tree bunny
01-11-2017, 10:08 AM
Hello Everyone,
I didn't want to start a new thread as my Johnny is sick again and I didn't want to repeat everything. I took "possible concussion" out of the title as that isn't the problem.
He recovered from his illness in July. He gained all his weight back and was back to his normal energetic self.
But the recovery only lasted until Dec 9th. Same symptoms as before, good one day, down the next.
He had never been treated for MBD in July, so his recovery could not be a result of any Calcium treatments as he did not have any except for one injection of only 20mg Calcium.
It was a $2,000.00 mystery but I was just happy he recovered even though I had no answers.
This time he declined much quicker. As it turned out, and only because of my own intuition, he had a UTI. In hindsight, he had this UTI since July!
But not just a UTI, a kidney infection, which is deadly.
The only reason he recovered from the July illness is because he had gotten so many different antibiotics over the course of a month.
But they were just enough to get him feeling better, not enough to eradicate the bacteria.
Even while he was "recovered", I noticed him drinking so much water, licking his mineral and salt licks excessively and urinating excessively.
The excessive urination was so pronounced that his entire body smelled like urine. All his fur, even his face. When I put my face into his body to sniff, it was a strong urine smell.
His room also had a strong urine smell and I found urine on the floor all around the couch and even the sides of the couch were saturated with urine.
I didn't know what to think of this. Was the excessive drinking and mineral cravings just a recovery process his body needed? That's what I thought because the mineral cravings and excessive water drinking eventually subsided.
Now I have a diagnosis! A UTI, with blood and Leukocytes in the urine but also large amounts of Glucose but no protein.
Then I started thinking he might be diabetic. There should never be glucose in the urine.
Blood work from July and Dec revealed a high Glucose in the 180-190 range. It was explained away by all Vets (5 of them!) as a stress response from being brought to the Vet and does anyone really know the normal range for a Squirrel anyway! One Vet convinced me that to have Glucose pour over into the urine, one would need a Blood Glucose in the 300 range. She was a Wildlife E.R. Doctor and I believed her.
But, before I knew there was a kidney infection, I started treating him for MBD just in case. That only lasted a few days until I found out about the UTI. He was put on an antibiotic called Zeniquin.
He only got 2 or 3 doses of it as it made him almost unresponsive. So off to the E.R. Vet who put him on TMP/SMZ for 14 days. I stopped the Calcium treatments because I thought it might interfere with antibiotic absorption.
I bought my own bottle of urine diagnostic dipsticks. His urine was improving with treatment! Finally I took in a good volume of urine for a urinalysis, culture and sensitivity. The results came back negative on his 14th day of treatment! So now the infection is cleared, no Glucose in the urine, Johnny is off the antibiotic but he's not improving. In fact, he's getting worse.
We think Johnny might have been Septic or at least mildly so. We learned from the tons of research we do on the internet that people who recover from Sepsis aren't just "cured". Apparently it can be so debilitating that it can take months to years for some people to recover. Sepsis depletes the body of everything! There are even support groups for people who are recovering from Sepsis.
So now we're thinking he's just so depleted of everything essential to life.
We've been searching the squirrel board for answers. Anything that sounds similar to Johnny.
Johnny has been force fed for almost 4 weeks now. He will not drink water on his own. He will however, eat in between force feedings. Avocados, Bananas, Pears, (Figs and Persimmon which is a rare find right now), Nectarines. It has to be soft food, nothing crunchy although he did eat a piece of Apple one day. However, he cannot hold his food. I have to hold it for him. He's very unsteady and can fall over backwards. We're thinking he's just lost so much muscle and is so weak. He has gained 1/4#. He can't walk a straight line. He falls over to either side. But, he can have good days too, he goes outside and crawls on his wood branches. One day he sat up and held a small piece of walnut in his paws. I was elated to see that! He can climb (with difficulty) or jump when he has to and fight you to death during force feedings. He'll dig in the dirt searching for his buried nuts. He can't eat them though. Can't hold the nut in his mouth. I worry he may need his teeth trimmed but don't know how long he can go before I need to have it done, nor can I do it. Yesterday I opened his window cuz temps got into the 70's. I went to the kitchen to fix his plate of food and when I got back, he was outside! He had just been sleeping! But he was so weak I had to pull him back through the window, he couldn't manage it himself.
