My disabled Lil Monster

[Gabrielle]

I haven't been on here for awhile but here I am now.
I took in a baby red fox squirrel a little more than a year ago. She was taken from nest by cat, her hips and spine were damaged permanently so her hips aren't very strong and her coordination is not what it should be. I have made her hab and world handicap friendly for her mobility issues but she still tries to be a crazy playful squirrel and ends up falling sometimes. Usually a short fall with soft landing but she managed to hurt herself and currently is not very mobile at all with her back end. She can move her legs and grip with her toes but where her hips meet her pelvis she is very unstable and wabably.
I already know the first thing everyone is going to say, MBD, treat imidantly and feed Heneries Healthy Blocks. I can assure this is not at all her issue. She eats 2 blocks a day plus greens, some fruit and few raw nuts for treats. She does not have MBD and her diet is complete.
However in consideration of her injury I have increased her calcium by 50mg and her VitaMin at 100mg and will be adding Whey protein as soon as I can get a good doesage amount to give. I don't want the stress of the injury to cause an MBD issue and I want to make sure she is getting a bit extra nutrition to aid in her healing and recovery.
If anyone can give me the whey protein dosseage I should add to her diet everyday until she is healed that would be great.
Also if anyone has any suggests for me to help her with a speedy good recovery that would be awesome.
Oh and yes everything is from Henry's so it is the right stuff. I ordered the MBD treatment kit because it came with the calsium, VitiMin and protein powders plus I needed more squirrel blocks.

On a positive note, I have 7 total complete successful rehabs all doing well and making more wonderful squirrels. But my Lil Monster can't be rehabbed back into the wild because of her disability so we are now life long friends and partners. She needs me as much as I need her in life. She is so sweet as of course they all are. Lol.
Thank you for any help / advise.
Gabrielle Koenig.
PS. I was going to attach a pic of her but can't find where on here to do that?

[DarkLies212]

Oh my gosh, I'd LOVE to see a picture of her!!

If you upload the pictures online somewhere, you can just post the link in between tags like this (without the spaces) [ img ] ENTER PICTURE LINK HERE [ / img ]

OR

You can click the little tree box right next to the envelope and the film strip above the text box and follow those instructions to attach a picture :)


Not sure on extra vitamins, so I'll let others comment

[CritterMom]

Poor little thing! Given her diet, I am thinking this is more injury than MBD. I would try to limit her movement as much as you can - single level cage, lots of padding, etc. You can give them infant ibuprophen - we would need to know her weight to tell you how much. This is sort of a two-edged sword though. It will help with any inflammation and will make her feel better if this is hurting her - that is the good stuff. However, if you remove the pain from an injured animal without providing a way for them to be restrained from moving around a lot, they can re-injure or further injure themselves because they don't have the pain to slow them down! I come down on the side of restraining and giving them the pain relief but you need to look at her current housing to decide if this is the way to go. If she has hurt something or pinched a nerve somehow, it will take time for her to heal.

[Gabrielle]

I have her currently in her bed dren area (in my bedroom), originally it is 2 level system but I modified to one level with food and water so she does not have far to go.
She does not seem to be in constant pain, she is still active, more than I would like, but she does not like to climb up, very difficult for her and climbing down is also difficult but she uses her tows to hang on which is why I know she does still have use of them.
Am I right in temporarily increasing her calsium, and adding the VitiMin powder and Whey Protein? How much protein? She weight 4 lbs right now, a bit chubby but not to bad, she was sliming and trimming with spring here but since injured her activity has decreased so going to cut fruit and occasional raw nut treats out until activity increases again. I do not feel she needs the pain releaf she is uncomfortable yes I'm sure but not a lot of outright pain unless you put pressure on both sides between hips and spine where hips meet pelvis. I think maybe she landed on her butt and further injured herself as she already had damage when the cat got her. This is the 2nd time she has injured herself in the last 6 months. She healed up fine the last time, about 2 weeks and she was back to normal. If I can get vid of her walking I will try to attach it so you can see what I'm talking about with her hips. If anyone can answer my protein question that would be great and always open to suggestions to help heal faster better. I wonder if this is same injury as last time, it seems to be only worse this time. More sever and less mobility.

[Gabrielle]

Oh my gosh, I'd LOVE to see a picture of her!!

If you upload the pictures online somewhere, you can just post the link in between tags like this (without the spaces) [ img ] ENTER PICTURE LINK HERE [ / img ]

OR

You can click the little tree box right next to the envelope and the film strip above the text box and follow those instructions to attach a picture :)


Not sure on extra vitamins, so I'll let others comment

I can not get a pic to load on here. It almost happens then I'm told "not enough memory to complete action"? I am no good at this, thought it might be a bit easier but I've never gotten one to actually load and display right. Very frustrating. Lol. 273347273348

[Gabrielle]

Oh well look at that I did it and I almost sent the same 2 pics 4 times each. Lol. I really am no good at technology. Much prefer just taking care of animals, I understand them better. Lol.

[Gabrielle]

I can not get a pic to load on here. It almost happens then I'm told "not enough memory to complete action"? I am no good at this, thought it might be a bit easier but I've never gotten one to actually load and display right. Very frustrating. Lol. 273347273348



Yes I know she looks fat but these are winter pics and she does spend a lot of time outside and so she is fluffy more than fat. She is slicked down now and she was loosing weight but her inactivity has stopped the weight loss so modifying diet to trim down by removing fruit other than small bits as treat and ofvource raw nut treats are gone. I am sure with some weight loss her hips will be better shape but until she hurt herself she was very active and mobile and other than her disability she didn't have any problems now she does.

[squizzabelle]

Yes I know she looks fat but these are winter pics and she does spend a lot of time outside and so she is fluffy more than fat. She is slicked down now and she was loosing weight but her inactivity has stopped the weight loss so modifying diet to trim down by removing fruit other than small bits as treat and ofvource raw nut treats are gone. I am sure with some weight loss her hips will be better shape but until she hurt herself she was very active and mobile and other than her disability she didn't have any problems now she does.

:w00t She doesn't look fat to me she looks cuddly, curvy and absolutely adorably GORGEOUS :Love_Icon I hope your little buddy gets better soon Gabrielle thanks for those terrific photos she's just soooooo beautiful and her fur is so shiny! I would love to see a fox squirrel I don't suppose i ever will though