How to clean fur?

[Spartacus12]

Hi! I have a 6.5 year old Southern Flying Squirrel that we rescued named Spartacus. He is the sweetest joy in our lives!

Two nights ago, we noticed that Sparty was a bit “off”… lethargic, loss of appetite, shaking, and his normally gorgeous coat looked like a cat’s when it gets old, if that makes sense. We did some research and concluded it probably is MBD due to his symptoms and how not so great his diet has been lately (our fault).

We did everything right, moved him to his smaller cage, put a space heater on low for him, ordered Squirrel-Cal for him right away. We read that we should get calcium without Vit D in his system immediately and the only thing we had on hand were Antacid chewable tablets, so we’ve been crushing that up, mixing with water, and feeding him with a syringe. I’ve been doing 50 mg of this every four hours after his initial dose, even setting my alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night haha. Anything for Sparty. Thankfully no paralysis and he seems to be getting slowly better.

All that to say: the first time we had to force-feed the calcium to him, he wasn’t happy and some ended up on his cheeks/neck. We tried to wipe it off but it’s dried there and become crusty/caked on, and I think it’s pretty uncomfortable for him because he keeps trying to scrape his lil face on things to get it off.

What is the best way to clean him? I’m wary of using baby wipes bc of chemicals, but my online research tells me to be careful about getting him wet since he could get cold and sick… but I want to get it off ASAP so it doesn’t irritate his fur or skin (the tablets are peppermint flavored… at first he didn’t like it at all but now he drinks it up happily!)

[Charley Chuckles]

Hang in there ...I'm only a one time flyer mom so I'll let the experts take over this will bump your thread.
Prayers to your baby 🙏

[TomahawkFlyers]

Howdy!

Flyers - little packages of absolute joy. First - the Tums on/in his fur. Tums are water soluble, as is straight calcium. It is perfectly fine to dwell and then wipe with a water-moistened cloth to soften and remove this material. Wipe the area dry after it is clean, and keep him in a warm place. Give him a soft, loosely rolled up blanket to burrow into and his own body heat will do the job of getting him completely dry.

Diet. A consistent, appropriate diet is critical to the health and longevity of Spartacus. Blocks, Henry's or homemade with appropriate protein, vitamins, and minerals; or Teklad 2018 rodent food or similar must be the foundation of the diet. It is supplemented by appropriate vegetables and meat proteins, less fruit, and tiny (tiny) and infrequent pieces of nut for treats. Hazelnuts in the shell (perhaps 1 per week) to keep teeth in check, and tree branches to do the same. Always plenty of clean, fresh water.

MBD. Imagine a really bad leg cramp. Now imagine that cramp seizing every muscle in your body. Add to that bones so brittle that convulsions snap them like twigs. Then, to die in that state. I think about this every time I'm tempted to give our little guys more than a tiny bit of treat or to be less than faithful to their diet. It helps. A lot. They are healthier than we are.

If you're not familiar with where to find recommended diet here on TSB, please let me know. I'll help you get there. Thanks for being concerned for Spartacus' well-being. One flyer person to another, I know what it is like to love them!

Jamie

[Spartacus12]

Hang in there ...I'm only a one time flyer mom so I'll let the experts take over this will bump your thread.
Prayers to your baby 🙏

Thank you soooo much for your kindness!! 💛 Sparty is doing much better!

[Spartacus12]

Howdy!

Flyers - little packages of absolute joy. First - the Tums on/in his fur. Tums are water soluble, as is straight calcium. It is perfectly fine to dwell and then wipe with a water-moistened cloth to soften and remove this material. Wipe the area dry after it is clean, and keep him in a warm place. Give him a soft, loosely rolled up blanket to burrow into and his own body heat will do the job of getting him completely dry.

Diet. A consistent, appropriate diet is critical to the health and longevity of Spartacus. Blocks, Henry's or homemade with appropriate protein, vitamins, and minerals; or Teklad 2018 rodent food or similar must be the foundation of the diet. It is supplemented by appropriate vegetables and meat proteins, less fruit, and tiny (tiny) and infrequent pieces of nut for treats. Hazelnuts in the shell (perhaps 1 per week) to keep teeth in check, and tree branches to do the same. Always plenty of clean, fresh water.

