6(ish) month old w/ wet tail (?)

[jessed]

Several months ago my husband and I rescued a squirrel whose mother and siblings were killed when his co-worker found him in their attic. He has been fine... he lives in a cage for a ferret, has plenty of time out to play and we feed him a mixed diet of Kaytee pellets, acorns and veggies (and occasional fruits). The past couple days he has seemed tired and when we got him out today his back legs and bottom were wet looking. I thought he had just got into his water bowl, but when he was on my shoulder he was leaving an oily looking substance. I assumed maybe he was having diarrhea... I have no idea what to do and can't find any information on the internet. Help?? He is very slow moving and docile-- not like him at all. I'm very scared and not sure who to call.

[astra]

Hi and Welcome,

Could you post more info, please?

1. When you say Kaytee pellets, what do you mean?
What pellets exactly?
And how many does he eat per day?

2. What formula has he been on?
Did you wean him or did he wean himself?
When did he stop eating formula?

3. Could you describe his diet in detail?


4. Is the room where has his out of cage time squirrelproof?
Could he have bitten a cord or wire?
Is there a chance he could get into something toxic? - house plants? human meds/pills/potions/lotions etc? What's in his cage?

5. Does he get food from outside? what kind?
6. Could he have fallen?

7. Would you happen to have pics of that oily substance you are talking about?

I am not an expert, but if you answer those questions in detail, it will help TSB experts help you.

[iwonka]

I would go with the Emergency Treatment for Metabolic Bone Disease... This will not kill him and it can save his life..

Emergency Treatment for Metabolic Bone Disease

Get calcium into the squirrel IMMEDIATELY, not later, not tomorrow, NOW. Delaying treatment can cause death or permanent paralysis.

You will need:

--Tums or calcium pills (any kind)
--a syringe, eyedropper, or spoon

Crush one Tums or calcium pill and add a little water or fruit juice. Use the syringe, eyedropper, or spoon to force-feed the mixture, a little at a time, until it is all gone. Feed a total of 600-800 mg of calcium, and spread it out through the day and night to keep his blood calcium levels as steady as possible.

If the squirrel is having seizures, weakness, or paralysis, the symptoms will usually improve within a few hours, but this does not mean the squirrel is cured. It will take many months to rebuild the calcium in the bones.

Long-Term Treatment for MBD

The next step to curing MBD is to fix the diet.

1. Remove ALL seeds, nuts, corn, and treats.

2. Follow the Healthy Diet For Pet Squirrels, which can be found at the top of the “Squirrel Nutrition” forum. (http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=16093) Your squirrel MUST eat rodent block or squirrel blocks every day. If your squirrel doesn't like rodent blocks, you can try crushing them up with peanut butter or avocado temporarily. You can also make a tastier version of squirrel blocks using the recipe at the top of the Squirrel Nutrition forum.

3. In addition to the Healthy Diet, you will need to continue giving extra calcium every day for several weeks. Either use the syringe/eyedropper or you can try putting the calcium on a small piece of fruit.

Week 1: calcium = 500 mg per day
Week 2: calcium = 250 mg per day
Weeks 3-8: calcium = 100 mg per day

The cause of the acute symptoms—weakness, lethargy, seizures, paralysis—is a drop in blood calcium levels. If these symptoms return at any time, you will need to give another emergency dose of calcium.

More Tips
MBD causes brittle bones that break easily. Try to keep your squirrel away from high places, where he might jump and break a bone. Also, if he is in a tall cage, either place him in a smaller cage, or pad the bottom very well.

Heat is very soothing for a squirrel with MBD. A heating pad turned to low and placed so they cannot chew the pad or cord, or a rice buddy (a sock filled with dry rice/beans and microwaved for about 20 seconds) will work.

[astra]

If it is diarrhea for sure, then, the culprit must be either in his food, or in his environment.
Please list in detail what he ate before the symptoms started.
Also, list in detail what might be potentially toxic in his environment.

