Possibly sick baby

[SquirrelyGurly]

I posted about one of my babies (5 weeks old 93g) suckling on its siblings genitals and was told it was possibly a sign of hunger, so I weighed her and upped her feeding and she's being fed every 3.5 hours but is still suckling. Tonight during her feed she is acting off, she's wasn't sucking the syringe as usual just holding it in her mouth and isnt acting her normal self. She is otherwise seemingly healthy I don't believe she's aspirated as I do not hear any clicking. I'm unsure if she maybe got cold because when I pull her out she's wet with urine and she was on top of the blanket (I do still have their enclosure over a heating pad on low that doesn't turn off) or maybe some sort of toxicity from ingesting her siblings urine? I don't know if that's a thing but she was perfectly fine at her 5pm feed and now at 8:30 she's began to act off. I do have some enrofloxacin I can give her and also electro-stat but I'm honestly unsure what exactly could be wrong with her...

[TomahawkFlyers]

Sorry - I forget. What are you feeding her?

Never mind I found it FV 20/50, straight up by now. Is there bloating? Has the constipation subsided? Is she urinating regularly with no odd colors or odor? Have you presented her with a block to see how she receives that? Sometimes my very young flyers will turn away from Formula even when they are in the sweet spot for having it. I give them an HHB and after a sniff or two they go to town, never really going back to formula - even though it is available and offered. They thrive, even though their schedule doesn't match ours.

Jamie

[SquirrelyGurly]

Update: reading through stickys and I tried the method of putting her in warm water up to her armpits to allow her body temp to rise and then drying her with a blow dryer on low heat until warm, it also said to rub some karo on their gums which I didn't have but I dipped a nipple in some honey and gave her a very small amount and as of now she seems to be doing better. Prayfully that resolved the issue. My husband was the one feeding her at the time this happened and pointed it out to me, I asked if she felt cold when he pulled her out and he said not that he noticed just that she had pee on her but he did feed her about 4mL, I've always read not to feed a cold baby though so now I'm worried that could have harmed her if she was cold.

[SquirrelyGurly]

She's eating 5mL FV 20/50 with 1.5mL ultraboost added so 6.5mL total. I also have some healthy blocks I put in with them but I wouldn't classify them as really eating them yet.

[SquirrelyGurly]

No bloating that I can tell I did just up her feeding amount so her belly is pretty tight after a feeding but it goes down by the next feeding. No constipation issues she actually surprises me with the amount she can produce from her little body! I'm still stimulating them to use the restroom however they do go on their own because I see and smell it in their blankets which I wash and change daily. Her urine is clear but it does smell like urine, not anything extra pungent or alarming but it does smell like pee.

[TomahawkFlyers]

Hmmm ... perhaps just not hungry? Best to monitor and report what you see. It is encouraging that she responded well to the honey. Others should respond on this one - how about the tiniest drop of honey in her formula? Rubbed/dripped on her block? Going out on a limb on these - hear what others say before proceeding.

Jamie

[CritterMom]

Unless this was a one time thing and she is now eating fine, I would go ahead and dose with the enrofloxacin (Baytril). The very first sign of aspiration pneumonia is sudden loss of appetite and then lethargy. The clicking in the lungs happens later and they are very ill by then. Even if you have no memory of her choking on the formula, it is theoretically possible that she could have done it with urine when suckling the others.

To calculate the dosing, we need to know what form of enrofloxacin you have - is it the 10% liquid form for birds? We will also need to know her weight and YOU must have a 1cc syringe with clear marking to give the meds.

[SquirrelyGurly]

I weighed her again this morning and she is now 114g (that ultraboost seriously made them take off over this weekend!) She took 8mL this morning and seemed to do fine with it and ate as normal. She did sneeze a couple times and sounded grunty while eating which concerned me but after I fed the others I pulled her back out and put her nose and back to my ear and listened for a minute and didn't hear anything. I'm going to continue to monitor her closely incase she takes a turn and if need be I will return to this post for her enrofloxacin dosing. Thank you SO much for your help!

