PDA

View Full Version : New Baby - Slowly Loosing Weight, Improving Otherwise?



xoniac
04-27-2015, 09:52 AM
Hi guys,

I have a 3-4 week old baby grey that's been with me for almost 4 days now. When I got her, she was 72 g (after pedialyte) and such a scrawny little thing.

Turns out, I did keep her on pedialyte a bit too long (left it mixed in with her food for two days instead of one), but we are now onto pure formula and I started adding 1/8 parts heavy whipping cream today.

She has gained so much energy and I have such a hard time keeping her still except when she's in her little heating pad bed or feeding. If I'm holding her or cleaning her, or in between syringes, she's just crawling all over the place! She eats like a champ - 3 to 4 mL every 3 hours, 6 times daily. I have her on puppy esbilac powder formula with probiotics mixed in a 1 powder:2 water ratio. I had been mixing in pedialyte, as I said, because she was very dehydrated but I have now stopped the pedialyte and after one day on full formula have added 1/8 cream to the mix. Heated to just about temperature and fed through a 3 cc syringe with a bottle nipple attaches. Formula is prepared the previous night with hot, not boiling water and left to refrigerate over night.

She is peeing tons of clear white pee at LEAST every other feeding but usually more like every feeding. Her poops have been gradually improving from a yellow mucous looking liquid to very soft golden brown to, today so far, one darker brown tiny formed piece.

She does make all sorts of odd noises, like any baby does, and at times I swear I hear a clicking in her chest that gets me all worried. As soon as I get worried, however, it just stops - not sure if she's in the beginning stages of some respiratory issue or if she's just making noise, I'm not sure.

Despite my best efforts and her steady improvement, she has not gained any weight (except immediately after a feeding). In fact, this morning I weighed her before feeding and she was down to 68g. Not sure if it's because i weighed her after a long night, but I try to weigh her every morning and every afternoon and it always seems to stay around 72g, until today. I know not to expect a lot of gain in so little time but i feel she should have gained SOMETHING by now, right?

Any help would be appreciated. I am a very paranoid, very over protective new squirrel mom and just want my little nameless baby to survive.

I have ordered some FV and new syringe/nipple sets from FV, but am waiting for them to contact me about payment. Please advise if this is necessary or not as well....

Here's a few pictures as well as my daily chart.


256605256606
256603256604

Spanky
04-27-2015, 10:03 AM
How long has she been on the Esbilac missed with water / how long ago was the Esbilac mixed with pedialyte stopped?

xoniac
04-27-2015, 10:05 AM
How long has she been on the Esbilac missed with water / how long ago was the Esbilac mixed with pedialyte stopped?

24 hours.

pappy1264
04-27-2015, 10:14 AM
At 72 grams, 7% is 5 cc's, so you can go up to that. You can also in between feedings, give a little extra plain water (or if she will not take it, add a tiny bit of honey to it), for extra fluids. It can take a few days to get it all worked out as far as digestion and weight gain. She should be peeing every time you potty her (are you pottying before or after you feed?) Poops not necessarily every time. Just keep an eye on her tummy, make sure it is soft, not hard. Listen to her breathing when she is sleeping, after you feed her and let her settle down and see if you hear it. You may want to up the amount to the 5 cc's and go to 3.5 hours, give her time to digest it well.

xoniac
04-27-2015, 10:14 AM
Also, I totally missed putting two feedings in my chart yesterday. If you look at that, yesterday was actually 16.6cc, not 10.

xoniac
04-27-2015, 10:19 AM
At 72 grams, 7% is 5 cc's, so you can go up to that. You can also in between feedings, give a little extra plain water (or if she will not take it, add a tiny bit of honey to it), for extra fluids. It can take a few days to get it all worked out as far as digestion and weight gain. She should be peeing every time you potty her (are you pottying before or after you feed?) Poops not necessarily every time. Just keep an eye on her tummy, make sure it is soft, not hard. Listen to her breathing when she is sleeping, after you feed her and let her settle down and see if you hear it. You may want to up the amount to the 5 cc's and go to 3.5 hours, give her time to digest it well.

She seems to loose interest in suckling after 3.5cc. I can try to up it. I am having a difficult time keeping the nipple on the syringe while she suckles- should I switch to a 1 cc without a nipple, or can I get something better from a store since FV isn't getting back to me yet?

I will try to get her up to 5 cc and will increase to 3.5 hours... still 6 feedings a day?

She pees copious amounts 90% of the times I try - typically right after feeding.