If it is diarrhea, for tonight - hydrate him to flush whatever might be in his system.
You can use homemade pedialyte for a few feedings.
---------------------------------------
Another possibility is MBD.

I am not sure what Kaytee pellets are.
I know Kaytee Forti Diet for rats and mice. Blue bag? Is that what you mean?

Also, I assume he does not eat any formula anymore?

Very often, it is recommended to supplement with extra calcium when commercial block is used.

So, for tonight, based on what he's been eating, there is a chance this might be MBD.

If it is, please start Emergency MBD treatment
If it is MBD, then, it will help
If it isn't, it won't hurt

Emergency Treatment for MBD

Get calcium into the squirrel IMMEDIATELY, not later, not tomorrow, NOW.
Delaying treatment can cause death or permanent paralysis.

You will need:
Tums, rolaids, or calcium supplement (any kind)
a syringe or spoon
Crush one pill and add a little water or fruit juice to make a paste. Use the syringe or spoon to force-feed the mixture, a little at a time, until it is all gone.

After you give the initial dose of calcium, give 100 mg calcium every 4 hours. If symptoms return or do not improve, try dosing more often: every 3 hours. Severe cases may need 50 mg calcium every 2 hours.

Your squirrel's symptoms should improve within a few hours; within 1-3 days your squirrel should be alert, active, and eating, with no seizures or paralysis. You should be giving 500-600 mg calcium per day. Keep track of how many doses you give so you can adjust the dosage if needed. You should work with TSB members to do this.

Important!

Any kind of calcium pill is okay for the initial dose. But you must use PLAIN calcium carbonate (without Vit D) from then on.

Many small doses of calcium throughout the day/night are best to keep blood calcium levels as steady as possible.

If symptoms worsen or return, give an emergency dose of 100 mg calcium, then consult with TSB members or a rehabber or veterinarian to adjust the dosing schedule. Relapses are very serious and often fatal.

White feces or a white film on dried urine may mean the dosage can be reduced, as this indicates not all of the calcium is being absorbed. It may also mean you need to give smaller doses more often.

The acute symptoms (weakness, lethargy, seizures, paralysis) will usually improve within a few hours, but this does not mean the squirrel is cured. It will take many months to rebuild the calcium in the bones. (See the "Long-Term Treatment for MBD" below.)

More Tips

MBD causes brittle bones that break easily. You should pad the bottom of your squirrel's cage and keep him away from high places, where he might jump and break a bone.

Heat is very soothing for a squirrel with MBD. A heating pad turned to low and placed so they cannot chew the pad or cord, or a rice buddy (a sock filled with dry rice/beans and microwaved for about 20 seconds) will work. Squirrels with hind-end paralysis may benefit from gentle massage of the legs and hips.


Long-Term Treatment for MBD

The next step to curing MBD is to fix the diet.

1. Remove ALL seeds, nuts, corn, and treats, including stashes.

2. Follow the Healthy Diet For Pet Squirrels, which can be found here: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=32046 and on the Henry’s Healthy Pets website (http://www.henryspets.com/pages/Healthy-Diet.html). Your squirrel MUST eat rodent blocks or squirrel blocks every day (either 2 Henry's Healthy Squirrel Blocks per day, or a small handful of commercial rodent block per day). If you choose to feed commercial rodent blocks, which are extremely hard, you should crush them up with peanut butter, yogurt, fruit juice, avocado, baby food, etc., to make them easier to chew and improve the taste.

3. You will need to continue giving extra calcium every day for many weeks. You can use a syringe or spoon, or you can mix the calcium with a small amount of peanut butter, crushed nuts, yogurt, baby food, or any food the squirrel likes. An easy way to dose the calcium is to mix 500 mg of calcium powder with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter or other tasty food and roll it into 5 little balls; each ball will contain 100 mg calcium.

Calcium Dosage:

Continue to give 500-600 mg calcium per day for 1 week. Then try reducing the total daily amount by 50 mg. If the squirrel remains stable for 1 week, reduce the daily amount by another 50 mg. Continue this weekly reduction until the squirrel is only getting around 100 mg of extra calcium per day. Continue this for at least another 2 weeks. If at any time symptoms return, give an emergency 100 mg dose, then go back to a higher dosage for 1-2 weeks.

