Skin disorder worsening, losing mobility

[sue.silber]

I have had a 2 -3 week old baby squirrel for a week. At first there appeared to be nothing wrong with him. After 2 days a wound (looked like a scratch) appeared on his leg. I brought him to a vet the next day, when the wound got a large scab on it as well as bare spots starting to occur on his back. The vet said the injury appeared to be healing. I asked about possible parasites and using LimePlus dip, but she said the squirrel was too young. She gave me an antibiotic cream, silver sulfadiazine, to apply to the scabbed area. It got worse within a day.

I tried rinsing it with Betadine a few times a day and the scab fell off after a day or two. Now the area is larger and starting to scab over again. The wound appears to be deeper and the squirrel is not using the leg as well as the other (appear to be stiffening up). There also appear to be scabs forming on the edge of the bare areas on his back. (See attached photo)

Please help with any ideas you may have.

Thank you.

[RockyPops]

Thanks sue for helping this baby!

Keep checking back here for help. Someone with knowledge will check in soon.

Poor little thing.

Does baby have a name?

[HRT4SQRLS]

Wow Sue. That looks real bad. The area on the side almost looks fungal, like ringworm but the leg looks very infected (bacterial). Even so, I’m sure both infections are related. Do you have any human antibiotics? He needs systemic antibiotics ASAP. Silver sulfadiazine is excellent for superficial things but this has gone way past that. This doesn’t look typical but from the way it’s progressing it might be MRSA.

Any antibiotics?

[HRT4SQRLS]

I need to step away but I would recommend treating with either Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxizole (Septra, Bactrim), Clindamycin or even a tetracycline class drug like doxycycline. These are antibiotics that would be effective for wound pathogens including MRSA.

Clavamox and Baytril would not be effective if this is MRSA.

[sue.silber]

I know this has been a while since I asked for advice. Thank you for your ideas. As it turns out, I did treat the round area with an antifungal (human) and it has cleared up finally with new fur coming in. With the sore on his leg, I treated it with a human antibiotic cream, after gently removing the pus that was in the wound. That too has healed and he's now ready for release in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for your help!

[HRT4SQRLS]

Thanks for the update Sue. It is always good to know how things turned out. It can be a helpful reference for others in the future.
I’m so happy that your baby will get to the trees. :dance