Eastern Grey Squirrel having seizures..HELP!

[Carina]

I found Madeline at around 3 weeks of age she had a broken leg and a knot on her head so, most likely, she had a head injury. She is around 7 moths old now and has had 2 seizures, that I've noticed. One today and one 8 days ago. I don't think it's from MBD. She was raised on Fox valley and has been eating Hi Protein and Picky Blocks quite well so, I don't think it's from a calcium deficiency. Is there anything I can do to help her...Meds, etc?

[redwuff]

Are you sure she is eating them and not just hiding them? Sorry, I had to ask. I do not have much seizure experience, but there is a property in almonds that help control them. I believe it is magnesium but let me check.

[Carina]

I clean out her enclosure every few days. No she is not hiding them. She does tear them up and makes a mess with them but I give her several every day and she's not eating very much outside of the blocks. Poop and urine looks normal. Drinking plenty of water. Seems normal aside from having a spinning episodes that sometimes result in a seizure and then she sleeps.

[SammysMom]

Redwuff is correct, it is magnesium. Do you have access to a vet?

[Carina]

No, every vet I have spoken to here has told me that they won't treat squirrels, they will only euthanize them.

[Carina]

Do Tums have enough magnesium for the needed intake or should I give her Almonds? I was told by Henry's Pets that the squirrel blocks have everything she needs in them. I also give her Arugala/spring mix (lettuce). I've been removing the spinach from the mix. She also has been eating 2 raw green beans per day and 1 tiny bit of sweet potato, along with 5-7 blocks. I've been giving her extra blocks to make sure she's getting enough vitamin/mineral intake.

[SammysMom]

Not saying this is causing symptoms, but that is too many blocks. Two per day is sufficient. More is oversupplementation.
Give extra veggies for more food.
What part of tennessee?

[Carina]

Well, due to her tearing them up and making a mess. I was afraid that she wasn't actually consuming enough. Sometimes she'll eat broccoli or a green bean. I was told By Henry's Pets to give her salad (which she barely touches), a little bit a veggies from a list (of mostly things she won't eat), no fruit or nuts for a while and that blocks were enough for her to eat something nutritionally complete, and that she was probably consuming more than I thought she was. I've been giving her extra, just in case she wasn't eating them, (as per what Redwuff said) implying that she's not actually eating the blocks. I don't think it's MBD due to her not having any other symptoms aside from seizures and that seizures came in the later stages of MDB. She's only been off of Fox Valley Formula for about 2 months and has never had any problems, that I've noticed until 8 or 9 days ago. I was giving her Tums and started her on calcium powder mixed with a bit of yogurt, just to be sure for a while but she wouldn't take the yogurt mix at all, only the tums. I thought maybe, she was getting enough from the blocks now, (she likes the picky blocks) and stopped the extra calcium altogether, due to her getting extra blocks. I can give her a bit of a Tums and she will just take it and eat it, without issue. Should I start giving her those every day?

[Carina]

And Location is East Tn. Gatlinburg area.

[RockyPops]

Could you possibly get a video of her spinning and then seizure? And or pictures.

Was FV 20/50?

Do you have a weight on her?

Thank you for caring for your Madeline!

[island rehabber]

Carina, you are certainly being a careful and attentive squirrel mom. I do agree, however, that more than 3 blocks per day is excessive and the oversupplementation that results might actually cause an imbalance in her system. More than likely, though, the "knot on her head" when she came to you signified some mild brain damage and as she grew the seizures began. Try cutting back on the HHB's while offering her 2-3 raw almonds per day....if the seizures continue or worsten, she may need an anti-seizure med like Gabapentin. I had a seizure squirrel for 5 years and while in her particular case Gabapentin did not help, the almonds helped dramatically. I used to dust them with calcium powder "just in case" :grin2.

[Carina]

I have a few raw almonds and calcium powder so I'll give that a try. She will eat those without hesitation. Thanks for the help :) 313208

[redwuff]

Awww, she is beautiful:grouphug

[Carina]