The treatment for each squirrel may be slightly different and you should work with a rehabber or TSB members to tailor the treatment to your squirrel's needs. Depending on the age of the squirrel, severity of disease, and other factors, your squirrel may need extra calcium for many months, perhaps for life.

Important Information
The MBD treatment is a "standardized" treatment that will get most cases on the road to recovery. But every case is different and the treatment should be customized to each squirrel. Severe cases sometimes need more aggressive treatment. There is a limit to how much calcium the body can absorb at one time, so lower doses of calcium given more often is the key with severe cases.

What is MBD?
Calcium is a very important nutrient. It strengthen the bones, but also plays a vital role in all body functions. Every cell in the body contains water plus small amounts of dissolved minerals such as calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium. These minerals allow the cells to transmit small electrical signals. Without this cell-to-cell communication, the organs can't function: your heart can't beat, your nerves can't transmit impulses; in fact, you would die.

When there isn't enough calcium in the diet, the body will dissolve the calcium from the bones and use that instead. This eventually causes the bones to become depleted of calcium. Eventually the bones become so depleted, there isn't enough calcium left to maintain sufficient calcium in the cellular fluids, and the organs can't function properly. This is what causes the symptoms of MBD: loss of appetite, lethargy, muscle pain, paralysis, seizures, and eventually death. Humans don't get this type of severe MBD, partly because our calcium requirement is lower and our bones are much bigger, allowing us to store more calcium.

By giving high doses of calcium orally, you are artificially maintaining your squirrel's blood calcium levels because his bones no longer contain enough calcium to maintain his calcium levels normally.

Once the emergency calcium is given, your squirrel's blood calcium levels should normalize fairly quickly. He should "bounce back" and act normal or almost normal. If you are still seeing symptoms such as seizures, loss of appetite, lethargy, or paralysis, the calcium levels may still be too low. This means the body will try to pull the remaining calcium from the bones, which means the MBD is actually getting worse. So stabilizing blood calcium levels is critical. The next step to actually curing the MBD is rebuilding bone. This is the part that takes a long time.

Stabilizing the blood calcium levels can and must be done quickly. In severe cases, calcium may be needed more often throughout the day and night, as often as every 2 hours.
__________________

[astra]

Another question TSB experts might ask is his history.

Did he have any injuries when you found him?
Did he experience any problems while he was growing up? (digestive, etc)

Do you have other pets in the house?
Does he have access to their toys?

Just trying to think of all possibilities.

[astra]

just in case, here is homemade pedialyte recipe:


*If you can’t find Pedialyte at the store, here is a recipe for homemade Pedialyte:

1 tsp salt (teaspoon)
3 Tbsp sugar (tablespoon)
1 quart warm water
Mix all ingredients in warm water. Store in refrigerator for 48 hours

[jessed]

Hey, Thanks everyone for your help. To answer your questions:

Did he have any injuries when you found him? No, other than being dehydrated. His family was in an attic and his mom had been dead for several days when the owner found out she had babies. She left them outside and he was the only one we could find. No health problems so far at all. He's always been very lively and energetic.

Do you have other pets in the house? We have two cats and a dog, but he is never near any of them.
Does he have access to their toys? There is a small chance he has walked by and maybe stepped on our chihuahua's toy, but usually we put those up when we get him out.

1. When you say Kaytee pellets, what do you mean? We give him a mix of guinea pig & rat pellets (though the rat pellets made him sneezy, so we haven't in awhile) He only has a few of those a day, mainly eating kale, tomatoes, acorns, peppers, cucumber, green beans, radishes, snow peas, zuchinni, celery..

2. What formula has he been on? He was on the Fox Valley Day One formula. Based off researching on here and other squirrel sites, we figured he was about 4-5 weeks old when we found him. He weaned himself at maybe 12 weeks or so?


