# Dead Mouse floating in Water



## SammyL (Aug 30, 2006)

Hello all,

Well, today, I was cleaning out Faith's water bucket. I clean that thing out every morning and every evening, plus another time at midday. I want to keep it clean, because with her cleft palate, she gets messy when drinking water, so I figure its best to keep it clean. But anyway, I cleaned it out this morning, before I left for my Doctor appointment, nothing unusual there.

Well, I just went out to clean it out again, and I noticed something floating in the bucket. I thought it might be a hair clump. But as I thought about it more, the hair clump idea just didn't fit. So I tipped the bucket over and out rushed water and a DEAD MOUSE! :new_shocked: :smileypuke:

I don't know how it got there, or why, but if Faith had drunk any of that water with the mouse in it, will it hurt her? I pray she didn't drink any, but I am not sure.

The mouse was fully formed, as far as I could tell, no wounds and/or scratches on the mouse either.

So is there a possiblity it could hurt her? And has anyone else had this happen?

Thanks.


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## Mona (Aug 30, 2006)

That has happened to me often. The mouse just falls in and cannot get back out, so drowns. It's nothing to worry about, and even if your horse drank the water, she'll be fine.




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## lvponies (Aug 30, 2006)

I've had it happen too. It's gross and nasty, but none of my horses have ever been harmed by it.


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## Joyce (Aug 30, 2006)

I've found them in water buckets outside also and have never had a problem.

Joyce


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## horsesmakeubroke (Aug 30, 2006)

Me too! eww... we once found 3 baby rats floating in a half barrel we use as a drinker in one of the stables. Horrid, especially with the diseases rats carry, but this was months ago and the horse is still smiling. :bgrin We've also found squashed mice and the odd rat in stables and we're pretty sure they were intentionally stepped on!

Kate


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## flflyingw (Aug 30, 2006)

Hi

I don't think it will hurt her. It probably was a healthy mouse just getting a drink and could not get out. This happened to my colts a few times. Once it was dead when I got out to check Joe's stall. Then twice I found them alive in the water trying to get out. What it was for me was plastic buckets and slippy. They could not get hold of anything so I just dumped them out and left them free. My vet said they hang around for grain. The down fall for us in Florida is snakes feed on mice and I don't want to attrack them so I cleaned up all feed and I put a small ladder so the lizards and mice have an escape route. No more mice seen since and it is over a year now. I sure don't want anymore and my Joe don't. It sure don't look like he drank the water and I don't think he would. I just bleach the buckets out good each time.

FLFlyingW


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## dannigirl (Aug 30, 2006)

As nasty as it is, I find them all the time. I have 37 stalls and when they are all full, I find a couple a week. I use 5 gal buckets for water and when they get 2/3 full or less, the mice want water, but can't get out of the slippery buckets. My horses don't usually drink much with them in there so I make sure to get them out as soon as I can. Guess something swimming in the water is a little much for them to get used to. :lol:


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## Loess Hills (Aug 30, 2006)

Mice in the water seem to be a fact of life in a barn. I don't believe it will hurt a horse, but don't think they really drink when a mouse is in there!

Last week I was emptying one of the mare's water buckets in the morning and found * A BAT * floating in her bucket! :smileypuke:

He wasn't dead, but trying to get out. Dumped the bucket and killed him with a shovel. Believe me I cleaned that bucket with bleach and rinsed many times. Now I keep looking wondering if there are going to be anymore. Talk about bats in the belfry.



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## Jill (Aug 30, 2006)

It's happened here, too. I carried it, still in the bucket floating, to the edge of the property gaggging and nearly throwing up. My horse didn't get sick. I remember also one time at my former trainer's barn, I noticed one floating in someone else's horse's water and I screamed there was a dead mouse. My former trainer picked the dead mouse up by the tail and took it to the trash can...


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## attwoode (Aug 30, 2006)

This is a regular occurence at our place. The farm used to be a large dairy operation and quite a few mice have stuck around. We also have had barn swallows (birds) and chipmunks in the buckets. Some of these critters have been "saved" while others are dead by the time I find them. I always rinse the buckets out really well, but no problems.


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## Miniv (Aug 30, 2006)

Over the last couple of weeks I've found a packrat and a frog drowned in the barn water trough. I just dumped it, threw out the bodies, and washed out the trough before re-filling.

The few times it's happened, the horses let me know things are not right. They don't want to drink when there's something weird looking floating in their water!

I think if I ever found a bat still alive, I'd just let it go.........We consider bats good pest eaters (like swallows) and the fear of Rabies is basically non-exsistant in this region.

MA


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## carlenehorse (Aug 30, 2006)

My problem is with squirrels. I have found two of them drowned in my water buckets. My husband put a two by four on one end (standing straight up) and never found anymore. They use the board to climb out of the bucket.

Carlene


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## Jean_B (Aug 31, 2006)

I found that a bucket of water is an excellent mouse trap, particularly in the fall when it starts turning cold!! I take a bucket with smooth plastic sides (so they can't get out) and hang it outside the stalls. Drop some grain in it (for some reason they aren't as attracted to perfectly clean water). I take great pleasue in tossing them into the woods because I know they aren't messing up my feed room any more. Regular mouse traps just weren't doing much good, and with the barn cats, I didn't like using poison out in the barn.


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## SandyWI (Sep 1, 2006)

I've never found a mouse in a water bucket, or a bat or a squirrel! I know we have had mice in the barn, but we keep poison out and have only found a few dead mice laying around outside the barn.

We had an extra stock tank sitting out behind the barn a few weeks ago, and with all the rains it got a bit of water in it, and we DID find a dead bat floating in it, but never in anything the horses drink out of. I'm sure it will happen some day, though. I guess the law of averages dictate it!


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