wild squirrel with bleeding head

[TheSquirrel]

Hi, I have a visiting wild squirrel, and this morning she has turned up with blood streaming down her head and ears. She's popped by 5 times this morning within the last 2 hours.

The first occasion I saw blood on the back of her head and running down her ears, it's pouring with rain over here and I hoped she'd go back to her nest to dry off and clean it up and it would be ok. The second time she appeared the blood was collecting in a pool in her ear and still looked like it was tricking down her head. The third time she appeared she looked better (she would have cleaned some of it off). But she has come back a couple more times and it seems to be trickling down her head and pooling in her ear. Both ears are bloodied but one side looks worse than the other and it seems to be trickling down that side of her head. When she visits it's very quick, she grabs a nut from the doorstep and she's off, especially if there are other squirrels around.

I can't see where the actual wound is, where the blood is coming from or what exactly it is. She's moving normally and appears fine apart from that, but obviously it looks bad with blood streaming down her head like that.

Should this be a cause for concern and is there any advice you can give?
Thanks

[CritterMom]

I wonder if she got grabbed by something. Head wounds like that sound like a bird of prey. Hopefully the bleeding will stop - the terrible weather may help - rinse the blood off and also hopefully after she eats, she will go home to her nest and SLEEP and not move around and continue to re-open it. Hopefully you will see her again with the blood gone so you can better assess it - everything looks ten times worse when it is bleeding...

[TheSquirrel]

Many thanks for your reply CritterMom. It's awful to think she may have been grabbed like that. Luckily she is okay. She has been very active today and I've seen her many times at various time throughout the day. It's early evening now and I last saw her about an hour ago and it seems to have stopped bleeding. I can see where she has washed it off too. It had just kept bleeding and her ear had been swimming in blood all day but now thankfully looks better, and hopefully will heal up overnight.

All my squirrel friends have been very active today, far more than usual. It seems they are more active when it rains.