Swollen head

[Snowy]

One of the young wild gray squirrels showed up this morning looking like this. His head is symmetrically swollen. He is acting normally, running around like a nut, playing with his siblings and foraging. He is able to eat, even a semi-cracked walnut wasn't a problem for him.

Last time I saw something similar to this is when one of my cats was bitten on the forehead by a rattlesnake. The cat survived.

Has anyone ever seen something like this before?

[Sara in NW MS]

His head and jaw look terrible!! I wonder what caused this. I wonder if it's an abscess that has gone for a little too long and now his entire head is swollen.

There are lots of people here who can help. The pics are great, that helps a lot too. Hopefully someone with some knowledge will stop by and give their opinion.

Thanks for caring enough about this little guy to get some help!! :hug

[stepnstone]

Definitely has something going on....
They do fight among themselves get bitten and punctures from claws.
Sometimes it's from an encounter with a cat. It's most likely an abscess.
Many times when we see this it's from teeth issues but by the time they
are that swollen from teeth problems they have all but stopped eating
because they can't.
Abscesses sometimes break on their own and drain, sometimes they need
intervention. They have been treated in the wild successfully. If this was
in my backyard I'd be trying to treat it with ab's. That's pretty bad!

[Snowy]

He was just fine yesterday. Sorry the pictures were blurry, I had to take them thru the glass window. I thought maybe abscess too...... could it swell up that much so quickly? It seems odd that the whole head/neck is symmetrically swollen, not just one part/side. Reminds me of an allergic reaction. I watched him for quite awhile with binoculars and couldn't spot any wounds. He and his siblings do rough house. There is only one other squirrel that visits the neighborhood, a male that I believe is dad. He was chasing them when he first met them.

This little boy is one of four siblings who's mother was recently run over. I have been helping them out by putting pecans and walnuts near their home tree across the road.

I don't feed them in my yard because I don't want to encourage them crossing the road. Much as a love these wonderful fuzzy buddies, I want to encourage them to relocate way, way far away from the road and not hang around my house, which is right on the road.

I do have some penicillin 500mg tablets, but there is no way I could weigh him or make sure he gets it and not one of his siblings. I have only tossed nuts to them once, and they didn't pay any attention to me or what I was tossing.

Not sure what to do. I can't help but think he must be terribly uncomfortable, but he just plugs along like all is normal. I know they will be chasing each other all over my roof and looking in my window in the morning. Even though they aren't getting any special treats in my yard, they love it here for some reason.

[stepnstone]

He was just fine yesterday. Sorry the pictures were blurry, I had to take them thru the glass window. I thought maybe abscess too...... could it swell up that much so quickly? It seems odd that the whole head/neck is symmetrically swollen, not just one part/side. Reminds me of an allergic reaction. I watched him for quite awhile with binoculars and couldn't spot any wounds. He and his siblings do rough house. There is only one other squirrel that visits the neighborhood, a male that I believe is dad. He was chasing them when he first met them.

This little boy is one of four siblings who's mother was recently run over. I have been helping them out by putting pecans and walnuts near their home tree across the road.

I don't feed them in my yard because I don't want to encourage them crossing the road. Much as a love these wonderful fuzzy buddies, I want to encourage them to relocate way, way far away from the road and not hang around my house, which is right on the road.

I do have some penicillin 500mg tablets, but there is no way I could weigh him or make sure he gets it and not one of his siblings. I have only tossed nuts to them once, and they didn't pay any attention to me or what I was tossing.

Not sure what to do. I can't help but think he must be terribly uncomfortable, but he just plugs along like all is normal. I know they will be chasing each other all over my roof and looking in my window in the morning. Even though they aren't getting any special treats in my yard, they love it here for some reason.

If this just blew up like that over a day, not likely an abscess.
Can't imagine he could have been hit or fallen to cause his head to
swell like that and not display any neruo problems.
Certainly wouldn't rule out an allergic reaction but to what would
cause that is a mystery. You really can't treat that kind of "unknown."
I'd definitely keep an eye out for him, with him still acting normal
hopefully it will dissipate.

[island rehabber]

Could also be a bot fly warble. Can you get close enough to him to see if there is a tiny hole somewhere in that lump? If so, it is probably a bot. Strange that this blew up overnight, though. If he were in my yard I would definitely try to get some antibiotics into him on a nice juicy pecan, since he is able to eat.

[Snowy]

Thank you for your replies! How much should I dose him with penicillin? Do we have bot flies on the west coast?

[Nancy in New York]

Can you get ONE Clavamox (Animal antibiotic) OR Augmentin (Human Antibiotic).
We don't give penicillin to squirrels.

[Snowy]

I am so happy to report that little boy is looking much better this morning! What a relief! If I had to guess, I think he tasted something he shouldn't have and had an allergic reaction.
Thanks to all for your concern and advice!

[stepnstone]

I am so happy to report that little boy is looking much better this morning! What a relief! If I had to guess, I think he tasted something he shouldn't have and had an allergic reaction.
Thanks to all for your concern and advice!
Big difference! That's great! :w00t
A reaction to whatever makes sense since this seemed to just blow up
and he didn't appear to be compromised by it.
I hope whatever it was he took notes not to try it again... :tap

Thank you for watching out for these precious babies. :grouphug

[pappy1264]

Could have also been a bug bite, as well, have seen that. Glad he is back to normal!!

[TubeDriver]

Now that he is alright, I can look back at his earlier pics and chuckle, that was one funny looking little squirrel! 😀

[Snowy]

Now that he is alright, I can look back at his earlier pics and chuckle, that was one funny looking little squirrel! 😀

I completely agree! Sure wish I could have gotten a clearer picture of him. Not sure I would be quite as in love with the fur babies if they all looked like that! He was scary looking.

Maybe he did get stung by a wasp, bee or other insect. If so, I hope he learned to steer clear of whatever it was.

One thing I know is that they never learn to stay out of the road. They all end up getting run over and I feel responsible. I thought I was being nice feeding all of them when I noticed they were eating out of my bird feeders. Lady, BooBoo, Tippy, Messy Missy, and Ruffles.....now I feel as though I lured them to their demise.

Going to do my best to prevent these four adorable kids from coming anywhere near the road. I live in the boonies, so there is plenty of countryside for them. Depressing to know I won't have anymore squirrel buddies, but much, much more depressing to see their lives cut short.

[Snowy]

Little boy wanted everyone to know that he got his purdy face back!

[kendradfw]

What a little cutie.

[TubeDriver]

Those pics are great! What a character! :grin2

[feedthefriends]

Awww thats so sad. What a cute little guy. I'm not sure about the rattlesnake part unless you actually have those in your areas. As someone mentioned, sometimes they play / butt heads among themselves so maybe our guy got the bad end of that one. Kind of rare though . . . Give it a week or two and see how he progresses . . . Thx for sharing :)

[DarkLies212]

What a difference!!