I need the input of smart minds

What would cause a mouse to suddenly die in the middle of my hard wood floor? DH had walked across the dining room spoke to me for a minute and turned around and there was a dead mouse just lying there right where DH had stood seconds before. No signs of trauma. We knew we had mice, but hadn't set out any poison. I am used to sharing a home with mice, but I am not used to them croaking in the middle of my floor for no reason.

Poison from a neighbor?

Do you have a cat? Cats can grab them by the neck and asphyxiate them or break their neck.

Old age?

Thanks for the ideas.

No cat. We do have guinea pigs; maybe the mouse saw one of them and had a heart attack!

It looked young. I would think that an old mouse would curl up in the wall boards somewhere to die not, as this one appears to have done, in mid-stride!

Poison is the only reasonable thought we have come up with. I haven't checked with the neighbors.

Maybe your DH stepped on it? I guess it would look smooshed then...

Leftover poison from previous residents?

LOL! DH is 200 lbs., the mouse about an ounce. Mouse looked plump and round. I think we can rule out the stepped-on theory!

Poison (whether from neighbors or previous residents) seems to be the main theory.

Since their nest is well behind some wall board in the kitchen, I am really hoping they weren't all poisoned. Rotting mouse is not my favorite aroma therapy scent and I don't want to take apart the kitchen looking for them. If they are all thoughtful enough to come into the middle of the room to die, I will be grateful!

Yeah, that is really odd; but think of the learning opportunity a full blown autopsy would present!!
Do you think it could have been on the ceiling/fixture of some sort and fallen ?

Stupid me! I already took the little corpse out to the dumpster so I missed out on the autopsy opportunity.

Light fixture was about 6 feet away. It would have had to be quite a flying leap (perhaps he was watching too much olympic diving!)

Oooo! Very clever! Columbo-esque

I guess that rules out my next idea...he sat on it and it fell off his pants as he was standing in the dining room talking to you.

There wasn't a little mouse-sized gun nearby, was there? Maybe the day-to-day stresses of being a modern-day mouse got to him and he commited suicide.

Or a sword? Maybe it was "hair"i-kari!

Enough dark humor and awful puns...I'd bet on poison, I'm afraid. That's usually what causes them to drop dead after a while.

Bumping the spam!

I work with mice in my lab, and their physiology is similar to human physiology, so any of the usual culprits for sudden death in people might be to blame, as well as the poison theory. I do like the autopsy idea. It could make a good extracurricular activity...

LOL... It might be a sad commentary on my sense of humour but after being away for a few weeks, this was a fun thread to come back to!
Thanks and I hope any other dying mice as as considerate.

Glad your enjoyed the thread!

Here is the update.

We have subsequently live-trapped 2 very spunky mice who are living happily next to our compost pile and have made no attempts to return to the house.

Our prevailing theory is that the mouse has a seizure, perhaps precipitated by the smell of DH's feet!

Ah! So it was a biological weapon that killed Mousikins!

Are you suggesting a WMD (weapon of mouse destruction)?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What a wonderfully awful pun!!! You warm the cockles of my cold heart, acs!

Acs, better pray that the EPA doesn't get wind of this, or they'll make you file an environmental impact statement on your husbands feet!

I guess acs's DH would have to foot the bill for all those permits, huh?

<smirk>

Ha Ha Ha

Does anyone hear Strauss playing when they read this? Anyone?