Feeding

[tori_theanimallover]

My Ember is 5 weeks old. She has aspiration pneumonia and has been on antibiotics since Monday the 18th. she is doing a lot better, active, eyes open, squeaks. But when I feed her she gags and has trouble catching her breath. I feed her extremely slowly and 1 cc takes me 10-13 minutes. Im trying to figure out how I can prevent this. I feed her at the right angle and slowly but she still does it sometimes with the smallest drop. is there anyway to prevent this or when she is feeling better and not sneezing anymore will it be easier for her to breathe and eat

[Nancy in New York]

My Ember is 5 weeks old. She has aspiration pneumonia and has been on antibiotics since Monday the 18th. she is doing a lot better, active, eyes open, squeaks. But when I feed her she gags and has trouble catching her breath. I feed her extremely slowly and 1 cc takes me 10-13 minutes. Im trying to figure out how I can prevent this. I feed her at the right angle and slowly but she still does it sometimes with the smallest drop. is there anyway to prevent this or when she is feeling better and not sneezing anymore will it be easier for her to breathe and eat

Take a look at this thread and see if this is what she's doing, watch the video.
https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?47006-Squirrel-doing-quot-guppy-mouthed-quot-breathing-VIDEO&highlight=guppy

[tori_theanimallover]

thank you so much. that makes me feel a lot better, I was getting so worried that her pneumonia would come back and I was doing something wrong

[Nancy in New York]

thank you so much. that makes me feel a lot better, I was getting so worried that her pneumonia would come back and I was doing something wrong

So it looks like she is doing the "guppy mouth"?

[tori_theanimallover]

So it looks like she is doing the "guppy mouth"?

absolutely I can try and record her doing it later so you can confirm its that

[Nancy in New York]

absolutely I can try and record her doing it later so you can confirm its that

Well if you saw the video and your little one is only doing this while feeding,
I suspect that is exactly what you are seeing.
It will scare the **** out of you unless you know it's just the "guppy" mouth.

[tori_theanimallover]

Well if you saw the video and your little one is only doing this while feeding,
I suspect that is exactly what you are seeing.
It will scare the **** out of you unless you know it's just the "guppy" mouth.


only when I fed her, yup. and it did my heart drops, I thought it was she couldn't breathe. I think you are right. thank you for all your help

[CritterMom]

I used to do my best Rod Serling voice when I fed my boy P - "We are now entering the Formula Zone." I think they are all individuals, but what worked with P was making him FOCUS and the best thing I found was to pull the nipple out of his mouth and bop him on top of the head with the syringe - not hard (!!) but just a new, unexpected stimulus to shake him out of that "zone" seemed to work and I would get him to nurse normally for a while before he started it again and got another head bop. :shakehead

[tori_theanimallover]

I used to do my best Rod Serling voice when I fed my boy P - "We are now entering the Formula Zone." I think they are all individuals, but what worked with P was making him FOCUS and the best thing I found was to pull the nipple out of his mouth and bop him on top of the head with the syringe - not hard (!!) but just a new, unexpected stimulus to shake him out of that "zone" seemed to work and I would get him to nurse normally for a while before he started it again and got another head bop. :shakehead

thats a good idea ill try that. thank you!