Helping Melinda
04-08-2013, 01:17 PM
Hello all! I am so very glad to have found this forum!
My boyfriend and I are fostering a baby, we've named this pretty lady Melinda. She was found by his mom's co-worker.
This man found Melinda and her sibling Thursday. He said he noticed them bundled up in some leaves for some time and when he went outside they ran right up to him and were both freezing and thin. He took them in, but her sibling didn't make it through the night. His wife couldn't find any help for her and couldn't care for her, so she made the husband make sure to find someone who would give her the attention, love, and nourishment that she needs. So we received Melinda Friday night.
By what I have read, I believe she is a gray squirrel who is closer to six weeks. She has fur, her eyes are opened, her tail is furry, not super fluffy, but nice and furry, it curls also (melts my heart!), and she definitely has some upper teeth and pretty sure some bottom teeth as well. She goes potty on her on in the designated 'potty box'. She climbs and seems to be super fast. She's also very vocal when feeding and I pull the feeder away to get more.
They had been feeding her kitten formula. Since my friend had fostered a squirrel I knew this was no good so we bought week 0 puppy formula with goat's milk. Melinda was passing lil black pellets, which seemed healthy. But Saturday morning started passing soft stools, then by Sunday full blown diarrhea. We found your forum yesterday.
So this is what I have started with today-
1 pint warm water-1 tsp salt- 3 tsp sugar.
She seemed to enjoy it but only ate a full tablespoon worth. She urinated, no bowl movement, but also no uncontrollable diarrhea (so that's gotta be good, right?) and went back into her burrow hole (fleece like blanket that in a long box with a heating pad on low underneath the blanket-I also put a pillow case over the heating pack) and is now asleep.
I plan on doing another 'home pedialyte' feeding next and then later this evening give her the formula mix ( Goat's milk, heavy whipping cream, and Dannon all natural plain yogurt ) which I haven't fed to her yet. I make sure to sterilize everything that has been used in the feeding process. Every time.
My boyfriend says I am far too over-protective of Melinda, but having such a precious, fragile life on my hands makes me very scared of messing anything up. I love her dearly. So when she developed diarrhea I was so upset because I was obviously doing something wrong, and I just want to get this precious back to healthy, give her a great temporary home and prepare her for her own environment. I also am terrified of her aspirating. She tries to eat so fast and I don't allow it and then she gets mad and starts to yell at me. I feed her with a dropper ( just at this time as I am having a hard time finding the syringe, tried a bottle and she refuses, tried the dropper and she ate, again I am going on another mission today to find a syringe!).
So I am scared to feed her the formula because I read on 10 pages not to ever feed a baby goat milk, then the next 10 say to feed the baby goat's milk. :thinking So I am very concerned. But seeing as you folks have done this more than once, I feel this is the right route.
When feeding, I make sure she has been bundled up and is super warm to the touch. I bundle her body up, but allow the front paws to be free. I feed her until she doesn't take anymore. Usually 1- 1 1/2 Tablespoons. Then she goes to the potty box where I let her do her business. Try to keep her bottom as clean as possible with cotton swabs. Then it's back to Melinda's burrow hole for some warmth and sleep. We made her a 'nesting pad'. It's a small box that's taped up with a round hole at the bottom front. We lined the inside of the box with a fleece like material. She seems to like to hang out in there sporadically. I am going to cut slices out of one of the fleece blankets to give to her so she can hopefully learn how to build a nest in her nesting pad.
Since she is growing so fast, she can now pop the lid off of her box that she sleeps in. So for when we sleep we put her in a cat carrier that I cleaned and lined with some more of the material used in her nesting pad, bundle her up in her fleece blanket and put her in there for her sleep safely.
Sorry this is so incredibly long, but I figured I would try to explain as much I can in the beginning so we can all be on the same page.
Any guidance is GREATLY APPRECIATED as well as criticism if I am doing things wrong.
