Smoke Around My Mice and Evacuation??

by Carothomp11 on Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:18 pm

I wasn't sure if I should post this here's or in general care of general chat but as it is an emergency I decided to go ahead and post here. I just joined yesterday and was excited to talk about fun things but stuff happens and I'm sure I'll have plenty of time for more fun topics after I figure out what to do about this.
I live in Oregon and the forest fires have been really bad this year causing smoke to get into the neighborhoods and it it unsafe to go outside. Yesterday they evacuated everyone from their homes up to two blocks away from me and the smoke is worse today. I'm thinking we could get evacuated if not today very soon.
Of course when I heard this my mind went to the pets. I'm worried about how I would evacuate them and what hotel would even allow me to bring them and I'm worried about their little lungs. If my area does get evacuated which seems pretty likely at this point, that means all of my friends will be evacuated as well and my family lives in Missouri.
I have three pregnant adult mice, 6 tiny babies about 4 weeks old, and a few other young mice. I also have several rats and two dogs. I'm especially worried because rodents are so susceptible to respiratory problems that I'm wondering even if we don't get evacuated what I could do to keep them safe. I'm trying to keep calm and I really hope someone has suggestions but I know this isn't a common situation and it might be hard to think of a solution.

by CallaLily on Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:02 pm

Oh my, how scary. Do you have enough travel cages or smaller bins that could work as temporary travel cages? If you don't get evacuated (or until you do), do you have an air purifier you could run in the room the rodents are in? I'm so sorry I don't have any real advice. You and your pets are in my thoughts. Good vibes

by Teramis on Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:04 pm

CallaLily's suggestion about an air purifier is a great one. If you can seal up a room as well as possible, running a good quality HIPA filter will make a big dif in the air quality at least in that one room.

By sealing up the room, you'll want to (at the very least) seal the window frame (weather stripping is good - you can pull it off later) and stuff a towel under the door, so the air in the room doesn't have unhindered flow of smoke-filled air. (Air will still get in, of course, but you are making a more contained space for the filter to do its work in).

Google can help you find more info on room sealing example: https://www.houselogic.com/organize-maintain/home-maintenance-tips/home-air-leak-seal-tips/), and HIPA filters (which is what you want to run to remove high-particulate counts from the air.)

And even if you can't really seal a room, just running the filter by the mouse cages will still make a big difference in that immediate area.

Smoke Around My Mice and Evacuation??

Smoke Around My Mice and Evacuation??

Re: Smoke Around My Mice and Evacuation??

Re: Smoke Around My Mice and Evacuation??