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Snipe
03-27-2019, 01:35 PM
Been a while since I have been here
In the last 30 years of dealing with wild Eastern Greys I have had about 8 over the years with a condition I call tilting and I now have another one.
It always starts the exact same way, first you notice when they approach you they Can't look straight up at you, they have to tilt their head and look at you out of the corner of their eye, within a day or two you start noticing that when sitting and eating a nut they won't sit like a normal squirrel but more stretched upward like a meercat, whenever they try and sit normally they will keep falling to one side and try to constantly catch their balance, every now and then they will just give up and just down on their side and finish eating the nut, when running they slightly run at an angle like the ass end is trying pass up the front.
Several years ago I had a guy suggest that it may Raccoon Roundworm but couldn't give me any suggestion other then trying Ivermectin paste from the feed store, but he couldn't give me any dosing information so I didn't use any .
I'd appreciate any suggestions so I can help this latest one, the ones in the past lasted several months after they started showing the above symptoms but had a pretty hard go at life since they constantly miss jumps being their balance and judgement seems impaired.

Thanks

CritterMom
03-27-2019, 02:46 PM
If they had raccoon roundworm they will die very soon after you start to see the "off" behavior. I, too, have a number of "tilty" squirrels and I believe they recognize their disabilities, recognize that my place is where the easy and yummy chow is found, and they tend to hang around and become regulars until it feels like all I have is slightly neurologically damaged squirrels!

I believe that the ones that clearly are NOT dying are likely fall victims. Squirrels fall way more than most people think - I live right on the edge of a woods and watch this all the time. In fact one of my first up-close squirrel experiences was cleaning up the area under one of my big oak trees, on my hands and knees on the ground next to it. A squirrel fell from way, way up, and landed on my back so hard it drive me face down in the dirt and flattened me - I thought someone came up behind me and hit me with something until he hopped delicately off (didn't land, delicately, I can tell you that) and scampered, perfectly unhurt, back up the tree. But those that don't have a human body to break their falls hit limbs and everything else on the way down, and can do a lot of neurological damage in the process.

I just try very hard to get good, nutritious food and clean water into them on the premise that if I can fill their tummies they will just go home and sleep where it is safe instead of exposing themselves foraging for food. I have had some of my tilties for a long time.

Snipe
03-27-2019, 06:54 PM
I just try very hard to get good, nutritious food and clean water into them on the premise that if I can fill their tummies they will just go home and sleep where it is safe instead of exposing themselves foraging for food. I have had some of my tilties for a long time.

Thanks
Feeding her is no problem, She comes in early every morning and I go out and distract the others from bothering her so I can give her the biggest nuts.
I've had several over the years and they have lasted anywhere from a couple months to a year or more, it's just tough watching them constantly trying to catch themselves from falling over, I was hoping it was something that could be fixed