I FOUND A DEAD MOUSE IN MY POOL, HELP!!

[Adriana131]

Thank you for reading my post, it is my first post here. I thought I will try this to calm down hopefully, based on your experience.
We are new pool owners, In ground pool, well maintained.
This morning I got in with my 4 year old toddler, stupidly I didn't inspect the pool before going in because I had never seen a dead animal in a pool, so I went swimming freely in the water with my 4 year old only to find what I thought was a leaf, but was really a mouse, my daughter was right next to it, not as close as me but definitely very close to it. My concern is my little girl, she was opening her mouth in the pool while she was swimming ( horrible habit I know) and now I can't sleep thinking she mightve ingested some water before we noticed the creature there. Should I be freaking out? What do I do????

Thank you.

 

[duraleigh]

Did you have adequate chlorine in the pool? If so, do nothing.

 

[Newdude]

This year alone I had a few dead frogs (who knew they drowned ??), a dead baby bunny and about a dozen dead moles.

If they fell In alive they are fine for at least a few days. If a bird dropped a rotten carcass in the pool from somewhere else it might be a problem but even then it would probably be sterilized quickly by the chlorine.

 

[Dirk]

This is exactly why we promote chlorine for sanitizing a pool, and try to get people to avoid UV and ozone systems. Chlorine to the rescue! It provides residual protection for your water, 24/7. (Assuming you maintain the proper level of it.) And it goes to work and does its thing instantly.

I get critters in my pool, and freaked out the first time. The (now x-) pool guy humored me and added some extra chlorine, but I have since learned to ignore them. I scoop them out of the skimmer and toss 'em in the trash. Don't even think about it anymore.

You can learn here how to keep your FC at it's appropriate level (the amount of chlorine in your water) and how to accurately test for it to make sure it's there. I'm glad I now know how, because the pool guy didn't.

PS. Not to freak you out more, but you'll need to comes to terms with this and keep your water's FC where it belongs: over-flying birds are going to do worse in your pool than that little mouse did. So is your daughter, for that matter! Chlorine solves all that and your pool will be very safe for you and your family with its proper use.

 

[DorsalSpine]

All the more reason to read the information here and buy a good test kit. Once you understand the chemistry and have control of your chlorine level you'll know your water is safe despite life's little accidents.

 

[PoolGate]

I find a mouse/frog/chipmunk/rabbit/turtle at least once a week. I found 3 baby rabbits at one time last year. I remove it/them from the pool and do nothing more. Life goes on a single dead mouse isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[Yev]

My only addition is to lok at the FC-CYA chart. It gives you 3 pieces of useful information. Minimum, traget range, and SLAM level.

You can swim up to SLAM level as a quick FYI.

Since you are going to get animals, bugs, urine, etc in your pool unfortunately, you have to think about how the FC works. As soon as anything other than water gets in the pool, the FC will attack it. As the FC attacks, its level drops as it is getting consumed. The moral of this story, especially since you have these concerns, is keep your FC at the high end of the range. For maximum safety, before people get in to swim, check the FC, make sure that it is near the high end target level. Because once people get in, their body sweat, oil, detergent from swim suits, hair product, etc all get in the water and get attacked by the FC. This will cause it to drop a bit. So as long as you start high, you will end the day above the minimum safe level.

One last note, not sure how to put it less bluntly, poop is a bigger health deal, and if this happens, it is a good idea to get out, SLAM and wait for a while as poop germs such as crypto take longer to kill. The rest of the stuff kills pretty quick.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I looked at WedMD and it says your whole family now has the Bubonic Plague. Sorry.