armykees
04-24-2012, 03:46 AM
So yesterday Nero (my pit/lab mix) was crying like crazy and wouldn't come inside the house. Mom went out to investigate and found a young squirrel all wet and almost motionless in the neighbors driveway. Mom told the neighbors about it and they could care less. Mom said they looked at her like she was crazy. Well mom didn't want the little guy to die in the cold so she got a towel and brought him inside. At first it seemed like he wasn't going to make it at all. We had him in front of a heater and I mixed up a water mixture with salt and sugar and got a pretty good amount of it into him and he started reviving (mixture was from http://www.orphanedwildlifecare.com/squirrelcare.htm). It was the homemade electrolyte mixture because we didn't have pedialyte and well we are extremely broke at the moment.
Right now he is sleeping in a nest I created inside Holly's (my mini-lop) small carrier that I use to take her to the vets office. He's now holding his tail up on his own and when mom and I had to make him pee he was very active and leaped from mom's arms to the counter. Never thought of how much the momma squirrel has to do to care for her young. Thankfully this guy isn't exhibited signs of bonding with me which is good.
This was the first picture about 10 minutes after mom brought him inside and laid him out in front of a little heater we have. It's a bit hard to see him because my smartphone oddly does not have a flash for it's internal camera. Mom's foot is there to show how small he is.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23184439.jpg
Still looking sickly and like he may not make it.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23185711.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23191255.jpg
Video of him breathing ok. But then after I took this he had a period in which it seemed he was struggling. It was then that I found the website that mentioned an electrolyte substitute that I could make at home as we didn't have pedialyte or any of the other suggestions.
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...3-18-47-07.mp4
He really picked up after I started feeding him the mixture (thankfully I still had the syringe things from Holly's antibiotics and Panacur that she finished last week). Here is the last pic I took of him which was probably around 9-9:30pm. He was busy sucking on the sweatshirt.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23195406.jpg
I tried to feed him (at around 11pm) some more of the mixture and he is definitely recovered now. He started screeching for his mom and wouldn't drink anything. So he's back in Holly's traveling carrier. Will see about putting him outside (with a microwavable heating pad under him) when mom is up to feed the dogs at around 6am. Hopefully he will be up to screeching then and his mom will come and get him.
Just checked on him 15 minutes ago because he was moving around in the carrier. I'm taking it as a good sign that he started growling at me. I was able to get a bit more fluid into him and made him pee again (urine is very clear looking).
I just wanted to post all this on here in case things don't go as planned later this morning when we try to see if his mom will come for him. We did have a baby squirrel a few years ago that ended up falling from a tree at our old house and thankfully in that situation he was fine and we did get to see the mom come back for him and take him to a new nest. But this case was totally touch and go as we had some very cold, wet and snowy weather yesterday and he was barely alive.
Right now he is sleeping in a nest I created inside Holly's (my mini-lop) small carrier that I use to take her to the vets office. He's now holding his tail up on his own and when mom and I had to make him pee he was very active and leaped from mom's arms to the counter. Never thought of how much the momma squirrel has to do to care for her young. Thankfully this guy isn't exhibited signs of bonding with me which is good.
This was the first picture about 10 minutes after mom brought him inside and laid him out in front of a little heater we have. It's a bit hard to see him because my smartphone oddly does not have a flash for it's internal camera. Mom's foot is there to show how small he is.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23184439.jpg
Still looking sickly and like he may not make it.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23185711.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23191255.jpg
Video of him breathing ok. But then after I took this he had a period in which it seemed he was struggling. It was then that I found the website that mentioned an electrolyte substitute that I could make at home as we didn't have pedialyte or any of the other suggestions.
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y96...3-18-47-07.mp4
He really picked up after I started feeding him the mixture (thankfully I still had the syringe things from Holly's antibiotics and Panacur that she finished last week). Here is the last pic I took of him which was probably around 9-9:30pm. He was busy sucking on the sweatshirt.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/LTGsLTD/2012-04-23195406.jpg
I tried to feed him (at around 11pm) some more of the mixture and he is definitely recovered now. He started screeching for his mom and wouldn't drink anything. So he's back in Holly's traveling carrier. Will see about putting him outside (with a microwavable heating pad under him) when mom is up to feed the dogs at around 6am. Hopefully he will be up to screeching then and his mom will come and get him.
Just checked on him 15 minutes ago because he was moving around in the carrier. I'm taking it as a good sign that he started growling at me. I was able to get a bit more fluid into him and made him pee again (urine is very clear looking).
I just wanted to post all this on here in case things don't go as planned later this morning when we try to see if his mom will come for him. We did have a baby squirrel a few years ago that ended up falling from a tree at our old house and thankfully in that situation he was fine and we did get to see the mom come back for him and take him to a new nest. But this case was totally touch and go as we had some very cold, wet and snowy weather yesterday and he was barely alive.