Nancy in New York
04-27-2015, 06:33 PM
What kind of nipple are you using?
You can order FV from http://www.henryspets.com/formulas/
It's flat rate shipping. They have nipples, syringes, and you might as
well order blocks too while you're at it. :thumbsup

Also if she stops eating try stimulating her. Sometimes they have to
potty first, and then will continue eating.
Also make sure the formula is warm enough.

xoniac
04-27-2015, 11:26 PM
Right now I've got a regular kitten bottle nipple I hold on the syringe. Doesn't work very well all the time, but it'll do until the new nipples come in the mail. They've been ordered! :)

Already have lots of blocks from my last squirrel.

Do you think FV would be better than what I'm using now? Like, so much better that it's worth ordering now?

After adding the cream, my baby has really started enjoying her food. She doesn't stop until around the 5 cc mark, and even then she sometimes wants more. She even sucks on my hand while I'm refilling the syringe. Hehe.

Poops today have been darker and formed. She's also back up to 72g as of last feeding, so I'm assuming that's good.

Can anyone give me an idea how long it takes before they start gaining - and then is there an average amount they should gain daily? Or is it all dependent.on the individual? Also, is it a good idea to worm babies, or should it be avoided unless necessary? I've come into quite a bit of panacur...


What kind of nipple are you using?
You can order FV from http://www.henryspets.com/formulas/
It's flat rate shipping. They have nipples, syringes, and you might as
well order blocks too while you're at it. :thumbsup

Also if she stops eating try stimulating her. Sometimes they have to
potty first, and then will continue eating.
Also make sure the formula is warm enough.

Mommaluvy
04-28-2015, 08:16 AM
Right now I've got a regular kitten bottle nipple I hold on the syringe. Doesn't work very well all the time, but it'll do until the new nipples come in the mail. They've been ordered! :)

Already have lots of blocks from my last squirrel.

Do you think FV would be better than what I'm using now? Like, so much better that it's worth ordering now?

After adding the cream, my baby has really started enjoying her food. She doesn't stop until around the 5 cc mark, and even then she sometimes wants more. She even sucks on my hand while I'm refilling the syringe. Hehe.

Poops today have been darker and formed. She's also back up to 72g as of last feeding, so I'm assuming that's good.

Can anyone give me an idea how long it takes before they start gaining - and then is there an average amount they should gain daily? Or is it all dependent.on the individual? Also, is it a good idea to worm babies, or should it be avoided unless necessary? I've come into quite a bit of panacur...


You mentioned a clicking she does in her chest.. Can you tell us more about that noise.?

She should gain 1-2 grams per day.

I would not worm unless your seeing problems. So I would hold off on the wormer.

Nancy in New York
04-28-2015, 08:25 AM
Do you think FV would be better than what I'm using now? Like, so much better that it's worth ordering now?



No, I thought you had placed an order with FV or were waiting on them to confirm.
You can keep her on the powdered puppy Esbilac, though many now feed half Esbilac and half FV 20/50.
BUT you do need new nipples and syringes, right? I just thought since you were ordering, you could get everything in one place.:)

xoniac
04-28-2015, 09:17 AM
No, I thought you had placed an order with FV or were waiting on them to confirm.
You can keep her on the powdered puppy Esbilac, though many now feed half Esbilac and half FV 20/50.
BUT you do need new nipples and syringes, right? I just thought since you were ordering, you could get everything in one place.:)


I did place an order with FV from their website but they haven't confirmed nor asked for my credit card info yet. I will just stick to the Esbilac in that case, but I did order new nipples and they should be coming in the next couple days.
:)

xoniac
04-28-2015, 09:26 AM
You mentioned a clicking she does in her chest.. Can you tell us more about that noise.?

She should gain 1-2 grams per day.

I would not worm unless your seeing problems. So I would hold off on the wormer.

The clicking I hear does not happen constantly. In fact, the only time I hear it is when she's curled up sleeping on my chest, and even then it's on and off. It does sound almost like she's got a stuffy nose - and nearly exactly what I've heard in videos of sick squirrels - but it doesn't happen consistently. I don't know if it's something to be too concerned about yet since it doesn't happen constantly nor does it seem to relate to post feed or pre feed or anything...

I did record the sound at one point as a video... can't figure out how to upload it here though. I'll try to upload to youtube and link you.

In other news, I have half an eye! :)

256688

xoniac
04-28-2015, 09:38 AM
https://youtu.be/cmzY0R6c1nw

Here's my video.... forgive the quality please.