3 month old squirrel diarrhea for 4 days

[melobryan]

I don’t know what else to do! I rescued my squirrel (Miracle) when she was just a day or two old and have not had any issues until now. I have been feeding her Ebsilac puppy formula with the blue label since the day I found her. After she opened her eyes I started giving her rodent block(Henry’s) after she was eating that well I introduced other foods to her diet including: broccoli, sugar snap peas, grapes, cauliflower, blueberries, apple, kale (which she didn’t like) romaine lettuce, and an occasional nut and she was still drinking the formula a few times a day. About 4 days ago she developed diarrhea, my first thought was that she had eaten too much, so I stopped everything and just gave her homemade rehydration solution for the rest of the day. Her poop became a little firmer but was still runny. Her poop was a dark brown color. The next day I gave her just the formula and the poop changed to a dark green and then yellow, with mucous. I tried the rehydration solution again, but her poops were still mucousy and runny. She was very lethargic and after multiple episodes of diarrhea her bottom was sore and she was dragging it across the bottom of the cage like she was trying to get the poop off. Friday I took her to see the vet and she said she was just mildly dehydrated and thought it could be a parasite. She prescribed her metronidazole, reglan every 12 hours and acidophilus once daily. The vet also wanted me to start her on a formula for critically ill omnivores and feed it every 8-10 hours. She did take a stool sample to test for parasites but said they would not have the results until Monday. That day Miracle took her medicine without any protest and ate every bit of the formula the vet prescribed and that night she took the medicine great and ate the formula. She perked back up that evening and ran around and even played a little. Saturday morning she refused to eat the formula the vet prescribed and I had to force her to take the medicine. I was able to get her to take 8-10 cc’s of pedialyte and that evening she drank about 5-6 cc’s of the Ebsilac. I also gave her a couple slices of apple and banana and she gobbled them right up. Later on in the evening on Saturday she perked up a little and played some, but she is still not 100%. The stools are still not solid, they are brown and slightly runny. I just want to be sure I am doing everything right and not missing something important. I have pictures of her poop if anyone needs to see it. Please help me I have become so attached to her and I would be devastated if anything happened to her.

[melobryan]

Here are pictures of her poop, the last one is the most recent taken just a few minutes ago.

[island rehabber]

Poor girlie! If her poops are slowly starting to look normal I would continue doing as you are doing -- sometimes these things do take days to get out of a baby's system. Make sure she is hydrated at all times; even the mildest diarrhea can really dehydrate these little guys badly and that sets off a chain of events you don't want. If her poops turn normal color (brown/black but are still a bit soft you can try giving her a drop of Kaopectate every 12 hrs for one day, just to firm things up. Kao does not cure anything; it merely stops the runs so that the animal can become re-hydrated properly.

Glad she's on metro. IF you continue to have problems and the poops go yellowish and with a sickeningly sweet odor, we have to think about coccidia. (No one ever wants to think about coccidia, but there it is.) You would need different meds for that. But hang in there, hydrate, and keep hoping she continues to improve. :great

[melobryan]

Poor girlie! If her poops are slowly starting to look normal I would continue doing as you are doing -- sometimes these things do take days to get out of a baby's system. Make sure she is hydrated at all times; even the mildest diarrhea can really dehydrate these little guys badly and that sets off a chain of events you don't want. If her poops turn normal color (brown/black but are still a bit soft you can try giving her a drop of Kaopectate every 12 hrs for one day, just to firm things up. Kao does not cure anything; it merely stops the runs so that the animal can become re-hydrated properly.

Glad she's on metro. IF you continue to have problems and the poops go yellowish and with a sickeningly sweet odor, we have to think about coccidia. (No one ever wants to think about coccidia, but there it is.) You would need different meds for that. But hang in there, hydrate, and keep hoping she continues to improve. :great



Will the kaopectate react with the reglan she is currently taking, just want to make sure it will be okay to give it too.

[island rehabber]

Will the kaopectate react with the reglan she is currently taking, just want to make sure it will be okay to give it too.

I'm sorry, I missed it the first time when you said she was on reglan. The side effects of Reglan include....diarrhea. I wouldn't use the Kao, then.

[cava]

Why did the vet give her reglan? It's generally used for patients with slow gastric emptying. It increases the rate at which the stomach pushes food out into the intestines and it seems like your vet should not be increasing motility when she already has diarrhea.

I am not a vet and you should follow his/her directions but it wouldn't hurt to call and ask for the rationale and if you could discontinue it for a day or so to see if that helps improve the situation. Your one poo looks like chewed up banana, like it just went straight through.