So, we are back to the Calcium treatments for MBD. We started last night. He got approx 400mg over 3 hours and another 80mg 4 hours later. This am (7 hours later) was another 200mg approx. It's the only thing left we can think to try.
I found the MBD protocol posted by 4sqwerls. I was confused by it. I sent her a private message yesterday asking for clarification but no answer yet as of this writing.
It first says to crush one Tums or any Calcium pill and get that into him immediately. Doesn't say the dosage of the Tums. They come in different dosages. Anywhere from 200-1000mg.
Then it says to give 500mg over the course of the day.
Following that it says in bold letters to give initial dose of 500mg followed by 100mg every 4 hours.
A contradiction is there.
My question is: what should the initial dose be in mg? Don't just say crush up a Tums or Calcium pill and give it.
One sentence makes it sound like 500mg should be spread out over the day.
Second sentence sounds like first dose should be a wholloping 500mg followed by 100mg every 4 hours.
So which is it?
The MBD protocol is not specific enough for me to feel comfortable.
So, I'm asking for help on this MBD protocol. I did order the Henry's MBD Emergency Kit yesterday.
I believe Johnny may have had 2 grave health issues going on at the same time. We solved one but he's no better. He won't get out of bed in the morning and will sleep all day if I let him.
He's pooping and peeing very good. He wants to live or I think he'd be dead already.
I hope that my story may help someone else some day too.
Please clarify the protocol.
Apparently I could not add this to my thread from July of 2016 because I didn't want to repeat what was posted in that thread.
So I'm starting a new thread.
Thankyou!
I didn't want to start a new thread as my Johnny is sick again and I didn't want to repeat everything. I took "possible concussion" out of the title as that isn't the problem.
He recovered from his illness in July. He gained all his weight back and was back to his normal energetic self.
But the recovery only lasted until Dec 9th. Same symptoms as before, good one day, down the next.
He had never been treated for MBD in July, so his recovery could not be a result of any Calcium treatments as he did not have any except for one injection of only 20mg Calcium.
It was a $2,000.00 mystery but I was just happy he recovered even though I had no answers.
This time he declined much quicker. As it turned out, and only because of my own intuition, he had a UTI. In hindsight, he had this UTI since July!
But not just a UTI, a kidney infection, which is deadly.
The only reason he recovered from the July illness is because he had gotten so many different antibiotics over the course of a month.
But they were just enough to get him feeling better, not enough to eradicate the bacteria.
Even while he was "recovered", I noticed him drinking so much water, licking his mineral and salt licks excessively and urinating excessively.
The excessive urination was so pronounced that his entire body smelled like urine. All his fur, even his face. When I put my face into his body to sniff, it was a strong urine smell.
His room also had a strong urine smell and I found urine on the floor all around the couch and even the sides of the couch were saturated with urine.
I didn't know what to think of this. Was the excessive drinking and mineral cravings just a recovery process his body needed? That's what I thought because the mineral cravings and excessive water drinking eventually subsided.
Now I have a diagnosis! A UTI, with blood and Leukocytes in the urine but also large amounts of Glucose but no protein.
Then I started thinking he might be diabetic. There should never be glucose in the urine.
Blood work from July and Dec revealed a high Glucose in the 180-190 range. It was explained away by all Vets (5 of them!) as a stress response from being brought to the Vet and does anyone really know the normal range for a Squirrel anyway! One Vet convinced me that to have Glucose pour over into the urine, one would need a Blood Glucose in the 300 range. She was a Wildlife E.R. Doctor and I believed her.
