Aspirated Squirrel

[NutterButter]

I believe my 3 week old squirrel has aspirated. I was very careful and I though he was swallowing his pedialyte however some clear fluid did come out of his nose. About 3 hours later I tried feeding him a mixture of pedialyte and Ebsilac and he threw it up.
If he aspirated do I need to put him on Baytril? If so do I buy the 10% liquid for birds or the chewable tablet for dogs and cats? If the chewable how do I get him to eat this? How often should I give this to him and how much?

[Gina]

:Welcome Someone more experienced will come on - some are up at all hours of the night feeding. I do know that mixing formula and pedialyte together is not good. They will need to know the following so if you can post this info it should help:
-How long you have had him
-What you are feeding
-What do you feed him with (syringe, eyedropper, bottle?)
-How often you feed him
-How much at each feeding
-Are you stimulating him to pee/poop?
-Is he is peeing and pooping good?
-Are poops hard?

For now, if he did asperate then he could get sick pretty fast. Good idea would be to keep him hydrated, make him a rice buddy (rice in sock, tied and heated in microwave -20,25secs and re-heat every 3 hours or so)

[nnmaru1]

Hi nutter,
Is there a way you can take your buddy to the vet, or get Baytril, Bactrim or Cipro from someone?
How is your squirrel now? I hope he is better on his own, keeping fingers crossed.
Do not delay… We just lost our chipmunk last Friday (3 wks as well) to same symptoms which I believe developed into pneumonia… They progress fast. It was only about 16 hrs from great to decline.

Same thing – saw some liquid (few small bubbles) out of his nose, then clicking sound, open mouth breathing, shut down. We tried to find help frantically (no local vet would see it or give us antibiotic) but it was too late by then.
So watch him like a hawk, looking back I wish we KNEW how quickly baby rodents succumbs to respiratory distress. And we too fed him so carefully, knowing liquid in nose/lungs can really kill. We were flabbergasted.

Btw, he pooped and peed on a queue to the end- which we thought also he is not that bad, so it may not be an indicator all is kosher.
Best of luck, please post an update.