Ringworm (presents as missing patches of fur)
Ringworm is a contagious fungus that can affect humans as well as many different types of animal. In mice it tends to manifest as thin or missing patches of fur on any area of the body. There are creams available from the vet to treat ringworm, but these are expensive. As the fungus is contagious it can be hard to get rid of, so you may need to treat for a fairly long period of time. I have found that tea tree is the most effective (and safe) way of treating affected mice.
You can buy tea tree oil from chemists such as Boots because it is a natural antiseptic and used as a skin treatment for humans. A small bottle will go a long way in treating mice, especially as you dilute the tea tree anyway. I put a few drops of the tea tree oil into a clean spray bottle and added some water. My intention was to make it fairly weak so that if it didn’t work on the mice I could increase the dose without harming them. Luckily for me it seemed to work even at a fairly weak concentration, so my advice would be to err on the side of caution as to the strength of the mixture.
I thoroughly cleaned the cages and threw away all disposable accessories before treating as I wanted to remove as much fungus from the environment as possible so as not to recontaminate. If desired you can spray the inside of the cage with the tea tree solution and allow it to dry before adding clean bedding.
I then sprayed each mouse top and under (avoiding the eye area) and placed
them back in the cage. They were then sprayed lightly every night at feeding
time for a week, when I could see the improvement. I continued to treat
for a while after the patches had regrown just to be sure, but it certainly
seemed to cure them for good.
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