But, before I knew there was a kidney infection, I started treating him for MBD just in case. That only lasted a few days until I found out about the UTI. He was put on an antibiotic called Zeniquin.
He only got 2 or 3 doses of it as it made him almost unresponsive. So off to the E.R. Vet who put him on TMP/SMZ for 14 days. I stopped the Calcium treatments because I thought it might interfere with antibiotic absorption.
I bought my own bottle of urine diagnostic dipsticks. His urine was improving with treatment! Finally I took in a good volume of urine for a urinalysis, culture and sensitivity. The results came back negative on his 14th day of treatment! So now the infection is cleared, no Glucose in the urine, Johnny is off the antibiotic but he's not improving. In fact, he's getting worse.
We think Johnny might have been Septic or at least mildly so. We learned from the tons of research we do on the internet that people who recover from Sepsis aren't just "cured". Apparently it can be so debilitating that it can take months to years for some people to recover. Sepsis depletes the body of everything! There are even support groups for people who are recovering from Sepsis.
So now we're thinking he's just so depleted of everything essential to life.
We've been searching the squirrel board for answers. Anything that sounds similar to Johnny.
Johnny has been force fed for almost 4 weeks now. He will not drink water on his own. He will however, eat in between force feedings. Avocados, Bananas, Pears, (Figs and Persimmon which is a rare find right now), Nectarines. It has to be soft food, nothing crunchy although he did eat a piece of Apple one day. However, he cannot hold his food. I have to hold it for him. He's very unsteady and can fall over backwards. We're thinking he's just lost so much muscle and is so weak. He has gained 1/4#. He can't walk a straight line. He falls over to either side. But, he can have good days too, he goes outside and crawls on his wood branches. One day he sat up and held a small piece of walnut in his paws. I was elated to see that! He can climb (with difficulty) or jump when he has to and fight you to death during force feedings. He'll dig in the dirt searching for his buried nuts. He can't eat them though. Can't hold the nut in his mouth. I worry he may need his teeth trimmed but don't know how long he can go before I need to have it done, nor can I do it. Yesterday I opened his window cuz temps got into the 70's. I went to the kitchen to fix his plate of food and when I got back, he was outside! He had just been sleeping! But he was so weak I had to pull him back through the window, he couldn't manage it himself.
So, we are back to the Calcium treatments for MBD. We started last night. He got approx 400mg over 3 hours and another 80mg 4 hours later. This am (7 hours later) was another 200mg approx. It's the only thing left we can think to try.
I found the MBD protocol posted by 4sqwerls. I was confused by it. I sent her a private message yesterday asking for clarification but no answer yet as of this writing.
It first says to crush one Tums or any Calcium pill and get that into him immediately. Doesn't say the dosage of the Tums. They come in different dosages. Anywhere from 200-1000mg.
Then it says to give 500mg over the course of the day.
Following that it says in bold letters to give initial dose of 500mg followed by 100mg every 4 hours.
A contradiction is there.
My question is: what should the initial dose be in mg? Don't just say crush up a Tums or Calcium pill and give it.
One sentence makes it sound like 500mg should be spread out over the day.
Second sentence sounds like first dose should be a wholloping 500mg followed by 100mg every 4 hours.
So which is it?
The MBD protocol is not specific enough for me to feel comfortable.
So, I'm asking for help on this MBD protocol. I did order the Henry's MBD Emergency Kit yesterday.
I believe Johnny may have had 2 grave health issues going on at the same time. We solved one but he's no better. He won't get out of bed in the morning and will sleep all day if I let him.
He's pooping and peeing very good. He wants to live or I think he'd be dead already.
I hope that my story may help someone else some day too.
Please clarify the protocol.
Apparently I could not add this to my thread from July of 2016 because I didn't want to repeat what was posted in that thread.
So I'm starting a new thread.
Thankyou!