PLEASE HELP TERRI INJURED HER TAIL

[petlover56]

An aluminium bar not too heavy has fallen onto terris tail when she was playing..
her tail is bleeding please tell me what to do..shes biting n licking it...what can i do?

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO..HER TAIL IS BENT FROM THE PLACE IT WAS BLEEDING...Now bleeding has stopped..please help her..

Its night here and i dont have any baytrill with me but i have emprim with me...

[SammysMom]

Does it seem broken? Is the tip "stripped"? They are prey animals and their tails pull off or deglove (strip the skin) very easily to let them get away from predators. Assess the damage, but don't get too freaked out. It is a common injury.

[Nancy in New York]

An aluminium bar not too heavy has fallen onto terris tail when she was playing..
her tail is bleeding please tell me what to do..shes biting n licking it...what can i do?

How much of the tail is involved? Do you have rescue remedy? Give her that if you have it. She can have INFANT motrin if you know the weight, I can dose it for you.

[petlover56]

her wound is in a small part bt 1/4 of her tail upto the place of wound seems crooked...should her licking it do any good? no i dont have infant mortrin or rescue remedy...im in srilanka...what can i do...i have emprim which i gave her when she had pneumonia, will it work?
she wont drink milk or eat or do anything except lick/chew on the wound

[CritterMom]

OK, emperin is a type of aspirin, which is a pain med - the same as the infant ibuprophen. I have no experience with it at all with animals - if she has had it before with no problems you could try it again. If this just happened she will likely fuss with it for a while. Can you snap and post a pic so we can see? Usually tail injuries are not life threatening in any way...

[island rehabber]

I would not give her an antibiotic (emprim) unless later on you actually think there is infection. Keep the tail wound clean...try to distract her from chewing/licking it if you can. If not, you may have to make a little cone for her -- temporarily -- so she can't fuss with the wound.....tail wounds happen to squirrels a lot, and usually are not a serious problem.

[petlover56]

thanks a lot guys..i was so worried cuz she has never been injured and she seems so upset an wont stop licking the tail... i was so upset to find blood.. IR, how can i make a cone? please let me know the emprim dosage also... btw she seems to be in lot of pain poor baby...our house is being repaired and its not squirrel proofed as usual these days.. i left her for 1 min and she went and did this to herself..i feel ive been so reckless,,what a bad squammy :(

[CritterMom]

OK - got confused - I thought you wrote emperin, a pain med.

The only way to help get rid of the pain is with pain relief. Do they sell ibuprophen for infants in Sri Lanka? It is a very common pain reliver. The stuff for babies (not children, BABIES/INFANTS) is a sweet flavored liquid that they usually like the taste of. The strength is "50mg per 1.25ml" and is called "Infant Ibuprophen". Do you have a pharmacy anywhere? You don't need a prescription...

She likely does NOT need antibiotics.

[petlover56]

okay its emprim not empirin...she has bit the wound and now it looks really bad... shall i put gause cloth around it?

[petlover56]

heres a pic..she has chewed on it and its breaking now

[CritterMom]

I would do whatever you need to do to stop her from further injuring it. That includes a "cone" collar. I have seen people make them from small plastic cups before.

Try wrapping it with gauze and see if she will leave it along. Getting some pain meds into her will help make her forget about it...

[petlover56]

Thanks a lot guys..she ate some fruits but wouldnt let me put gauze or a cone..she runs and hides if we try to do it..shes in a corner of her cage where we cant reach her and chewing off and it is horrible to look at it..

[petlover56]

here are some pics..this was sometime before and now it looks much worse..
however she now ate some fruits and drank a little milk also and went to her bed...hopefully shes now too sleepy to chew off more..its 10pm here, and hope she'll be better tomorrow..tomorrow morning ill get her the suggested pain meds...

[CritterMom]

OK, yes, she will VERY likely chew off the tip of the tail, or it will die and fall off on it's own. She will just have a shorter tail now.

Do you have any "triple antibiotic ointment" (common brand name: Neosporin) there? It will be with other first aid creams and ointments in the pharmacy. It is usually a mix of polymixin/bacitracin/neomycin and is an ointment. A teeny bit of this on the sore spot and eventually the broken off tip will help to keep it clean and avoid infection.

I would see what she is doing tomorrow when she wakes up. If she leaves it alone it likely no longer hurts and you won't need to use the ibuprophen. If she fusses with it you can. Do you have a way to weigh Terri? It will make dosing easier though the ibuprophen is pretty forgiving and we can estimate if need be.

