Help with Seizures

[unluckythesquirrel]

So a little behind whats going on, Im new here and to raising a squirrel. I saved this poor little guy when his tree was cut down. The last 2 inches of his tail was crushed and as far as i could tell he was about 8 weeks old. I have had him now for about 5 weeks and he is the greatest little guy ever. I was feeding him nuts(pine, walnut, peanuts, and almonds) As well as nuts he got apples peaches avaccado bananas, pretty much anything i could get him to eat. But the last 3 days he has had seizures, after googling it i realized it was his diet and i have since taken him off nuts he gets 2 almonds a day, he also gets broccoli, celery, cabbage, cucumber pretty much any veggies that have calcuim i have tried him on. I am also taking him outside twice a day for some sun which he is starting to enjoy other than every noice he hears and he hides but now he has been tasting dandilion greens and seems to enjoy them as well. So i am very worried about him and want to know what i should do to help him get his calcium back up. i researched and have read that kaytee forti diet for rats and mice are good. Is this a good food as a main diet? and does it have to be the blocks or can it be the seeds and such? Is there any supplements i should give him? He is loved and cared for by everyone in the house and i just want to provide him with all the care i can. So we figure he is about 13 weeks now and other than the seizures he seems to be doing wonderful.

[stepnstone]

Welcome to TSB and thank you for taking in the little guy and trying to do what you thought was best. :grouphug
I don't mean to sound harsh but sugar coating it is not going to get my point across. His nutrition has been very deficient starting the 8 weeks since the beginning, he should have been on formula.Then a good rodent block, then after block is being eaten you start with the veggies. Nuts and fruit are treats to captive squirrels.
He is not doing fine and could be signs of MBD, if his diet is not drastically altered his seizures will eventually kill him. All the nuts you were feeding him
was just countering and leaching the calcium you were trying to induce with the other foods. Fruit has no nutritional value.
Please read our forums on squirrel nutrition and MBD, his life is going to depend on it.

[island rehabber]

Please go to this link, and follow the instructions to the letter! This is your only hope of saving your little guy from a painful condition and eventual death from those seizures. We are not being dramatic -- we see this happen over and over and over when people take squirrels into their homes. DIET is priority One, Two, Three and Four.....PLEASE give him a chance by following this!

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34495

[stepnstone]

Thank you IR, I was just trying to copy and paste the link myself but something would not work for me... I'm a little out of it today. :dono

[CritterMom]

He needs calcium supplementation immediately - not tomorrow; now. We really aren't being dramatic. We see this all the time. Read the link.

Also. Kaytee Forti diet is *just* acceptable. If he was mine and I loved him and he had MBD I would order the Henrys Healthy Blocks at www.henryspets.com. They are tastier and have a higher level of supplementation than commercial blocks.

A change of diet alone will not save him. You need to do the calcium supplementation as described, AND change his diet. Corn and sunflower seeds are two of the worst things you can feed them.

[Jackie in Tampa]

additional to the calcium treatment, I would offer him the goats milk formula..
I bet he will love it...:thumbsup I know he will!
your going to need a syringe to feed with, no nurser bottles...3 or 5 cc will work perfect, ask the pharmacist for a needleless syringe!

:Welcome :wave123

DO THE TREATMENT NOW...not later..NOW.
:Love_Icon

[unluckythesquirrel]

Well thank you everyone for your help. We dont want to lose him and i will change it all. Just got back from work and will order things and go shopping as for henrys blocks? I am in canada and the site is american can it be shipped here? i have looked and couldnt find info on that.

[unluckythesquirrel]

I went to the store and got the tums, i mixed it in a paste form with apple juice and he loved it, i crushed 2 pills so a total of 1000mg and he ate it all, about 1tsp. I will keep doing that. How do i know if this treatment is working? And thank you again everyone, we do love this little guy and i feel aweful about not providing him with proper care and i should prolly have taken him to a animal rescue of some sort. Somewhere where they know what to do with the poor guy. I hope its not too late for him it would devestate me.

[CrazySquirrelLady]

they drink formula from mamma squirrel until they are 12 weeks old,
so he needs

1 cup goat milk *dilute per can direction if can
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 Dannon Full Fat Vanilla yogurt.


Feed this starting now and he will get to feeling better.

order some Fox Valley formula, but feed that until it makes thru cutoms. or maybe someone here could loan you some powdered formula till it gets here.

goat's milk for now. He should eat it really good.

be careful overdosing with calcium.... anyone got dosage on how much a day to give this squirrel?

