dead or hibernating?

[suzi]

Been moving some hay and have found a field mouse curled up between two bales. They have been in situ for a good few months without being moved.

This mouse is motionless and I thought dead but someone suggested it may be hibernating.......it's not got rigor mortis....but how the hell do I tell??

Am working on the assumption it is dead but have a tiny seed of doubt now!!

 

[vickyb]

Poke it with a stick! I didn't think mice hibernated anyway, not judging by the ones that used to plague my feed room all winter. If it was alive it would have scarpered quick.

 

[here_i_am]

If there's no rigor mortis & it stays that way, it ain't dead. Some mouse breeds do hibernate. Id just put it back in a similar sheltered place if i were u...just in case

 

[Rosehip]

Is it warm? If so then its hibernating - if its a little tubby one with a short tail then its prob a doormouse and they do hibernate - take a piccy (because I need to see the cuteness!!) and then pop in a warm little nook somewhere to sleep the winter out!!x

 

[partypremier]

Ditto above dormice hibernate they are a bit chestnut in colour put him somewhere nice they are in decline

 

[Rosehip]

I rescued a baby dormouse from a a flood in the old stable we use for storage, released him a few days later when he had got his strength up and he is now sleeping soundly in the old tumbledrier at the back of the shed!

 

[Enfys]

Clinical torpor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpor

 

[putasocinit]

squashed, too early to hibernate, have gone past the rigor mortis stage.

 

[smellsofhorse]

just to edge on the side of caution i would put him back in a similar place.
Then check in a few days.

 

[flirtygerty]

This post has me lol, poke with a stick indeed.
please keep us updated I'm DYING to know the outcome

 

[Grumpy Jewel]

When something dies rigor is a phase. It appears so many hours after death and disappears when that phase is over. I'm not sciency but obviously watch far too many crime tv programmes.

 

[Buds_mum]

Give it a sniff