Squirrel hit by car

[megatronisabeast]

This morning I was outside and saw one of our neighborhood rabbits. Decided to go look and see what he was doing. I looked down the street and saw something lying in the road. I run over to it and was a squirrel. It was bleeding from the mouth, nose, and a little from one ear. One eye was completely shut and the other was open. I picked her up and she was warm. I thought she might be in shock so I wrapped her up to keep her warm. I tried to clean the blood away with some water. I put honey on her gums. I watched for a while but never saw improvement. I buried her after noticing she wasn't warm anymore and her limbs were stiff. I don't think I could have saved her but what should I do if this happens again?

[CritterMom]

Aw. People are so careless.

You didn't do badly at all. Putting together something that you carry in the car all the time isn't a bad idea. A medium plastic bin with airholes, a thick pad of folded fleece on the bottom and loose, small pieces on top to hide under, heavy gloves (they can and will bite really freaking hard - like teeth meeting in the middle hard) and I like a good sized piece of heavy sweatshirt material to throw over the top of them to move them.

Honey was a good move - a blood sugar rush to help with shock. Anything sweet like that will do - honey, syrup, even table sugar with a drop or two of water in it. In injury situations, I swear by a product called Bach's Rescue Remedy: http://www.bachflower.com/rescue-remedy-information/ (Henry's sells this, BTW). I like the spray - and one of the first things I do is spray any bare skin I can find - on a squirrel, that is the bottom of the feet - and spritz a few in the mouth so it gets on the mucous membranes in there. I swear by this stuff for helping to stabilize animals in shock and I always have it in my purse for that reason!

After that, put them someplace warm, quiet, and cover them so it is dark and protected but not blacked out and get on TSB!

[megatronisabeast]

Thank you for the advice. I am familiar with rescue remedy. I believe this poor girl had a head injury. I was hoping to see some improvement from her, but she never showed any signs of life. I have some gloves, but I didn't use them this time. I just grabbed her and took her back down the street. She was two houses down. I don't know but think she could have been who I called the twins. I always saw two young squirrels run across the road to get to one yard to eat then go back across to home. Must squirrels in my neighborhood never cross the road. They walk on the fence and stay in the yards. I hope I don't have to provide care again, but will be ready if I do.

[CritterMom]

Thank you for the advice. I am familiar with rescue remedy. I believe this poor girl had a head injury. I was hoping to see some improvement from her, but she never showed any signs of life. I have some gloves, but I didn't use them this time. I just grabbed her and took her back down the street. She was two houses down. I don't know but think she could have been who I called the twins. I always saw two young squirrels run across the road to get to one yard to eat then go back across to home. Must squirrels in my neighborhood never cross the road. They walk on the fence and stay in the yards. I hope I don't have to provide care again, but will be ready if I do.

The other thing to do to prepare for that kind of injury is somehow fake a deep croupy cough that won't go away so your doctor prescribes you some prednisone. :grin3 That type of injury is the one that most frequently uses that controversial med.