Rocky Pop. I just saw your questions. No, I don't have a video of her doing it. I'll try to think of that next time. Her FV was 20/50. She was given Esbilac for 1 week and then had the FV 20/50 from 4 weeks until she weaned herself, around 5 months of age. I don't know her weight. I haven't weighed her for a long time. Since I stopped measuring out formula for her. She looks plump and healthy but I'm not an expert. Lots of energy. She's friendly and active. Everything seems normal. Back end looks good. She gets around just fine, climbs, jumps and explores. She gets several hours of of her enclosure everyday. I keep a UV light on her when she's awake in her enclosure. Everything played out for her as was to be expected from the information I could get on the internet as far as milestones go and suddenly this happened twice within the last 9 days. The 1st one was more intense than the 2nd and the 2nd one seemed to come in 2 waves, smaller but it hit her twice. My oldest child has epilepsy so I know what a seizure looks like. The first time, she was down from it a lot longer...exhausted and slept for about 8 hours before becoming playful again. This time she snapped back within an hour. I did add a picture of her just so everyone could see what she looks like. She's not skinny or drab looking. It was taken 2 days ago. I feel blessed to have her in my life and just want to help her if I can. I've fostered many puppies and kittens for the local shelter here so, I do have some experience with animals with problems and although she is similar to a cat she also has many differences, much more difficult to read and there's not a lot of outside help or info on the internet. The advice I got from a vet was to put her down and was told no one in my area sees wild animals. In my state she's considered the same as a rat and legal as a pet so, I don't get it? My daughter had 2 naked rats that were seen by a vet, what's the difference? I waited for her mother to come get her for over an hour. I couldn't just leave her there to die. Now she's my friend and I'm just trying to do right by her. Any advice is appreciated.

[RockyPops]

Thank you for the picture. She is indeed a beautiful young lady!

Please keep us updated on her condition.

[Mel1959]

I see you’re in eastern Tennessee. There is a rehabber in Memphis that may be able to assist with vet information and a vet in Chattanooga that sees squirrels. I will send you the info in a private message so you have it if needed.

Private messages are accessed from the notifications heading at the top of your screen.

Edit: Vet and rehabber contact info sent in case needed.

[lukaslolamaus]

Madeline is adorable.
There is a squirrel friendly vet in Chattanooga, TN, but I believe that is 3 hours from you.
A friend of mine is taking her squirrel to him and her squirre Lily has seizures.
I'll look him up and send you the info in a private message.

[lukaslolamaus]

I just glanced over the thread again, make sure that the calcium powder you have on hand doesn't contain vitamin D.
If the calcium is from Henry's it definitely doesn't has the added vitamin D

[CritterMom]

Well, given that she came in with a head injury, seeing seizures isn't that surprising. If she is actually eating all of those HHBs she is getting plenty of magnesium. I counter the tearing up of food by figuring 3 blocks = 2 consumed blocks... BTW, if you give her just 2 blocks a day now they will become more precious to her, and she will start going back and eating those pieces until there isn't much left but crumbs.

If you are looking for a calcium and magnesium supplement you need to investigate what Rolaids has rather than the Tums, which are just calcium plus flavors and binders. Rolaids have both calcium and magnesium. I don't know a lot about them - time to stand in the drug store reading labels. If you have a choice, do NOT get any mint flavors. Fruit is good but rodents don't like mint.

She is adorable.:grin2

[Carina]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help. She seems to be functioning normally today. I'll get in touch with the vet and see if I can't figure something out. I really appreciate the info.

[Carina]