Is the room where has his out of cage time squirrelproof?
Could he have bitten a cord or wire?
Is there a chance he could get into something toxic? - house plants? human meds/pills/potions/lotions etc? What's in his cage? We block off anything that he could chew or get into, but also keep a very close eye on him. He was running around and exploring fine on Saturday afternoon. The only thing I can think of out of the ordinary is that he tried to bite a chocolate candy wrapper and bit through a tiny part of it, but I got it from him before he could actually eat any. In his cage he has an antler, a salt wheel, a bowl of water, a water bottle, a latter and 3 different levels to climb, a hammock a box house, and newspaper.

5. Does he get food from outside? what kind? We have given him acorns, we've tried to give him branches, but he won't eat them.
6. Could he have fallen? He has jumped and hasn't landed gracefully, but he never acted stunned by it... it was maybe a 4 foot jump that he was expecting to land on like, my leg, but landed on the ground instead.

7. Would you happen to have pics of that oily substance you are talking about? I tried to get it, but I couldn't. It looks like a wet bottom from diarrhea. I have heard of wet tail before, so I looked it up and the symptoms sound very much like what he is going through.


Does MBD cause diarrhea? We have some Henry's Calcium Carbonate, so we gave him that. How soon should we expect improvement before we need to consider something else is the problem?

[astra]

ok,
his diet needs improvement.
It's great that he eats his veggies, but he needs quality rodent block as the staple of his diet.
The guinea pig pellets are not the food he needs.

So, there is a good possibility of it being MBD.
I do not know all of the MBD symptoms, and do not remember if MBD squirrels came with diarrhea.
But I would not exclude it, as sometimes illnesses manifest themselves very individually.
But the fact that his activity level is down and he is not his old self do sound like MBD.

So, JUST IN CASE IT IS MBD< please start him on the Emergency Treatment right now.
If it's not MBD, it won't hurt, and will help rule out MBD.

If it is MBD, you will notice the difference very soon.
Some squirrels perk up in a matter of hours, others do take 2-3 days.
But if it is MBD, even if outer symptoms disappear, his internal healing will take up to a year or more, depending on how severe it is.

So, for now, for tonight - start the Emergency Treatment.
Keep him contained - so that he does not injure himself.
You can put a heating pad under half of his cage on low, just not in the cage, or you can put a rice buddy with him - heat is very soothing.


Another thought - if he does have MBD and if he ended up injuring himself because of that (bones are very fragile), he might have hurt his back/back legs/bottom area which might have affected his control of bowel movements.
But this is just a supposition - I am just trying to think of what might have caused diarrhea (If that's what it is)

Also, he does not need a salt wheel.
They don't need extra salt. So you can remove that.
Extra salt, too, can cause imbalances of sorts.

[astra]

We have some Henry's Calcium Carbonate, so we gave him that. How soon should we expect improvement before we need to consider something else is the problem?
yes, you can use this calcium

as I said, if this is MBD, the improvement should occur soon. No more than 2-3 days, and the first perking up can happen hours after initial cal. doses.

But whether this is MBD or not, his diet does need improvement.
Because he will get MBD if he does not start eating rodent block.

Since you know Henrys,
then, I guess, no need to introduce HHBs.

Read these: Healthy Diet for Pet Squirrels: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32218

People often feed commercial block instead - Kaytee forti diet for rats and mice in a blue bag, Mazuri.
Harlan Teklad from www.thecraftyrat.com

If you end up using commercial, you will need to supplement with extra
calcium (suggested). Crushed tums sprinkled on food.
And you will need to keep a bowlful of block every day.

With HHBs - you do not need to keep a bowlful, just two per day. And no need to supplement with calcium.

Now, if a rodent block was not his first solid food before anything else, it is no surprise he won't take to the block easily.
So, you will need to show some tough love.
It is absolutely doable to get a picky eater to eat blocks.

Healthy Diet for Pet Squirrel: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32218
Dealing with Picky Eaters: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31473
these and other great and useful "stickies" you can find in Squirrel Nutrition Forum

[astra]

I am going to bed.

