blindness

[thundersquirrel]

mary's problems are driving me nuts. :shakehead

my mother and i are now wondering if she's blind. her eyes have no discoloration, but sometimes she acts so strange....and we think maybe she just knows when we're around through smell and sound.

but we can't be sure. any ideas on how to test a squirrel for blindness?

[Somebody's Mother]

use a small flashlight and shine it within what woud be her normal vision range and see if she responds. have the flashlight turned on when you walk into the room where she is so she can't cheat by hearing you click it on.

[Mars]

rearrange what's in her cage and see if she bumps into things. Don't add new things just rearrange. She can smell if something is new or not. Or put her in a completely new cage and she if can find her way around. :)

[Critter_Queen]

When we found out that Weez was blind in one eye we had him at the vet. She used the magnifying head/eyes thing (looks like a visor, Sigourney Weaver had one on in Ghost Busters...) and shined a small, bright light in each eye. We could EASILY tell that he was blind in his left eye. The pupil wouldn't dialate and was misformed looking.

VERY INTERESTING experiment to do if Mary will let you handle her for a few short minutes.

[thundersquirrel]

i haven't managed to check her pupils for a while, but they're never dialated for me. the thing is, since she was hit by a car, we thought the brain damage might be the cause of her eye problems. now we're wondering if it's permanent.

it's just sad if she is blind. we would either have to smuggle her to someone illegally or put her down. :(

[Critter_Queen]

i haven't managed to check her pupils for a while, but they're never dialated for me. the thing is, since she was hit by a car, we thought the brain damage might be the cause of her eye problems. now we're wondering if it's permanent.

it's just sad if she is blind. we would either have to smuggle her to someone illegally or put her down. :(

That's how it works here, too, TS. I feel for ya...it's a hard spot to be in...

[TexanSquirrel]

I don't know, but I wish you guys the best!

[LynninIN]

Someone else helping you with this test would be best. Get Mary's attention to one side of the cage. Make sure she knows the other person is in the room and have them sit quietly on your other side. While you have her attention have the other person slowly start moving their hand into Mary's peripheral vision field and she if she acknowledges the movement. The person moving their hand can't have anything on that causes noise or she will hear it first. If the cage is small enough you could try this on your own using one hand making sound and the other moving.

[thundersquirrel]

hmm. i think what we'll try first is putting her into a bigger cage. we think she's stressed from her lack of space, and this way we can test her. we'll put her nest box at the top (and a couple towels at the bottom in case she has trouble climbing). at that point we'll see if she can climb.

i guess the hard part is that she's really back and forth. she HAS attacked our hands before when they're in her cage, but that could just be scent. and maybe a tiny bit of noise.

she's constantly moving. whenever she hears us come in, she'll go to the cage door and stumble around the front, sniffing. could this be brain damage, or is she just trying to see if we're there? what if she has dim vision? what if she could recover from this? it's REALLY hard to tell.

at night, she never fully closes her eyes when she sleeps (from the few times i've been able to watch her sleep without waking her). she'll just close them halfway, or nearly all the way.

i'm tempted to give her more steroids, but would that change anything so late in the injury?