Seriously gross. What's causing this? (Graphic picture)

[Tiny Boidae]

This is a first for me. I got a month's worth of mice for my animals and they didn't look terrible when I got them. There was no blood on them and the limbs were intact. It wasn't even obvious when they were frozen, but as I started to thaw a few out for feeding I noticed they all had disgusting abscess that goes straight through the body cavity. Blood and guts were everywhere and they smelled terrible. Needless to say, I didn't feed them off. But I did thaw out the rest of my package and out of 15 mice, 9 of them had this. And it's not like they were all the same age either. Out of them, I had fuzzies, hoppers, and small adults. This abscess was present in all of them. I threw out all the bad ones and I'm changing where I get my feeders, but does anyone have an idea what's going on? Because I don't.

[Scubadiver59]

Who is your source to begin with?

[Tiny Boidae]

Oh sorry. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, but I'd gotten these mice from a local pet store. It's a Feeder's Supply.

Edit: I also should add that I've bought my feeders from them for about 4 years and this is the first time this has happened.

[REM955]

I will make a guess: Decomposition.
I don't know if all the breaking down inside the rodent is enough to cause enough gas to explode through broken down tissue, but mom mentioned something like that happening in her time as a paramedic. I think. Fuzzy memory.

[Tiny Boidae]

This was a brilliant moment on my part. I think this was entirely my fault. I usually thaw them by just setting them out for a few hours, but very recently I began putting them in hot water to thaw. I didn't think the water temperature really mattered, but a short Google search told me otherwise. My bad, carry on with your day. Nothing to see here.

[Minkness]

My pinkies and fuzzies always do this...what does water temp have to do with it?

[Tiny Boidae]

I googled various answers and they said various things about water temperature. I didn't really put much thought into it- I just put hot water from the faucet in a cup with them. It's just never happened to me before, not even with the fuzzies and the adult mice did it too.

[TRD]

I use hot water too, just from the tab... never saw anything even remotely close to this.

[Scubadiver59]

Mind you I've only been doing this for about eight weeks now:

1. I thaw in the fridge
2. Bring to room temp (75F)
3. Heat to 105F
4. Deliver to snakes

Steps 1-3 are just like preparing any steak, filet mignon for me, but the rest only pertains to the snakes!

Only time I've had a near burst, or a "fall apart at the seams", was when I left it in the zip-lock bag for an extended period of time. Then it left a snail trail when the snake took it, but it still took it!

[Andy_G]

Originally Posted by TRD

I use hot water too, just from the tab... never saw anything even remotely close to this.

Same here.

[GyGbeetle]

How hot is your tap water? I use hot water from the tap, and this has never happened to me. Holy cow! Or holy rats!

[MM1]

Yeah that's never happened to me. My guess would be they weren't handled properly before getting to you.

[Tiny Boidae]

Originally Posted by GyGbeetle

How hot is your tap water? I use hot water from the tap, and this has never happened to me. Holy cow! Or holy rats!

It went up to 132*F when I measured it. I mean I was planning on ordering online soon anyways, I guess I'll just start doing that from now on and hope this doesn't happen again.

[dannybgoode]

I looks as though perhaps an air pocket has heated and expanded and blown out.

I used too hot a water once and it cooked the mouse so now just thaw out at room temperature and then run under the tap to heat for those snakes that prefer warm prey.

[SnoopySnake]

I also use hot water, never had this happen. Closest thing to it was me forgetting a rat in water...come back a few hours later and picked it up and my finger went through its stomach. Could they possibly have been thawed and refrozen?