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View Full Version : nervous systemproblem?+tic or something now detached



beardedyoungman
08-04-2007, 04:46 PM
Hello,
Me and my friend found a red squirrel on a path in the forrest near his house.
It came into my sight while I was running after his dog. The squirrel was in the middle of doing a 2 foot back flip and kicking crazilly in the dogs direction as the dog went towards it.
At first we figured the dog attacked him before we got to them and was coming back for an other attack so I ran strait up before the dog did anything I saw. The squirrel has no cuts or anything else visible on the srface if the dog did attack him. The squirrel rolled over and was kicking and fliping around on the ground kind of like break dancing and we could quickly see it was his spine or right back leg hurting. We were coming right back to his house and thought we should bring it to see if we could find what was wrong. This was on tuesday evening.
We saw some strange sac on his head I thought was a tick but it was the same corour as the skin and looked like part of it, so we thought it was a tumor or a growth that might be causing neuroligical problems but it turned out to be some tic creature that fell off on friday.

Either way he got his brian sucked and I think this might be the main problem as he(I think it's a he but don't know how to tell yet really) is doing a lot better.
We were leaving a little after we found him and figgured if we called animal controll or something they'd just kill him so we figured we'd get his(my friends) mom to check up on him till we got back and let nature tell us what to do next. We tried giving him some granolla just to see if he'd eat and he ate like crazy! Seems to want to eat constantly and might still be a little young.
He seemed better the next day and so I took him to my house.

I would have gotten help earlier but didn't know what to do... I've just ben giving him water from a seringe thing which he also can't stop taking while I'm giving it! I gave him a bowl of nuts and sunflower and pumkin seeds but he doesn't seem to bother with the pumkin seeds.
So at this point I have him outside in a big screen tent where he can run around and has a drit bath incase he needs it, as he urinated on his leg and was all wet from me soaking it off with the seringe.
It's hard to tell if he can see well also, if he's gets dizzy when moving arond or if he's just scared and panics.

Each day he's getting better although he sleeps a lot or lays on one side. He still seems in a lot of pain. He can walk now a little but reverts to rolling when he's scared. He can do flips and stuff so it's really hard to tell if it's the right leg or his back and I don't want to hurt anything. I was reading around abit hear before posting and saw an other post in the life threatinging forum that was a simillar leg problem from someone near ottawa and I live near there also so if he was sucsessfull at finding help that could be usefull.
The tents not strong so if he gets stronger he can just tear out of it.. lot of cats around though so I don't want to let him out untill he's better. I live with my parents and they don't mind him out there really but probably won't want me building some crazy thing for him if he gets stronger and they don't want him to riun the tent probably. I don't want him getting ou if he's not well either...

Sorry that was like a book, I think that's all I can tell right now.. So any help would be great.

LynninIN
08-04-2007, 05:02 PM
Two questions:

Can you take pictures of the squirrel and post them? It would help to determine age and extent of injury.

If this squirrel needs a rehab specialist are you willing to give the squirrel to them?

LynninIN
08-04-2007, 05:13 PM
Does anyone know who the rehabber was in Ontario that davidwaghorn took his squirrel to? It was mid July. His post is in the ER thread.

Mars
08-04-2007, 05:30 PM
This is an international list of Wildlife rehabilitaors including one's hopefully in your area of Canada. Hope this is helpful. :)

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactI.htm

I'm guessing the sac you discribe on it's head may have been a Bot fly. Check this thread for more info and for pics to help ID it. Pics of your little one would be helpful.

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2767

Chances are good your red took a fall and landed on his head and spine. Such injuries are common in squirrels. With some help and TLC it sounds like this one has a good chance at a complete recovery.

Thank you for caring enough to make the rescue. :bowdown We are here to help as best we can. :Welcome

Pam
08-04-2007, 05:32 PM
I wonder if this could be tick paralysis from the tick. Did you see the dog attack the squirrel? Has the squirrel improved since the tick came off of the squirrel? If the squirrel was suffering from tick paralysis, it should be showing signs of improvement. The paralysis usually goes away within 24 hours of tick removal.

Pam
08-04-2007, 05:34 PM
Sorry...I misunderstood...it was not a tick.

beardedyoungman
08-04-2007, 05:47 PM
I would be willing to give him to someone who can help although I'm also willing to help it if I can. I don't want to keep him but I don't mind him hanging around after he recovers if he's got anything permanint. Although I don't want him to suffer if it's really bad. I have lots of time to care for him now so that's not a problem.
I can take pics and am planning to(of the tic also to see if it's a tic as I still have it in a container) but I have to get them devloped as it's a film camera.. so it won't be done until monday probably..

Some things I should maybe add.
He wakes up and eats like crazy while crawling and rolling around then burns out and sleeps. While he's sleeping his eyes are part open at times and his right leg twitches a lot and I worry but when he wakes up he stretches his legs and back and looks pretty happy. I think maybe he's just lazy partly after getting his brain sucked by that bug:shakehead

His spine and ribs are very pointy and sticking out. I'm kind of worried about him eating so much but I don't know how squirrels act really.. I'm kind of paniced in a way so sorry I'm rambling. I'm just trying to read as much as I can about them so I don't do anything wrong.

