I was recently brought another baby on the 16th he looked to be about 10-15 days old weighing 27g. I started him on fox valley and have been feeding with a miracle nipple and syringe and He currently weighs 35g. Well things were moving right along up until a few days ago... He started struggling to with eatting. Upon further examination I noticed there are what I'd call birthdefects and as he's growing so is the defects.
1. I noticed it appears his lip is split on the crease that goes to his nose. Not sure what it's called.
2. There is a rather large chunk of skin on the inside of this spilt that is hanging down low.
3. His tongue curls around this piece of skin. He's not gasping for air but he stops like his tongue sticks to the chuck and then he resumes as normal.
4. Because of this issue he's no grasping a latch on the nipple so it appears he's eating with his mouth open and here recently with no warning the milk gushes out of his nose and mouth. Sometimes it's difficult to tell where it's coming from his nose or this split. I assure I'm not forcing it down him but I am having to pump the syringe because he doesn't close his mouth or latch so I watch the flow and express based on the suckling... but I'm worried. When this initially happened I immediately thought aspirated pneumonia and took all the steps I could for support care. I hold him upside down and suck his nose out. I'm also running a humidifier 24/7 and I recently started doing nebulizer treatments because I swore at one point I heard clicking but that's actually his tongue snapping. I don't hear any consistent clicking or wheezing. Last night at his 6pm feeding I noticed he was dehydrated and gave him Lactated ringer orally as well as at his 9 & 12 feedings, this morning he was back to himself and I fed him the Fox valley with no issues, but I'm worried about him. I have noticed him not wanting to eat at the normal time intervals. I'm curious if others have run into this type of defect and if anyone can offer any advice on management I would be greatly appreciative. I'm also concerned about bringing him to the right veterinarian. My own vet doesn't treat wildlife and was not very helpful. I told him according to research baytril was a commonly recommended antibiotic used and asked if he'd prescribe to which he said no. I only have SMZ-TMP 480mg that was prescribed to my dog after her spay surgery as well as doxycycline 100mg prednisone 20mg and rimadly 100mg but I've never seen those mentioned to give to a squirrel and I don't know the breakdown of the others.