So, for now you should be ok - just follow Emergency MBD Treatment.

Do monitor him closely for any changes or any other symptoms you might have missed before.

If you could take a pic of his poop/diarrhea - that would be great.

Or his wet bottom,

I also know that male squirrels release a certain substance sometimes, but don't remember at what age they start doing that. So, this might not be it.
Just a thought. Still trying to think of what this might be.

Also, if he does have MBD and he did hurt himself as a result, he might have some loss of his bladder control. So, that could be another reason for the wet bottom

Also, MBD can cause paralysis, so if he has an early onset of paralysis or anything similar to that, that, too, could affect his bladder control.

Then, in addition to common symptoms, each critter has also an individual reaction (just like people).

So, all I can do right now is just conjecture.

So, again - for tonight just follow the treatment.
CHeck in regularly tomorrow - TSB experts will be here soon to advise more.

:grouphug

[jessed]

Thanks so so so so much for your help. About an hour after taking the calcium mix, drinking some homemade pedialyte & snuggling under a blanket w/ my husband and a heater- he's already acting a bit more perky. Send us good thoughts and prayers (if you're into that) that he'll be better tomorrow. Thanks again. I really appreciate the fast response!

[astra]

Thanks so so so so much for your help. About an hour after taking the calcium mix, drinking some homemade pedialyte & snuggling under a blanket w/ my husband and a heater- he's already acting a bit more perky. Send us good thoughts and prayers (if you're into that) that he'll be better tomorrow. Thanks again. I really appreciate the fast response!
oh, thank you for sharing!
So good that he already perked up.
Hopefully, it will help.

Just please continue with the Emergency Treatment (and prepare yourself for the Long Term treatment)
and please check in here often tomorrow - the experts will be able to advise further.

Sending prayers and good thoughts
:grouphug

[iwonka]

Thanks so so so so much for your help. About an hour after taking the calcium mix, drinking some homemade pedialyte & snuggling under a blanket w/ my husband and a heater- he's already acting a bit more perky. Send us good thoughts and prayers (if you're into that) that he'll be better tomorrow. Thanks again. I really appreciate the fast response!


:grouphug :grouphug

[Jackie in Tampa]

update please

[jessed]

I did a 100 mg dose @ 6 this morning and he was pretty sluggish again. I just got up for work and opened his cage and sat and petted him, and he was slightly more active. He got up to lick me, drink a little of his homemade pedialyte and then burrowed back under his blankets. Another friend who has rescued squirrels told me of a vet in town that sees squirrels as "exotic pets"-- I've made an appointment with him for 6 tonight (the earliest he could do). My husband is going to give him his next dose and then on my lunch break I'll give him another. Should I start doing the 50 mg every 2 hrs?

Oh- but good news. We filled a little tub with some warm water yesterday to kind of wash off the diarrhea (or what I assume is diarrhea) because he wasn't really letting me wipe it off, and since he's dried his bottom half is looking pretty normal! YAY! Still keeping my fingers crossed. He has always been so healthy and active-- this just came out of nowhere.

[jessed]

Just got back from the vet. While he said he doesn't think Gir has MBD (yet) he definitely is needing a better diet. I feel awful! I read so much on how to take care of him when my husband and I decided to keep him rather than release him... I must have read the wrong things. Glad to have help from all of you.

Anyways, he tested his poop (not diarrhea anymore, but still kind of loose consistency from what it normally is... and lighter brown. It looked like clay sort of) and he didn't have any parasites in it or anything.

The vet gave Gir an antibiotic [Sulfameth/Trimeth Suspension] to take 2x a day. He said he should start acting better *hopefully* really soon after taking that. Otherwise, he suggested improving his diet and continuing the calcium supplementation.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[astra]

thank you for the update.
So good that you were able to see a vet.

since you are keeping him, it might be a good thing for you to hang around here, because people and rehabbers are always sharing what works for them, their experience, etc etc etc - and that is very useful because there are no really places to learn how to care for a wild animal.
And caring for a wild animal is not the same as domestic animal care