MBD. Imagine a really bad leg cramp. Now imagine that cramp seizing every muscle in your body. Add to that bones so brittle that convulsions snap them like twigs. Then, to die in that state. I think about this every time I'm tempted to give our little guys more than a tiny bit of treat or to be less than faithful to their diet. It helps. A lot. They are healthier than we are.

If you're not familiar with where to find recommended diet here on TSB, please let me know. I'll help you get there. Thanks for being concerned for Spartacus' well-being. One flyer person to another, I know what it is like to love them!

Jamie

Thank you so much, Jamie!! I appreciate your response.

We’re working on getting his fur cleaned, it’s really caked on there 😂 but I appreciate your advice about how to clean him, it definitely put my mind at ease about getting him a little wet.

We give him one of Henry’s blocks in the morning since he’s so small and usually doesn’t eat all of it, depending on how hungry he is. We just ordered some of the Picky blocks, so maybe he’ll like those a little better!

We do have quite a bit of info on a good diet for him, but always happy to get more insight, so that’d be great if you could direct me to where I can find it on TSB. Thanks so much!!

Here’s an update on Sparty as of tonight:
His feces has become white, and I know that’s a sign that he’s now getting too much calcium. We’ve been giving him a 1/4th of a Tums every 4 hours as instructed, even through the wee hours of the night lol (I set alarms!) Should we reduce it to 1/8th every 4 hours? 5 hours? We also read that calcium is better absorbed in smaller doses in shorter increments, but honestly I don’t know if I can function waking up every 2 or 3 hours 🫠. What would you advise?

I can’t thank you and this community enough!

[CritterMom]

The things you have seen about MBD and calcium treatment is written around an approximately 1 pound squirrel - a smallish eastern gray. You are giving too much which is why the poops are white.

I assume you are giving Tums or a generic equivalent. But I bet you don't know the actual amount of calcium in them because people see "750mg Tums!" on the label and assume that they have 750mg of calcium in them and you know what they say about "assume!" So first, you need to determine exactly how much calcium you are giving. Turn the bottle around and read the back label. Somewhere on there, it will tell you how much actual calcium (often referred to as elemental calcium) is in each pill. It will be less than half of the total pill size. For example, I have a bottle of "1000mg calcium Tums" and the actual elemental calcium in each tablet is 400mg! I purchase calcium powder as my own supplement - the giant calcium pills choke me - anf it is the same way - you need to dig for the actual calcium amount on the label - what I use is advertised as "1250mg per serving" but there is only 500mg of calcium in that so your actual dosage amount is more than twice what the label says. The only calcium I have found that shows the elemental calcium amount on the front is the Henry's calcium which is sold FOR SQUIRRELS.

So first, find out how much calcium is in the tabs you are using, then determine how much (approximately) of the tab you need to give daily to reach about 200mg of calcium, and use that as your daily amount, breaking it up into several doses. You don't need to get up at night to do this! You just don't want to dump it all on them in one dose. And if the white poops continue, you need to continue to decrease the total calcium a little at a time

You ordered "Squirrel-cal" which I am not familiar with so you need to read every stinking word on both sides of it when you get it to determine the actual calcium content.

I strongly suggest you switch him over to the Henry's foods, too. They are designed to provide ALL the vitamins and minerals including calcium per day with no additional suplementation. They are also designed to taste good, unlike most rodent foods!

https://www.henryspets.com/squirrel-blocks/

The walnut and hazelnut flavors and the picky bites seem to be the tastiest. I give a block a day to my guy - I cut them into slices because Laz likes to grab one and run on his wheel with it for a while before he stops spinning and sits in the wheel to eat it and he tripped over the whole blocks!

Once you get him on the Henry's blocks, you can dramatically reduce and then finally end the extra calcium supplementation

[TomahawkFlyers]

Good Morning!

What CritterMom said; and, https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...-Pet-Squirrels

Regarding calcium - we use this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

CritterMom is right. The blocks are key and provide all the calcium Spartacus needs on a regular basis. It is the phosphorous in nuts and seeds that causes the calcium deficit that then requires calcium supplements.

It sounds as if Spartacus is doing better. That's great!

Jamie

[Mel1959]

This condition will take some to correct so you must continue treatment.

Here’s the healthy diet for a flyer: https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...ying-Squirrels