Bad case of diarrhea

[jonmareymo]

Help please!!
I have two Hurricane Gustave orphans who were doing splendidly for two weeks but I am now dealing with a bad bout of diarrhea. It started nearly a week ago with a small case of the runs. I upped their pedialyte and reduced all non-formula food. Their waste got more solid and compact (but never as hard as it should have been) for 4 days and I thought all was on the mend.

Yesterday their diarrhea was back and worse than ever. They are drinking a lot of water (and getting round the clock pedialyte), now their diarrhea is the color and consistency of oil, they are still urinating frequently. Strangely, they are in great spirits and still play with all their old gusto.

I am VERY worried about them and am concerned they will never recover. Can someone please give me some advice (or at least tell what went wrong)?

Thank you!!

[Mars]

:wave123 :Welcome :wave123

How old are they? How often are you feeding them and what formula do you have them on? What solids are they eating??? Help us see with your eyes. :)

[jonmareymo]

They are about 7-8 weeks old. Before they got sick they were down to 3 feedings a day (esibolic with some whipping cream) and nibbling on solids pretty regularly, mainly some grapes, shelled pecans, and some KayTee rodent diet. They are now off everything but straight formula and pedialyte (no solids or cream).

As mentioned had been doing very well and then ... sick.

[Mars]

Hmmmmm - How much formula do they take at each feeding?

[jonmareymo]

First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to help me. Jacob and Esau mean a lot to me and I appreciate your help with them.

Since they have been sick I have cut the amount of fomula with pedialyte. When it looked like they were improving, the mix was 75% form. and 25% ped. After the bad bout started yesterday afternoon, it is 75% ped. and 25% formula.

I am a teacher so am at work but my mom is currently watching them. Just checked in with her and they ate with great appetites (as usual) and are now playing in their cage. They still often nurse on each other so because of the diarrhea I have them separated.

[island rehabber]

Just my two cents, but i was taught NEVER to mix formula and Pedialyte; it's one or the other, but not mixed together.

Is the diarrhea really really smelly, like "OMG I can't stand being in the room", or not particularly odorous? If it's really bad, it may be this viral infection that is going around some areas and Panacur has been effective with it. If not, I would try ALTERNATING their feedings: one Pedialyte, one Esbilac, for 24 hours to flush their systems, then go back to straight Esbilac, no cream, etc.

[wheezer]

Just to let you know, it isn't good to mix Pedialyte with formula.
I would give them just warm Pedialyte for a day then slowly start the formula back using the diluted method but use water and not Pedilyte.
They may have eaten something that caused this since they are nibbling. I wouldn't give any fruit for awhile (maybe banana, that could help).
If they are starting to nibble and drinking water, i think they will be fine:)
Good job:thumbsup

[wheezer]

I was posting when IR was to the rescue..good advice:thumbsup

[jonmareymo]

Thanks for the advice; I have heard both things about mixing the ped. and formula. Having the formula is making them much more eager to drink the ped. and I am very concerned about dehydration.

When their diarrhea first started in smelled like diarrhea, now, it is pretty odorless. (could be because so much of their diet is now ped.?)

Again, thanks for the help

[Mars]

The first cause of Diarhea is over feeding. Babies should not eat until they are full. They just don't know when to stop. For best results we feed by the 5% rule ( ie 5% of their body weight in grams = cc per feeding ) So a 100 gram baby would be fed 5cc per feeding. As they get older they can take in more so the safe range for a older weaning baby is 5 to 7%. I wiegh daily and adjust my feedings accountingly. If don't have a scale you can tell to stop feeding when the tummy feels full like a soft water balloon never hard or tight. baby will still act frantic for more - just gently rub their backs to burb them and they will quickly realise they are full and will settle.

Once this is elimanated as the cause we look for other things.:)

[island rehabber]

:thumbsup good plan, Mars. I want to also say that I don't think the bug I was referring to is viral -- I misspoke myself -- I believe it is bacterial or parasitic, which is why panacur works. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[ShesASquirrelyGirl]

If you can find powdered acidophilus in the billion count, you can add it to their formula each time. It will help regulate their tummies again and control the bad bacteria which should very much help with the diarrhea.
If you can't find powdered you can get the capsules or pills and open them or crush them into powder as well and store in the fridge.
Good luck! :Love_Icon
p.s. You can't overdose with acidophilus

[jonmareymo]

Hello,
I wanted to give all of you helpful people an update on the two boys. I cut out all pedialyte (which they had apparently been getting way too much of lately) and have been giving them heavily watered down formula. Per the advice I received, I will gradually increase the formula ratio until it is at full strength. I also got some acedophilus (sp?) which is now included in their formula.

Diarrhea not completely gone but much reduced. They are urinating on schedule so dehydration seems to not be a problem. They remain very active and always ready to eat. Am quite happy with the progress in less than 24 hours. I will update on Jake and Esau's condition tomorrow. Again, thanks to all of you and I wish I would have found this website two years ago!!

[jonmareymo]

Squirrels are doing much better, both had solid poo (little on the soft side, but I'll take what I can get). It is still very dark in color but hopefully that will clear up soon.

A couple quesitons, they are now at full strength formula and eating like champs. If all is still fine with their digestion this afternoon could I introduce solids again? I have some Kay-Tee rodent diet that they liked to nibble on before they got sick. I figured this would be better than something rich like nuts or apples. Let me know what y'all think.

Also, the two little boys still love to nurse on each other. I had separated them during their illness, should I put them back in the same cage soon? Thanks for all of your help, you saved their lives!

[Mars]

Squirrels are doing much better, both had solid poo (little on the soft side, but I'll take what I can get). It is still very dark in color but hopefully that will clear up soon.

A couple quesitons, they are now at full strength formula and eating like champs. If all is still fine with their digestion this afternoon could I introduce solids again? I have some Kay-Tee rodent diet that they liked to nibble on before they got sick. I figured this would be better than something rich like nuts or apples. Let me know what y'all think.

Also, the two little boys still love to nurse on each other. I had separated them during their illness, should I put them back in the same cage soon? Thanks for all of your help, you saved their lives!

:thumbsup Sounds like a plan. When putting them together just keep a eye out for trouble otherwise they will be much less stress together than apart,

[angelcat]

:wahoo I am glad to hear they are doing better!!

[Sciurus1]

Sometimes orphans will suck on the penis of the boy baby squirrels in litter, so if that is the case, separate out the one who is doing the sucking, or the one being sucked on, if more than one baby is doing that, and put them next to the others in a separate cage, or compartment.

[island rehabber]

Often the genital sucking problem can be avoided if you go to more frequent feedings. Some babies get hungry very often and that leads to the nursing on anyone and everyone they can find.....smaller feedings more frequently may help that.

[jonmareymo]

Thanks for the advice, I actually had a few more questions about the sucking. At first, it was mostly one sucking, now, as soon as I let them be together (if they haven't just been fed) they are both head to penis, just sucking away.

They are getting pretty old now (approaching 10 weeks) and I would love to have them together and playing but don't want to leave them alone like that for very long.

On a happy note, they are in full recovery, eating rodent food, and got their first pecan in a long time this morning.

[squirrelfairy]

Glad too, on them feeling better...I thought the same thing about the pedialyte....I never use it. If you need to hydrate use lactated ringers if you can get it. or normosol. you can make the powdered formula out of that instead of regular water, has ringers in it and not all that suger and salt of the commercial stuff that is really made for kids and not little baby squirrels.