[unluckythesquirrel]

the emergancy treatment said 600 to 800, he did make a bit of a mess eating so he probably got about 800. I will go out in the morning and get the goats milk and stuff for him. although i think he is 13 weeks but am sure he can use the extra nutrition for quite awhile. He did enjoy the tums which made me smile from ear to ear. He as far as i seen seizured once a day around 3:00pm. i am mostly with him as i only run out to do a couple errands a day for just a short while. As far as i can see he is full of energy and spunk but i dont have anything to compare him to. I would say he is very active for 3 hrs in the morning, again for about 2 in the afternoon and then around dusk for about 3 hrs.

[stepnstone]

How do i know if this treatment is working?

The seizures of course are not normal and they will stop. Just follow through with the protocol for MBD, get him on the proper nourishment and consider yourself lucky you caught it when you did. MBD cripples as well as kills, most times the squirrel has already lost partial function of limbs before it is realized something is wrong. It is not unusual that they appear very active and playing one minute and drop in a seizure or crippled by MBD the next. Sometimes they are just found deceased with no apparent reason as they were acting normal and nothing was suspected. Usually this is because they dropped in a seizure, or had one in their sleep and didn't come out of it.

Squirrels are masters of deception not to show any weakness, it is their natural instinct of protection in the wild. Even though one may be "captive" appear "tame", they are wild animals and their natural instincts are hard wired in them and they always retain them.

Do not beat yourself up over what you did not know, unfortunately it is a common mistake made with acquiring a squirrel by many. Just be thankful you found TSB and have the opportunity to turn things around. It is not too late!

I don't know what services are available to you in your area but here one has to be very careful when turning squirrels over to animal rescues as many will just euthanize. Taking care of a squirrel even to release can be very time consuming and they just do not have the manpower or patience required for it. They feel euthanasia is in their best interest, this holds true for many veterinarians as well. It is always advisable to research and ask questions before taking a squirrel into any animal facility.


Stay in touch with us, read up on our forums on squirrel care and ask any and all questions that come to mind. We are here to help!

I would also suggest you get or purchase a scale that can be read in grams as just about every treatment pertaining to a squirrel is dosed by weight of the squirrel. Weight is used to gage the growth and progression as a baby squirrel needs to be eating 5-7% of it's body weight dailey, medications if and when needed are also dosed by weight.

[CritterMom]

Tomorrow and from this point on, spread the treatment out through the day instead of giving all at once. If he likes the Tums, you may even be able to just break it into pieces and give him a small piece every few hours. That keeps the calcium in his body at a steady level instead of having it high just once a day when you give the treatment.

Send an email to Henrys Pets - it is on their site - and ask any shipping questions. The woman who owns the site is a member here and will be happy to help you!

[Jackie in Tampa]

great advise...
however..1000 mgs a day is too much..
if you over suppliment, it body will reject all calcium..
toxification..
stick to 500mg a day spread throught the day as mentioned already!:thumbsup
thank you for finfding help and following thru!
sending good vibes.

[unluckythesquirrel]

WOW Thank you again everyone for your help. And i must say, I thought he was full of energy before.. Today he has gone squirrely, He is jumping and running everywhere and is full of spunk. I would have never imagined him being this active. Guess it only gets better. I have will email about the food and see what i can do about getting him on the best diet i can. So far today no seizure but again i was noticing that they were around 3:30 so a couple more hours. Thank you Thank you Thank You....

[stepnstone]

I think what you are seeing is a feel better little squirrel, their "normal" energy level is amazing!
Wish we could bottle it for ourselves... :rotfl

Keep us informed on the seizures, hopefully the lack of.
I'm curious as to how soon after treatment they stop. :grouphug

[CritterMom]

Really read the treatment - it is a long term treatment where you will SLOWLY ramp down the additional calcium being added to his diet as you get him on the good food. Ideally, he will eventually get all of the calcium and other vitamins and minerals he needs from his food only and will require no more added calcium. It takes a while to do this properly. Don't assume he is well in a week!

You will also want to watch him carefully from now on. If he starts to become unusually lethargic, add a small amount of calcium and observe. IF it is what is the problem, you usually can see improvement fairly quickly.

[unluckythesquirrel]

Just a quick update.. Lucky seems to be doing so much better, we will keep up the treatment but he is full of spunk and very squirrely!!! He did not like the goats milk formula, i tried for 4 days and could not get him to drink or try it. I have been trying to get him to eat the kaytee forti diet for rats and mice although he loved it the first day and ate 3 blocks i cant seem to get him to eat them anymore. I have tried crushing it and mixing it with a little avacado but hes too smart for that and still wont. I am not giving in though as he should eat when hes hungry. I have yet to buy a scale but this friday i am going into town and will purchase one then. I am ordering some of henrys blocks and going to get him onto them. He still eats his calcium without issues. He has just completely turned around, loves to wrestle with my hand is all over the place with such character... I love watching him run around the house and climb things. He has been seizure free for 5 days, so thank you again for all your advice. I will keep up the treatment...

[sadie7684]

So happy to hear that Lucky is doing better! :thumbsup