Help needed sedating squirrel to trim teeth! Valium dosage? Please help.

[mgee76]

Hello. We have a 1-year-old non-releasable male squirrel and we need to trim his teeth. In the past, we'd just burrito him and clip them, thanks to advice here, but now he is just a bit too squirrel-y and we don't want to traumatize him. We've tried the stuff to put on the ears, with little success. We don't want to take him into the vet again because the last time freaked him out quite a bit, and also it takes a ton of gas to put him under.

We have some Valium... what would be the proper dosage to just relax him to the point where we can snip his teeth quick? I don't know how much he weighs... he's a year old, healthy eater, big guy. I've read as much as I could here about Valium but my vet says not to use it. They won't give me anything else, though, so we're kinda determined to just give him a little bit and hope that it works?

What should we do?? Thanks.

[Nancy in New York]

Hello. We have a 1-year-old non-releasable male squirrel and we need to trim his teeth. In the past, we'd just burrito him and clip them, thanks to advice here, but now he is just a bit too squirrel-y and we don't want to traumatize him. We've tried the stuff to put on the ears, with little success. We don't want to take him into the vet again because the last time freaked him out quite a bit, and also it takes a ton of gas to put him under.

We have some Valium... what would be the proper dosage to just relax him to the point where we can snip his teeth quick? I don't know how much he weighs... he's a year old, healthy eater, big guy. I've read as much as I could here about Valium but my vet says not to use it. They won't give me anything else, though, so we're kinda determined to just give him a little bit and hope that it works?

What should we do?? Thanks.

Some people have successfully used Children's Benedryl to calm a squirrel while teeth trimming.
You would definitely need a weight or a photo of your little one to guesstimate the dose.
An accurate weight is always the safest way to go.

[mgee76]

Nancy, thank you!

It's difficult to weigh him... he doesn't really want to sit still on the scale. Tried giving him nuts and letting him sit there to eat them, but he prefers to eat his nuts away from other people, unless you surprise him with one at the right time, in which case he will sit wherever he is (often your forearm) and forget about the world.

He's a bit on the chubby side, maybe... I don't know. We keep him pretty well fed with lots of block and veggies.

He's basically a full-grown male Fox squirrel. Could anybody just suggest a dosage to me of anything that will let him relax while I trim his teeth so I am not constantly anxious? Thanks.

[mgee76]

Like could we just say he weighs a pound and start there? 500 grams. He probably weighs a little more, but that would put us on the safe side, right?

Very frustrated that the vet would not help us here... won't send home the preferred sedative out of fear that it could be abused. Like, this dude watched us cry while he put down another beloved squirrel of ours not two weeks ago. And he thinks we're trying to scam him for a squirrel-sized dose of some substance that we've never even heard of? Gah.

[Nancy in New York]

Like could we just say he weighs a pound and start there? 500 grams. He probably weighs a little more, but that would put us on the safe side, right?

Very frustrated that the vet would not help us here... won't send home the preferred sedative out of fear that it could be abused. Like, this dude watched us cry while he put down another beloved squirrel of ours not two weeks ago. And he thinks we're trying to scam him for a squirrel-sized dose of some substance that we've never even heard of? Gah.

I just sent you the dosing chart in a pm.

[mgee76]

Thank you! I am assuming you would suggest the Benadryl over the Valium?

[Nancy in New York]

Thank you! I am assuming you would suggest the Benadryl over the Valium?
I'm only suggesting to maybe try Benadryl since your vet suggested against valium,
and some on the board have used it successfully when trimming teeth.

[mgee76]

OK. We'll give it a try tonight and see how it goes.

The vet didn't have a great reason for being against Valium... said he himself would never take it, and that he wouldn't give it to any animal after a dog had a bad reaction (although he also mentioned that the dog was on a lot of other things). Anybody have Valium dosages, should the Benadryl not work?

[Nancy in New York]

OK. We'll give it a try tonight and see how it goes.

The vet didn't have a great reason for being against Valium... said he himself would never take it, and that he wouldn't give it to any animal after a dog had a bad reaction (although he also mentioned that the dog was on a lot of other things). Anybody have Valium dosages, should the Benadryl not work?

From the rat guide.

http://ratguide.com/meds/central_nervous_system_drugs/diazepam.php

[mgee76]

Thank you! Sorry I'm so needy.

[mgee76]

This is Grover, the little man in question.

So we went to try last night... and I don't know. Maybe his teeth are OK and we are overreacting? It has been months since we trimmed them last time. He had an underbite initially as a baby, and one of his top teeth were snaggled. But they sorta looked OK to me... the bottom teeth were a little long looking, but...

I guess we're stumped. If his teeth need trimmed, that's something that has to be done every few weeks, right?

If he's gone months without his teeth being trimmed, should they not be poking into the top of his mouth by now? We saw no evidence of this. Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture. We can take some if that would help. I guess we're just worried and maybe overreacting.

If his teeth are OK, I sorta want him to lead a normal life... but he's almost too friendly. I would be so worried about him. I'd have to take him to like a state park or something.

Ack. Sorry. I found a picture of his teeth from before when we were doing this... sorta look the same as now. Wish I had a better handle on what's 'too long'. Thanks.

[SammysMom]

If it has been months since they were trimmed, they don't look bad to me. Others may have more info, but I do have one who has to have his trimmed periodically, but not regularly. :dono

[island rehabber]

They really don't look bad to me, either. However, a frontal shot of all four toofers - preferably with a dowel or pencil behind them to hold his mouth open a bit, is the really best way to assess whether teeth are too long. When you pull down a squirrel's lower lip, the lower teeth ALWAYS look humungously long -- when they're actually ok. You have to see how they meet up with the uppers.