[petlover56]

she has covered herself and sleeping in her bed, hope shes okay now....please let me know ibuprofen dosage..ill get to her tomorrow morning.. ill figure out a way to weigh her and let you know..thanks so much..ill look for the ointment also.. :grouphug

[petlover56]

she's inside the coconut shell bed she sleeps in and putting only her face out.. she refuses to come out..she takes her face in now and then..cant see the tail..hope its not bleeding too much...its 3.30am here and usually terri is fast asleep at this time..she must be still in pain...
btw im planing on buying the ointment - triple antibiotic cream and pain med as suggested..if she licks off the ointment will it be bad? then ill hav 2 put a collar/cone before applying it..let me know...

[CritterMom]

Aw, poor baby. As brutal as it sounds, their tails are kind of designed to do this - a predator gets them by the tail and they are left with fur and skin...squirrel gets away, with an injury, but away. I did this to my boy - stepped on his tail - and I know how you are feeling.

[petlover56]

oh that must have felt awful...im feeling so guilty and upset for letting her out and walking away for that minute..a part of my house is under repairs so it isnt squirrel proofed as usual... i heard the long aluminium bar that was standing by the door fall and when i rushed there she was not under it just nearby but with the bleeding tail and very upset...i figured the bar would have hurt her..nothing else seems to have gotten hurt...ill let her wake up and come out and check on her..
she has never been injured before so im sure shes not used to any kind of pain :( but she's a brave little fighter..how she battled with her pneumonia...

thanks for being there for me...im pregnant with my first baby and quite hormonal and hysterical these days lol i was crying my heart out yday,,,it means so much to talk to you guys :grouphug

[petlover56]

okay its morning and shes still biting the tail..she came to my hand and i petted her for a long time, while petting she would fall asleep...but when i stop she starts chewing on the tail again..the tail is still the same and the injured part is hanging on to the rest of the tail...but wound looks better than before..blood seems to have dried...she drank some milk...btw my hubby has given her some glucose with water since she has lost blood, just a little..dont know if its good for her..shes ok except for biting tail...ill get the meds soon..

should i allow her to chew it off or not? i dont want to fight her too much also..

here's how the tail wound looks today

[CritterMom]

I think she will lose the end of her tail - she will likely chew it off. Your morning is my night so I will give you a range of doses for the infant ibuprophen - please don't substitute anything for that, BTW, the dose is based on the 50mg per 1.25mg strength.

Squirrel Weight Dose
200 grams 0.05cc
250 grams 0.62cc
300 grams 0.075cc
400 grams 0.1cc
500 grams 0.12cc

You can give this every 4 hours as needed.

My guess from her photos is about 300 to 350 but it is hard to tell - I only had your hand for comparison!

[petlover56]

I think she will lose the end of her tail - she will likely chew it off. Your morning is my night so I will give you a range of doses for the infant ibuprophen - please don't substitute anything for that, BTW, the dose is based on the 50mg per 1.25mg strength.

Squirrel Weight Dose
200 grams 0.05cc
250 grams 0.62cc
300 grams 0.075cc
400 grams 0.1cc
500 grams 0.12cc

You can give this every 4 hours as needed.

My guess from her photos is about 300 to 350 but it is hard to tell - I only had your hand for comparison!

thank you so much...i just posted a pic in my earlier post...ill go on a search for that med...and weigh her too...good night!

[Twi_prime]

Guys, am I thinking correctly that triple-antibiotic ointment sometimes has zinc in it and that Petlover should avoid the kind that has zinc? Forgive if me if I'm remembering wrong. Just wanted to ask, just in case. Good luck with Terri, Petlover.

[petlover56]

thanks..I couldnt find the cream...but got the infant ibuprophen and she happily had it yesterday, all day and it healed the tail and she wasnt in pain anymore... however the tip of the tail has been chewed off but still the tail is not broken off from the dry wound area but lower than that...the rest of the tail still hangs from the dry wound...today she wont drink it and could only get one dose of the medicine into her for the whole day..she's very much active now and does not chew on the tail anymore...however the remaining tail is not as fluffy as it was before and thinner... she eats and drinks like she would usually before the injury,. and her peeing and stools are normal...

Im so grateful for you guys once again for helping my poor girl out..thanks loads crittermom..i really appreciate you being there for me and my girl throughout the ordeal...:grouphug

and IR you can move this to non life threatening threads now :D

[petlover56]

A new problem with Terri now...her pee pee is swallen/bigger and orange..is this normal?? her peeing and stools are normal...here are pics