a mouse it should be okay.
 
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gailuvscats

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I am pretty sure it must be a mouse. I know they are or were in the basement. before Spike and after sparky I caught two of them in a no kill trap, but didn't know they were in there so it didn't turn out to be very humane after all. Before I got Spike and after Sparky died, a mouse used to be in the kitchen and I would see it briefly as I came in. I would see its tail going under the basement door. It would walk right in front of my old girl. She didn't even notice it! geez. Well, I don't want to use anything toxic, I might stuff both sides of the dishwaher with brillo. I don't want Spike to get worms, but then on the otherhand what the hell is taking him so long to get it?
and why aren't the other two cats looking to get it? or them.
 

bab-ush-niik

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Some cats just aren't mousers. Patches brings us presents on a regular basis, but Princess would only chase one if it actually ran in front of her. She never sought them out.

I'd just make sure the room is generally picked up, particularly don't leave anything out on the counter at night. One night the mouse WILL come out, and Spike is going to have a field day. We once had a mouse in the house, and we closed the door to the room it was in, with Patches inside. She knocked all the pictures off the wall (maybe the mouse was climbing up them?) and she scattered the papers that we left on the desk, but she had him within 15 minutes.
 

petnurse2265

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bab-ush-niik said:
Some cats just aren't mousers. Patches brings us presents on a regular basis, but Princess would only chase one if it actually ran in front of her. She never sought them out.

That's the truth. I breed mice, and have had a few escapee's before, none of my cats go for them at all.
 

goldenkitty45

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If the mouse is dead and the cat eats him, then its possible for the cat to get sick. Especially if the mouse ate DCon poison.

I know of a person who had cats (apartment). They never let the management spray for roaches in their house (cause of the cats). However, their cat was found dead one day - autopsy revealed that it died of poison.....apparently a dying cockroach crawled under the door and the cat ate it.
 

casa de gato

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My cats are always catching mice, especially Jade who came from England.

She does eat them and so does Sol, Charlie & Tommy prefer lizards althouh they don't eat them and if I can I take them off them and let them go in the garden. We have the biggest colony of tailess lizards on Lanzarote


Living in the mountains mice are something you get used to, they were in my kitchen but having 4 cats around soon put pay to that.

I worm regularly but living where we do there is not much I can do to stop them catching them, they are doing what cats have done for centuries.
 

goldenkitty45

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IMO mice in the country would be "healthier" then those in the city/apartments as they are running the fields eating natural stuff....lol
 

vampirecat

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Jake catches and eats mice all the time, as a result i have to make sure his worm treatments are all up to date
 
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gailuvscats

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I had no idea that mice mean cat worms. I live in the suburbs with a big yard that I garden with mostly native plants. Any mice in my basement would just be eating basement dirt, or whatever birdseed I spill on the floor. I think in the summer they might leave the house, but if any of them get caught I will make sure I take a stool sample to the vet for a worm check. Will I be able to see the worms? I can identify tape worms(when a piece is hanging on the cat) , but not sure if I would recognize the others.
 

zak&rocky

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When I got cookie and suzie they had roundworms. The reason I knew is because someone got sick and it it basically looked like very thin spaghetti, and they were moving.

You may be able to see larger ones in the feces as well, but the vet is able to put the stool sample under a microscope and see larvae, smaller worms and anything else.
 
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gailuvscats

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That is gross. I think I might get those no kill traps and put them in the basement and lock out the cats. I do not want a pile of barfed up worms to clean up. yeckkkk
 

zak&rocky

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Sorry about the gory details, but I believe in telling it like it is. You should have seen my face when I found that! Good thing those two are pretty cute!
 

jetter

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Originally Posted by gailuvscats

My spikey will sit in front of the diswasher and stare at the tiny opening next to it for hours. I presume there is a mouse lurking. My question is: should I try to get rid of the mice with what? Or just let nature (spike) take it's course. If Spike gets the mouse, can he get sick from it? When my sparky was alive, I one time found a nest of dead mice in the basement. I don't think she ate any, and she was ok, but she did die earlier than her 17 year old sister who is still kickin.
any advice?
What you can do is buy one of those electrical boxes that trap mice and kills it. Its like a foot long and it takes batteries. Inside the box there is an exposed wire that hangs down so when the mouse goes in, it electricutes it. Apparently the batteries are powerful enough to do the job. We have used them at a rental house we have and it is truly the only thing that really works. You'd have to put dog food (or cat food) just at the inside of the box to attract the mouse. Of course, you'd wanna block off the area so you're cat will be alright. Another option is that you can block off the hole by the washer and then go outside and try to find where it go in at and load that area with DECON
. It will reeeeeeek but it'll do the trick.
 
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