angelfzck
01-20-2012, 04:04 PM
I'm a recent Veterinary Technician graduate, & have worked in wildlife rehab - specializing in squirrels - for several years now. During that time, I've raised & released hundreds of squirrels (& lost a fair amount as well; something you never get over), &, through the wildlife center I'm affiliated with, have adopted 2 unreleasable squirrels to use as educational animals for our events - but, more than anything, these two babies (who are probably around 5 months old now) have become companions - I hesitate to call them pets, as that would express ownership, & they are SO much more than that!
They were raised in the wildlife center - at the time they came in, I currently had more than 40 foster babies at home & was unable to take in any more! As babies, both had abscesses that required constant medical care; as they grew older & we switched them to solids, we realized that Munchie - the female - had a severe malocclusion that would result in her inevitable painful, starved death in the wild. Usually, in the case of unreleasable animals, policy dictates that we lean towards euthanization rather than captivity; however, there was something about Munch that captivated me, & I fought tooth & nail to bend the policy a little & to convince the Board to allow me to keep her as an educational animal, as her personality is so mellow, sweet-natured, & loving that the thought of putting her down broke my heart - & I may have actually quit working at the center if it had come to that. After months of delegation, I was finally granted permission to keep her as a designated educational animal for our fund-raising & awareness events, & she couldn't be happier!
Our wildlife center has an on-staff veterinarian, & for her first teeth trimming, a representative of the center brought her to him to perform the procedure & to get a good physical profile on her. When he put her under anesthesia to perform the trimming, she literally died on the table - it took the resuscitation efforts of half the staff to bring her back around, & although they finally managed to revive her, it was then discovered that she has a heart murmur, & any subsequent attempts at anesthesia may be life-threatening. Since then, my husband & I simply restrain her while awake to perform her tooth trimmings (generally once a month, or as-needed; although we provide her with antlers, branches, blocks, & hard nuts to gnaw on & keep her teeth trimmed down, our supplementary attempts are simply not enough to keep her teeth from growing out of control); however, despite her mellow & loving temperament, it is still a stressful ordeal for all involved. Knowing that anesthesia is not an option, does anyone have any suggestions on what we can give her to at least calm her down a little bit more before attempting the next procedure? My boss & I have tried both acepromazine & Metacam on separate occasions to at least try & relax her a little, but neither seemed to have any effect whatsoever, & with her heart murmur (not sure what grade murmur it is; when I listen to a squirrel's heart with a stethoscope, they beat so fast I can barely keep up counting!) I'm hesitant to give her any other type of drug without talking to other squirrel folks who may have suggestions or who may even be in the same boat with me. Munchie's not on any type of heart medication; however, when I brought both her & Chunk (our other unreleasable baby, who has a neurological deficit) home the day after Thanksgiving - after a full 2 months of fighting against Munch's euthanization & for the center to allow me to keep her! - they both had severe ringworm that I treated them for using griseofulvin; also, because of her abscesses she had as just a little thing, she's been on septra & meloxicam, & has also been on albon, metronidazole, & benebac for a variety of parasites (don't ask me how she came to have all these issues; most of my work with the wildlife center has been providing home foster care for pinkies on up, independently organizing & orchestrating slow-releases, or going into our wilding cages at the Center to catch the squirrels going out for releases; as far as the day-to-day care for the animals kept there, I'm not much involved)... Point being: as far as I know, Munchie's fine to give pretty much any medication to, I'm just concerned with giving her any type of sedative because of the risk of losing her, especially since I do not currently work in a veterinary clinic & have virtually no access to monitoring equipment; even our on-board veterinarian (which is the ONLY vet I'm permitted to take Munch or Chunk to, due to a legal contract I had to sign in order to adopt them from the wildlife center) admits that he is not as squirrel-savvy as I would prefer, & has told me to just trim her teeth using a manual restraint while she is wide-awake; he won't even venture forth to make any more recommendations because he "simply doesn't know". I plan on thoroughly researching any medications suggested, but at this point I am out of ideas, & none of my local squirrel-rehabbers have any other suggestions for me. Any advice?
They were raised in the wildlife center - at the time they came in, I currently had more than 40 foster babies at home & was unable to take in any more! As babies, both had abscesses that required constant medical care; as they grew older & we switched them to solids, we realized that Munchie - the female - had a severe malocclusion that would result in her inevitable painful, starved death in the wild. Usually, in the case of unreleasable animals, policy dictates that we lean towards euthanization rather than captivity; however, there was something about Munch that captivated me, & I fought tooth & nail to bend the policy a little & to convince the Board to allow me to keep her as an educational animal, as her personality is so mellow, sweet-natured, & loving that the thought of putting her down broke my heart - & I may have actually quit working at the center if it had come to that. After months of delegation, I was finally granted permission to keep her as a designated educational animal for our fund-raising & awareness events, & she couldn't be happier!
Our wildlife center has an on-staff veterinarian, & for her first teeth trimming, a representative of the center brought her to him to perform the procedure & to get a good physical profile on her. When he put her under anesthesia to perform the trimming, she literally died on the table - it took the resuscitation efforts of half the staff to bring her back around, & although they finally managed to revive her, it was then discovered that she has a heart murmur, & any subsequent attempts at anesthesia may be life-threatening. Since then, my husband & I simply restrain her while awake to perform her tooth trimmings (generally once a month, or as-needed; although we provide her with antlers, branches, blocks, & hard nuts to gnaw on & keep her teeth trimmed down, our supplementary attempts are simply not enough to keep her teeth from growing out of control); however, despite her mellow & loving temperament, it is still a stressful ordeal for all involved. Knowing that anesthesia is not an option, does anyone have any suggestions on what we can give her to at least calm her down a little bit more before attempting the next procedure? My boss & I have tried both acepromazine & Metacam on separate occasions to at least try & relax her a little, but neither seemed to have any effect whatsoever, & with her heart murmur (not sure what grade murmur it is; when I listen to a squirrel's heart with a stethoscope, they beat so fast I can barely keep up counting!) I'm hesitant to give her any other type of drug without talking to other squirrel folks who may have suggestions or who may even be in the same boat with me. Munchie's not on any type of heart medication; however, when I brought both her & Chunk (our other unreleasable baby, who has a neurological deficit) home the day after Thanksgiving - after a full 2 months of fighting against Munch's euthanization & for the center to allow me to keep her! - they both had severe ringworm that I treated them for using griseofulvin; also, because of her abscesses she had as just a little thing, she's been on septra & meloxicam, & has also been on albon, metronidazole, & benebac for a variety of parasites (don't ask me how she came to have all these issues; most of my work with the wildlife center has been providing home foster care for pinkies on up, independently organizing & orchestrating slow-releases, or going into our wilding cages at the Center to catch the squirrels going out for releases; as far as the day-to-day care for the animals kept there, I'm not much involved)... Point being: as far as I know, Munchie's fine to give pretty much any medication to, I'm just concerned with giving her any type of sedative because of the risk of losing her, especially since I do not currently work in a veterinary clinic & have virtually no access to monitoring equipment; even our on-board veterinarian (which is the ONLY vet I'm permitted to take Munch or Chunk to, due to a legal contract I had to sign in order to adopt them from the wildlife center) admits that he is not as squirrel-savvy as I would prefer, & has told me to just trim her teeth using a manual restraint while she is wide-awake; he won't even venture forth to make any more recommendations because he "simply doesn't know". I plan on thoroughly researching any medications suggested, but at this point I am out of ideas, & none of my local squirrel-rehabbers have any other suggestions for me. Any advice?