Thanks

Pam
08-04-2007, 05:52 PM
Does the "tick" that you have in the container look like the pictures from the bot fly thread that Mars posted?

beardedyoungman
08-04-2007, 05:55 PM
Also it's not a bot fly, the sac it's self came off his head once it filled with bood and it's a creepy little thing. It looks like a sunflower seed with a little head and legs at the tip of one end that just drag the "seed" looking body around. It ended up almost 1cm long when it came off.

Pam
08-04-2007, 05:59 PM
It sounds like a tick that was full of blood.

Mars
08-04-2007, 06:00 PM
I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Check your little one's stool. They should be small solid and dry pellets. Anything esle could be a clue to something wrong. Other good things to feed him would be greens such as collard, chard or spinach. You can also add some fruit. He would enjoy blueberries, grapes and perhaps some melon. Or dried fruit such as raisens and dried cranberries. He may like some hard boiled egg ( and you can leave the shell on for added calcium ) and meal worms for the pet store. Leav out plenty of fresh water in a shallow bowl changed daily. Make sure he is drinking from it. You can add a drop or so of grape juice to sweeten the water (not enough to flavor it ) to get his attention and hopefully drinking from the bowl if he is ignoring it. Otherwise you may need to give him fluids by hand. Watermelon is a good source of water and he may eat that, too.

Pam
08-04-2007, 06:02 PM
If the little squirrel's "dragging" around and laying on its side is from the tick, then it should be much improved within 24 hours. If it is having symptoms after 24 hours then I would guess injury like Mars mentioned.

beardedyoungman
08-04-2007, 06:19 PM
K, thanks so much for all this help so fast!
I found an email address and also a phone number of someone at the spca that specializes in squirrels so I guess I should get in contact with them regardless? or will they for sure want to take him.
The tick fell off two days ago now I think so I don't know. I didn't even know the dog was on the path we were walking while I ran up and he was coming out of the bush towards the squirrel, not in an agressive way so it's hard to tell but this dog has attacked a bird before in that bush. I don't know, I would have fallen out of a tree if I was getting my brain sucked like that
I noticed you guys don't have pics of tics in the bug section or anything like this so I'll be sure to get one.

Buddy'sMom
08-04-2007, 06:54 PM
:Welcome :Welcome It's admirable that you are going to such lengths to help this little squirrel!! :thumbsup :grouphug

Pam
08-04-2007, 07:18 PM
Here's a couple of pictures of ticks. The bottom one is called a Paralysis Tick.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/66/Soft_tick%2C_carios_kelleyi.jpg/200px-Soft_tick%2C_carios_kelleyi.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ixodes_holocyclus.jpg/250px-Ixodes_holocyclus.jpg

beardedyoungman
08-05-2007, 04:01 PM
Thanks so much for all this suport:thankyou

He doesn't seem all that great today.. He's mostly rolling around until he passes out, wakes up stretches, rolls around. I wonder if all the rolling around like that is good or if he's just panicing.
It wasn't much like those ticks, the legs are more to the front, it's legs were almost attachd to it own head.. I overestimated the quality of my camera lenses and it's too small to focus so I don't know if the pics I got will turn out.

He can't seem to gt to the water dish and I don't want him to fall in as when he rolls around he doesn't know where he's going so I think I'll have to keep giving it in the seringe thing. He didn't seem to eat much today at all mostly sleep. But he ate so much yesterday I thought his stomach was going to explode:shakehead

Pam
08-05-2007, 04:11 PM
http://www.tickinfo.com/

This is a good site that might help you identify the tick that was on the squirrel.

Pam
08-05-2007, 05:39 PM
beardedyoungman, I'm not a rehabber, and I do not know anything about red squirrels. Maybe a rehabber will give you some more advice about this squirrel. I believe Mars gave you some valuable info yesterday. I was just suggesting the tick paralysis because I have had a dog with it before and the symptoms were identical.

beardedyoungman
09-19-2007, 09:32 AM
Just wanted to let you all know that the squirrel is doing good.
He was off balance for a long time and couldn't sit up, he'd just roll over on his back when he grabbed food and tred to sit up. He got really fat on green pine cones and fruit and now he's running and jumping really well, doing little bits of climbing, back down to a normal looking size with all the exercise :D
Still falls over some times when he eats. Don't know if we'll let him free before winter yet as he can't really climb well but he's doing good. I read that they're solitary and very defencive and he tries to attack when he sees you. It's actually pretty scary.
Just to say thanks again too for helping me figgure out what to do :)

Mars
09-19-2007, 09:38 AM
Looks like you may have your friend for the winter. Releasing much later in the year will mean he does not have time to store food. Can you provide a warm nest box with lot's of warm bedding?? That , food and fresh water is what you need to keep a one outside safe all winter. If you release soon can you continue to support feed? Just to make sure he has the food stores he needs to make it through the winter? :)

beardedyoungman
09-21-2007, 10:47 AM
Ya I was going to make a nesting box and we have lots extra wood to make a temorary larger incloser if he's still here. I have the feeling he's not going to be climbing well before winter though.

Buddy'sMom
09-21-2007, 10:55 AM
You might want to check out this thread on nestboxes and release cages for some ideas and plans: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4362

You may need to adapt a design to keep him from climbing higher than he can manage safely, but there are lots of designs and ideas.

:grouphug