[CritterMom]

I weighed her again this morning and she is now 114g (that ultraboost seriously made them take off over this weekend!) She took 8mL this morning and seemed to do fine with it and ate as normal. She did sneeze a couple times and sounded grunty while eating which concerned me but after I fed the others I pulled her back out and put her nose and back to my ear and listened for a minute and didn't hear anything. I'm going to continue to monitor her closely incase she takes a turn and if need be I will return to this post for her enrofloxacin dosing. Thank you SO much for your help!

Give us the info on the enrofloxacin so we have it.

[SquirrelyGurly]

It is the liquid bird kind and it's 10% enrofloxacin at 100mg/mL.

[SquirrelyGurly]

She has been acting a bit lethargic today and acting a bit weird she's still moving around but not as active as the others, she was eating great all day until tonight she took about 6mL and then stopped acting like she was interested again so I'm definitely thinking she's unwell, can you please help with the the enerofloxacin dosing and how to properly administer it. Also I'm keeping an eye on my other babies as well but do I need to be worried about this being contagious?

[CritterMom]

Directions and dosing sent by PM.

Watch her for a bit and make sure that you are seeing true changes in her behavior and are not just reacting to normal baby squirrel aspirating paranoia (if you haven't experienced that it is because you never raised one!)

Putting a red plastic solo cup over the baby or at least over the chest in a very quiet room and put your ear against the bottom of the cup. They do a remarkably good job of amplifying the breathing.

If this is aspiration pneumonia, which is normally what is seen in nursing babies, no, it is not contagious.

You ARE nursing with the tp of the syringe pointing up - toward the roof of the baby's mouth, not pointing down the throat? Mama lays on her back to nurse, teats point straight up, babies climb up on her from the side and approach the nipple from above - so it points toward the roof of their mouth. It is how they are built to swallow at this age.

[SquirrelyGurly]

I'm doing her night feed and she seems to be interested in her milk again and ate her full 8cc. I definitely am hesitant because I can't say I'm 100% positive that she is sick. Just going off of a gut feeling that she's acting different/weird. And it's strange because she's never not been interested in milk and I haven't seen her mess with the healthy or picky blocks, not saying she hasn't in her enclosure but while I'm watching I've seen the others mess with them but not her. Since she ate I'm not going to dose her, I might just be overly paranoid about her being sick but she's definitely acting different to me. This is my first time raising squirrel babies and they have become like my kiddos and I don't want anything happening to them. I'm very meticulous when I feed them and I take my time and point the nipple upward and use a 1cc O gasket syringe to try to make sure I don't accidentally aspirate them. I will just continue to monitor her and prayfully it's just me being paranoid!

[SquirrelyGurly]

I replied to your PM. Also because I'm extremely paranoid about doing this properly can you please send me the instructions to properly read the syringe just to confirm if I'm correct!

[CritterMom]

I replied to your PM. Also because I'm extremely paranoid about doing this properly can you please send me the instructions to properly read the syringe just to confirm if I'm correct!

Done by PM

[SquirrelyGurly]

Just wanted to update, she got her first 2 doses yesterday and 1 this morning and already seems to be doing MUCH better, she's actually perked up and is starting to act like her normal self again! I do have a question though I fed her this morning at 6:30 and she took the whole 8cc like a champ, I gave her the antibiotic at 8:30 and now at 10:00 I went to feed her again and she's acting uninterested, I barely got her to eat 3ccs... is this normal while taking the antibiotics? Does it cause an upset tummy? Also want to add in that I did mix a very small about of the stonyfield probiotic yogurt into her milk to help her tummy while taking the antibiotics.

[CritterMom]

It may. It was right after the dose of meds and they taste nasty. How did she do on the next feeding?

Probiotics are a good idea. Make sure you don't heat them in anything above 115 degrees F.

[SquirrelyGurly]

She ate the full 8ccs at her 1:30 feed and again now at her 5:00 feed. However she has started to have diarrhea, not liquid but it's mustard consistency. I do have dia stat and electro stat but I'm unsure how to incorporate them into her feeding routine or if I even should asminister them just yet?

If so how do I properly mix/store them and how much should I give her?