Thank you for taking the time for this extremely long post and thank you for helping me Help Melinda!!! :thankyou :peace
My boyfriend and I are fostering a baby, we've named this pretty lady Melinda. She was found by his mom's co-worker.
This man found Melinda and her sibling Thursday. He said he noticed them bundled up in some leaves for some time and when he went outside they ran right up to him and were both freezing and thin. He took them in, but her sibling didn't make it through the night. His wife couldn't find any help for her and couldn't care for her, so she made the husband make sure to find someone who would give her the attention, love, and nourishment that she needs. So we received Melinda Friday night.
By what I have read, I believe she is a gray squirrel who is closer to six weeks. She has fur, her eyes are opened, her tail is furry, not super fluffy, but nice and furry, it curls also (melts my heart!), and she definitely has some upper teeth and pretty sure some bottom teeth as well. She goes potty on her on in the designated 'potty box'. She climbs and seems to be super fast. She's also very vocal when feeding and I pull the feeder away to get more.
They had been feeding her kitten formula. Since my friend had fostered a squirrel I knew this was no good so we bought week 0 puppy formula with goat's milk. Melinda was passing lil black pellets, which seemed healthy. But Saturday morning started passing soft stools, then by Sunday full blown diarrhea. We found your forum yesterday.
So this is what I have started with today-
1 pint warm water-1 tsp salt- 3 tsp sugar.
She seemed to enjoy it but only ate a full tablespoon worth. She urinated, no bowl movement, but also no uncontrollable diarrhea (so that's gotta be good, right?) and went back into her burrow hole (fleece like blanket that in a long box with a heating pad on low underneath the blanket-I also put a pillow case over the heating pack) and is now asleep.
I plan on doing another 'home pedialyte' feeding next and then later this evening give her the formula mix ( Goat's milk, heavy whipping cream, and Dannon all natural plain yogurt ) which I haven't fed to her yet. I make sure to sterilize everything that has been used in the feeding process. Every time.
My boyfriend says I am far too over-protective of Melinda, but having such a precious, fragile life on my hands makes me very scared of messing anything up. I love her dearly. So when she developed diarrhea I was so upset because I was obviously doing something wrong, and I just want to get this precious back to healthy, give her a great temporary home and prepare her for her own environment. I also am terrified of her aspirating. She tries to eat so fast and I don't allow it and then she gets mad and starts to yell at me. I feed her with a dropper ( just at this time as I am having a hard time finding the syringe, tried a bottle and she refuses, tried the dropper and she ate, again I am going on another mission today to find a syringe!).
So I am scared to feed her the formula because I read on 10 pages not to ever feed a baby goat milk, then the next 10 say to feed the baby goat's milk. :thinking So I am very concerned. But seeing as you folks have done this more than once, I feel this is the right route.
When feeding, I make sure she has been bundled up and is super warm to the touch. I bundle her body up, but allow the front paws to be free. I feed her until she doesn't take anymore. Usually 1- 1 1/2 Tablespoons. Then she goes to the potty box where I let her do her business. Try to keep her bottom as clean as possible with cotton swabs. Then it's back to Melinda's burrow hole for some warmth and sleep. We made her a 'nesting pad'. It's a small box that's taped up with a round hole at the bottom front. We lined the inside of the box with a fleece like material. She seems to like to hang out in there sporadically. I am going to cut slices out of one of the fleece blankets to give to her so she can hopefully learn how to build a nest in her nesting pad.
Since she is growing so fast, she can now pop the lid off of her box that she sleeps in. So for when we sleep we put her in a cat carrier that I cleaned and lined with some more of the material used in her nesting pad, bundle her up in her fleece blanket and put her in there for her sleep safely.
Sorry this is so incredibly long, but I figured I would try to explain as much I can in the beginning so we can all be on the same page.
Any guidance is GREATLY APPRECIATED as well as criticism if I am doing things wrong.
Thank you for taking the time for this extremely long post and thank you for helping me Help Melinda!!! :thankyou :peace