MagnetFencing
03-21-2011, 10:29 AM
Last Tuesday 3/15 (one week ago tomorrow) I innocently went to the mail box and on my way back my life changed. Usually squirrels run before I can get very close, this one, hanging towards the bottom of the tree, held it's ground momentarily. This drew my attention to a slight irregularity in the yard. It was a baby squirrel. At first I wasn't sure it was alive. The nearest nest is about 90 ft up a huge pine in our front yard. The tree the baby was under is about 30 feet. However it didn't appear to have any obvious damage - no blood or anything, just listless. My husband came (he had yard gloves on) and picked the baby off the ground. We have both hawks and cats on that side of our yard.
I went to the web and found several helpful sights giving basic rescue info. I tried to get the mama to come, the baby never made a sound. Eyes were closed, but he was fully furred. We made a little fake nest with the baby in it and while we had a few looker, after 2 hours and it was beginning to get dark & cool, we took it inside.
I gave it a little G2 (gatorade light) 1 ml (is that also a cc?) about every 2 hours for 12 hours. In the morning I went to the pet store and found some puppy milk (the wrong kind apparently after reading your site) and began a weak puppy milk introduction. By this time I found out it should have about 4-5 cc, I used a glass eye dropper as it was all I had. The baby began to really be aggressive at eating when the milk was introduced - even 75% diluted.
I have become quite frustrated (not at the squirrel - at the humans).. First, I tried for 2 days to find some entity or person who was qualified or experienced to take the squirrel to rehab. I live in NW Louisiana. Our Wildlife rehab website is a joke. Nothing up north, it's all about South Louisiana. The one place I do know is where I ride my bike, and I've seen the Vexcon (Dirty Jobs) guy Billy take possums and raccoons there, but they have not called me back after several attempts to contact them.
NO vets will take a look at the squirrel. So I began the attempt at keeping the squirrel alive. We named it Pat, (after the SNL androgynous character) because we couldn't tell, boy or girl. I began a log of what I fed it and what the "outcome" was. At first, the stool looked like it might be a flea! After using 3 bifocals, I confirmed it was just a very hard, dehydrated blackish stool. We had several more of these over the day - none came out while I was feeding, I would just find them. Pat wet in the container I had made (aquarium with cuddle fur & t-shirts). I chose white so I could see what was going on "output" wise. Clear urine. It had one little stool now and again about the size of a blackberry seed.
The 18th, we had a little "toothpaste" stool which was mustard yellow. Freaked out, I cut back on both the amount and proportion of formula, going back to a little G2. By the 19th, Pat had a regular little solid stool, and I returned gradually to 100% formula. Pat was regularly wetting in the same spot in the cage. But we had no stool for over 30 hours. Then yesterday when I worried that this baby was NOT "outputting" enough, I got better info (you tube had a video of stimulation) and I got a little mustard one, but then in a couple of hours, I got more, but it was toothpastey with a little looseness, was orange, and smelled.
Not knowing if I was overfeeding, having problems with the liquid Esbilac or there was a bigger problem, I sent my husband to the store to get goats milk, yogurt & cream to make the emergency formula. (By this time I had gone to my ORTHOPEDIST, who gave me 3cc syringes - this town is hopeless on helping people get equipment to rescue this baby.) They are disposables, and since I have ordered some from one of the suggested online stores along with FV. I also used the nipple from the Pet Ag bottle my husband had gotten early on and I refused to use (no control at all there!) but I realized I could put the nipple ON the square luer lok and it would work. OMG Pat was in heaven with that!
But I am still not getting much stool from Pat at all. I have taken a couple of pics this morning. The left eye started opening up yesterday and this morning it has both open. Pat is very active, but compliant. He is an aggressive feeder, sucking so hard it almost pulls the 3 cc plunger!
Could you look at this little guy and tell me if the belly is bloated or if there is something I'm missing? This shot was taken following 5 ml of Janet's goat milk formula.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8AqlZTRp2WwYWVhMmZhNzAtNTdmNC00YjgwLTgyY jMtMzg0MDU1ZWFiYzQx&hl=en
Thank you for this extremely helpful blog.
Terry from Shreveport, LA
I went to the web and found several helpful sights giving basic rescue info. I tried to get the mama to come, the baby never made a sound. Eyes were closed, but he was fully furred. We made a little fake nest with the baby in it and while we had a few looker, after 2 hours and it was beginning to get dark & cool, we took it inside.
I gave it a little G2 (gatorade light) 1 ml (is that also a cc?) about every 2 hours for 12 hours. In the morning I went to the pet store and found some puppy milk (the wrong kind apparently after reading your site) and began a weak puppy milk introduction. By this time I found out it should have about 4-5 cc, I used a glass eye dropper as it was all I had. The baby began to really be aggressive at eating when the milk was introduced - even 75% diluted.
I have become quite frustrated (not at the squirrel - at the humans).. First, I tried for 2 days to find some entity or person who was qualified or experienced to take the squirrel to rehab. I live in NW Louisiana. Our Wildlife rehab website is a joke. Nothing up north, it's all about South Louisiana. The one place I do know is where I ride my bike, and I've seen the Vexcon (Dirty Jobs) guy Billy take possums and raccoons there, but they have not called me back after several attempts to contact them.
NO vets will take a look at the squirrel. So I began the attempt at keeping the squirrel alive. We named it Pat, (after the SNL androgynous character) because we couldn't tell, boy or girl. I began a log of what I fed it and what the "outcome" was. At first, the stool looked like it might be a flea! After using 3 bifocals, I confirmed it was just a very hard, dehydrated blackish stool. We had several more of these over the day - none came out while I was feeding, I would just find them. Pat wet in the container I had made (aquarium with cuddle fur & t-shirts). I chose white so I could see what was going on "output" wise. Clear urine. It had one little stool now and again about the size of a blackberry seed.
The 18th, we had a little "toothpaste" stool which was mustard yellow. Freaked out, I cut back on both the amount and proportion of formula, going back to a little G2. By the 19th, Pat had a regular little solid stool, and I returned gradually to 100% formula. Pat was regularly wetting in the same spot in the cage. But we had no stool for over 30 hours. Then yesterday when I worried that this baby was NOT "outputting" enough, I got better info (you tube had a video of stimulation) and I got a little mustard one, but then in a couple of hours, I got more, but it was toothpastey with a little looseness, was orange, and smelled.
Not knowing if I was overfeeding, having problems with the liquid Esbilac or there was a bigger problem, I sent my husband to the store to get goats milk, yogurt & cream to make the emergency formula. (By this time I had gone to my ORTHOPEDIST, who gave me 3cc syringes - this town is hopeless on helping people get equipment to rescue this baby.) They are disposables, and since I have ordered some from one of the suggested online stores along with FV. I also used the nipple from the Pet Ag bottle my husband had gotten early on and I refused to use (no control at all there!) but I realized I could put the nipple ON the square luer lok and it would work. OMG Pat was in heaven with that!
But I am still not getting much stool from Pat at all. I have taken a couple of pics this morning. The left eye started opening up yesterday and this morning it has both open. Pat is very active, but compliant. He is an aggressive feeder, sucking so hard it almost pulls the 3 cc plunger!
Could you look at this little guy and tell me if the belly is bloated or if there is something I'm missing? This shot was taken following 5 ml of Janet's goat milk formula.
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8AqlZTRp2WwYWVhMmZhNzAtNTdmNC00YjgwLTgyY jMtMzg0MDU1ZWFiYzQx&hl=en
Thank you for this extremely helpful blog.
Terry from Shreveport, LA