Hi everyone. I just wanted to add a progress update to this thread. It's been 6 months since my last post. Madeline continued to have seizures, approximately once every 5-7 days after I last posted here, sometimes more intense than others. The duration was between 1-5 mins, sometimes as long as 10 mins. Monitoring her diet, adding calcium etc. didn't seem to make any difference. The research I did on seizure meds weren't very promising. Things like, "Your pet will never be the same. The meds take the light out of them and will not stop the seizures, they might help with frequency/intensity and they might not. Your pet will ultimately die from this". I don't have a Vet, within 300 miles, that's willing to see her and plenty that wouldn't even discuss seizure medication viability with me and said they wouldn't even put her down for me. I was told that UT would do it but due to her seizures, they'd cut her head off if I sent her there and test her for rabies. I work very erratic hours so, driving 300 miles is not really an option for me and knowing it might not even help, made it even less promising. The enclosure we had for her was about 6 sq ft and it had lots of levels, branches, toys etc to keep her entertained. Aside from when she was having a seizure, she seemed healthy and happy. Played with and chewed on things, hung out with the family and frolicked around. Her cage ended up presenting a problem with her seizures because she would get caught on things and hurt herself during her episodes. I read that you're not supposed to restrain them during seizures so this too, was somewhat of a dilemma. I would take her out and hold her loosely, with a small blanket, wore eye protection and a thick long sleeved shirt and was still scratched, plenty of times doing it. I kept a diary of every seizure (length and intensity) and diet changes on a calendar and mulled over "what to do?", constantly. I've rescued and fostered plenty of problem dogs and cats over the years and I didn't want to just give up on her. We started putting her in a clear tote and drilled air holes in the lid so she could go through it in there, without anyone getting hurt and that didn't work out either. She would just end up beating herself up in there. I would watch her and talk her through it and could easily tell when it was finally over but ultimately, it was a no-go. I decided to put her in a larger cage (a 1-3 cat enclosure that's about 15 sq.ft. and on casters) and took everything out of it except for 2 shelves at the top, small hut/house on one of those shelves, secured the hut so it couldn't tip over and padded the bottom of the cage with blankets. That way, if I happened to not be home when she had a seizure, there would be nothing for her to get caught/hurt on. 2 days in, with the big "Safer" cage, I walk in the door from work and she's seizing...The BIG ONE. Full on alligator rolls with spurts of running around in circles. Over and over, for almost 8 hours. I thought, "Surely, she was done for. Her brain would not be able to come back from this one." I almost had my husband put her down but we waited it out. Eventually, she stopped and slept. When she woke up, she seemed off, but that too, was pretty normal after an episode and just thought that she was out of it longer, due to it taking such a toll on her and just tried to be patient. She's always snapped back out of it. She just sat still, awake, staring. When I picked her up, she nuzzled me and let me know she was in there, somewhere, she just wasn't right...didn't feel well. She wouldn't eat or drink, didn't seem the least bit interested and after 2 days I got worried. Then I remembered that I still had a bag of unused formula in my freezer and decided to force some of that on her. It worked, she took it, greedily and she seemed to get better with time. Still tired and sort of out of it but she still had the will to live and would eat if I fed it to her. Then I realized that I had also bought protein and vitamin powders to make my own blocks with and that you use baby food for that so, I bought some baby food and started mixing the powders into it and feeding it to her with a syringe. I added pillows to the floor of her cage and around the walls of the bottom of it, securing the corners to the cage to keep them from flipping. She seemed better with every passing day and I was so worried about when the next one would hit her. She went back to her 5-7 day schedule and a few times, even made it to 9 days before seizing and for the most part were pretty short in duration. We also noticed that she had a tic, pushing her right hand out and back, almost all the time. Very much like you'd see from someone with neurological damage from a stroke, or something like that. We tried giving her food bits, blocks, nuts...all of it just seemed frustrate her. Like she really wanted to eat it, she just couldn't hold it still or find her mouth. She also started to turn a circle, every now and then, while eating from a syringe but everyday, she seemed a little better, more like herself so, we've just kept with it. I was talking about Maddie to someone at work one day and they told me that their sister gave her cat CBD oil for its seizures and that it worked well. I had seen the shops around town but really knew nothing about it and no one that I had talked to had suggested it but thought, "What does Maddie have to lose at this point?" I did a bit of research on it and found that with dogs and cats, it had about a 50% chance of working and to use only certified oils for best results...so they claimed. I read about how it works with the brain and it sounded like it had just as much potential as an Rx seizure drug, without the side effects and was easily available. "Probably just some snake oil nonsense but, I'll go check some of it out". I bought a small dropper bottle and discussed dosage with the clerk, deciding to buy the one for cats because it was the closest thing to her size available. We considered the weight difference and gave it a shot with her next feeding. May 16th 2020, 2 drops to 1 ounce of baby food. She was at her 6th day point of a seizure coming on, so we figured it was a good time to try it. She had a seizure, almost immediately after eating but it was tiny. Probably lasted about 5 seconds and she snapped right back out of it. The next feeding, the exact same thing happened and the next. I decided to up her dose the next time to 3 drops, to see if there would be any difference and that time, she didn't seize. We continued to give her the 3 drop dose since then and she's been much better. She still has a seizure every now and then but they're tiny. She hasn't had one, longer than 10 seconds since we started giving the CBD oil to her. Her hand tic has stopped, she gets around better and we've started trying to train her to feed herself a block now and then. She can hold on to it for a few seconds but then drops/loses it so she can't do it unassisted. Hopefully, someday, she'll be able to feed herself again. She doesn't hop around anymore, just walks around like a rat. Doesn't climb or frolic and is far from her old self but her light is still there. She still wants to be held and hang out and she's jumped a few times, lately so she's better than she was. I wish I had known about the oil, as an option sooner and would say to anyone with the same issue, should look into it and consider it as a serious option. It's been about 3 weeks since her last seizure and it was tiny. Almost unnoticeable. She might be having them when I'm not around, of course but she's better off now than she was before the oil. If anything changes I'll update again. Thanks