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Any particular reason a mouse would mindlessly run in circles?

It seems to be fairly common.

Several videos of mice running in circles are on YouTube.
 
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Perhaps the mouse has developed a hearing problem from an unsafe vaccine while doing full immersion VR on a flat earth on board a plane you've never heard of.
 
Exorcism called for. One of the threads here has the details of a practitioner who's developed an interesting new approach.
 
Running mindlessly round in circles? It is the mouse equivalent of participating in an internet debate.
 
"OMG, cheese, cheese, CHEESE, cheese, cheese, CHEESE, cheese, cheese, cheese, CHEESE, cheese, cheese, CHA-CHA-CHEESE!"
 
I've heard that Toxoplasma gondii can make rodents seek out or at least lose the fear of the smell of cats, but never heard of anything this bizarre.

And update: I nudged the mouse into a box and it settled down a bit but started running in circles again after a few seconds. I released it and it behaved seemingly normal, running away from me in straight lines when I tried to chase it.

This is super interesting but disturbing.

Wait one ... Am I to understand you caught it and released it again still in the house?
 
I walked the box about 100 meters to a patch of dirt under a street light.


I have a friend who used to play catch and release with mice. I was there one day when she just took it outside and let it go. It wandered around the yard for a few seconds then Bam! A magpie swooped down from the sky...


No more mouse.


Norm
 
When I was a teenager we had a few mice in the house. My dad was a really really soft-hearted guy (he once took a detour so he would not have to pass where he had earlier hit a squirrel), and had what must have been the world's smallest Havahart trap. He would catch a mouse, take it down the road and release it. After a while, he had a feeling he was seeing the same mice, so he went to a biologist friend and got some mouse dye (really, that's what he asked for....I need some mouse dye...and the guy went to a cabinet and produced a little bottle with a dropper containing....mouse dye) that would not wash off, and dyed a spot on the next mouse he caught. Sure enough, back it came. Experimentation found that even with fairly hazardous terrain, about a mile was the point at which you could pretty well guarantee that a mouse would not return.

I sometimes wonder whether anyone else caught mice elsewhere in town and thought to themselves, "I wonder why that mouse has a blue dot on his belly?"
 

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