New Release lost portion of its tail

[Lighten-Up]

I would appreciate any thoughts as to why a squirrel would lose part of its tail; mostly because I'm insatiably curious, and always want to learn; not to mention I am also a little concerned. Here's a little background:

I released my girls [Sassafras and Laurel] 4 days ago at my home where there is a decent squirrel population because the environment is nice for them. They were born here, fell out of a downed tree. All is going very well. They are a year old, not my intent to release them this late, but it's just the way my life went. I've seen them defend the area around their RC, and I've seen them be chased out of other parts of the yard. I've seen a wild male in the RC! And a small bird in the RC too, I watched both leave through the 4" portal.

I've noticed that Sassafras runs from a fight and goes on her happy way right after a chase. I watched Laurel get jumped on by a squirrel, have a tussle, get away, and then immediately jump on the other squirrel! Two totally different personalities; or maybe it was a different situation that I did not understand.

On day two, I saw Laurel had 3 small parts of fur missing on her butt and hip area. Today, I found a 4 inch end of a squirrel tail in front of my house. ? I picked it up, washed it and blow-dried it; because I couldn't just leave it there...

Later I went looking for my girls. Sassafras was intact, Laurel seems to have a blunt cut tail with a 3 inch needle like spindle for an end part!! :eek

Do I have Laurels tail part? Does it hurt her to be like this? What is that long needle with no fur? Did it come out of her tail part that I have? Can I put it back on? [I'm kind of kidding, kind of...] The tail part I have seems to have stiff bones or something down the middle, so I don't know why Laurels tail still has a long fur-less part. I can't know that this is Laurels tail, it might be someone elses...

Is there anything I should do?
Did she cut her own tail off? Did a squirrel do it?

Any thoughts are very welcome, I care a lot for these two, and I want to understand as much as I can about squirrel life. I really am happy with how they are integrating with the rest of the squirrel population.

Thank you, I really appreciate everyone on the squirrel board. I would not have gotten to this point without all of you. :) It's been quite the journey. :hug :Love_Icon Somehow I've become owned by all the squirrels.... :-) And I would not want it any other way.

[Iko]

Don't know why it happens or how but do know that I have one female squirrel with actually has no tail and she is doing well. I know she has had at least 2 litters and seems to be able to fend for herself. I have watched her chase other squirrels off a particular feeder that she prefers to eat out of. This particular female is at least 3 years old and I know I have a few photos somewhere but they are not great as they are heavily cropped and taken through a huge picture window! But she is healthy and sometimes she spends time in the backyard searching for buried nuts! Squirrels are resilient!

[HRT4SQRLS]

Lighten up, what you have is the fur/skin portion of Laurels degloved tail.... perhaps with some bone. There actually is a word for it. :tilt
What you are seeing is the bone. This will dry up and eventually fall off or she will chew it off. The tail will be fine. She will live very happily without it.

The tail is designed to deglove if a predator catches them by the tail. The fur stripes off and they flee. :squirrel3

[ALittleNutty]

Yes, she will be fine without it. I can't remember who right now but one of the other TSB members here passed one over to me that had a tail injury. She had just gotten a litter of possum babies and needed some help. Ended up being perfectly fine and a great release. It was easy to pick that one out from the others in the yard.

[Lighten-Up]

Lighten up, what you have is the fur/skin portion of Laurels degloved tail.... perhaps with some bone. There actually is a word for it. :tilt
What you are seeing is the bone. This will dry up and eventually fall off or she will chew it off. The tail will be fine. She will live very happily without it.

The tail is designed to deglove if a predator catches them by the tail. The fur stripes off and they flee. :squirrel3

I was able to feel the end of Laurels spiky tail needle, it is firm and hard, like a bone I guess.

You say that 3 inch portion will dry up and fall off, will it ever grow back? Or will she always have a shorter tail now? Her tail is about 3/4 what it was, so she still has a good portion of it.

Thanks for your reply.

[ALittleNutty]

I was able to feel the end of Laurels spiky tail needle, it is firm and hard, like a bone I guess.

You say that 3 inch portion will dry up and fall off, will it ever grow back? Or will she always have a shorter tail now? Her tail is about 3/4 what it was, so she still has a good portion of it.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes she will have a short tail from now on, it will not grow back. They do fine without the end though and there is enough left to that it won't affect her balance.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I was able to feel the end of Laurels spiky tail needle, it is firm and hard, like a bone I guess.

You say that 3 inch portion will dry up and fall off, will it ever grow back? Or will she always have a shorter tail now? Her tail is about 3/4 what it was, so she still has a good portion of it.

Thanks for your reply.
No, it won't grow back. You'll always recognize her in the yard. :tilt

I guess you could make a hair piece for her with the washed, blow dried tail fluff you have. That made me laugh. :rotfl

[Lighten-Up]

I guess you could make a hair piece for her with the washed, blow dried tail fluff you have. That made me laugh. :rotfl

:grin2

[Lighten-Up]

Just an update:
This morning, her bone spindle that was left from the de-gloving tail, is gone. And now she has a very recognizable tail, I can spot her. :-)

I did examine the tail part that I have, now that I have more understanding. I believe that the hard part that I felt, that I thought was bones up the middle, was just the skin that surrounded the bone, creating a sheath that I could feel as hard, but it is pliable.

I do wonder:
Is it painful for them to have a tail degloved?
When bunny's get degloved, their skin and hair can grow back, why does the squirrel not do the same thing?

[ALittleNutty]

Just an update:
This morning, her bone spindle that was left from the de-gloving tail, is gone. And now she has a very recognizable tail, I can spot her. :-)

I did examine the tail part that I have, now that I have more understanding. I believe that the hard part that I felt, that I thought was bones up the middle, was just the skin that surrounded the bone, creating a sheath that I could feel as hard, but it is pliable.

I do wonder:
Is it painful for them to have a tail degloved?
When bunny's get degloved, their skin and hair can grow back, why does the squirrel not do the same thing?

Glad to hear she's doing good this morning. I would imagine it's painful right when it happens, kind of like us hitting our funny bone. Hurts like the devil right at first but over pretty quickly. I don't know why the difference in between them and bunnies after being de-gloved. In fact I didn't know that about bunnies but I've never worked with them before. I learn something new every day. :)