Healthy fur - NR squirrel looking a bit baldy!

[uksquirrelfriend]

Hi everyone, I have a male NR (neurologically damaged) grey squirrel, approximately 1 year old now. He had a bald patch on his back which has now regrown beautiful healthy fur, however he now has another baldy patch on his leg - there is no sign of it growing back like the fur on his back. He has been treated for fleas and worms and is not experiencing any discomfort (no scratching etc). He is otherwise in excellent health, just a little scruffy looking! I was wondering if there was anything I could feed him to promote healthy hair growth? He has a very healthy diet following the food pyramid. If you could suggest products available in the UK (I.e. not Henry’s!!!) I would be so grateful. Thanks so much!

[redwuff]

Can you post a picture of him please? We have occasionally had issues with hair loss. I suspect mites that come from tree branches brought in. We use revolution which you can order from Joe’s Pet Meds without a prescription.

Does your boy get a rodent block? Diet is everything when keeping a squirrel. If you let us know what he eats in a detail list we can let you know what, if anything, needs to be tweaked. A bad diet will cause injury or death to a squirrel. It is that important.

We would love to hear his background story.:grouphug

[uksquirrelfriend]

320215

This is Stan, sorry this isn’t the best picture I have of him but it’s the best photo I can get of his baldy leg! Thanks so much for your reply.

He is on Mazuri rat and mouse block (the only block I seem to be able to find in the UK unfortunately) supplemented with spinach, tomatoes, brocolli, occasional grapes and blueberries. He has around 2 nuts a day (walnut in shell or almond) as a treat. He also has a calcium supplement in his water. He is very well in himself apart from the baldness!

He was treated for fleas etc about a month ago, not sure if I should treat him again? I use kitten spot on flea formula by Johnson’s. A squirrel rehabber on Instagram recommended a little coconut oil for the baldness- he absolutely loves it and he’s only had it a few days, but it would be great to get a second opinion. I ended up with Stan around 9 months ago, we found him barely moving after he fell out of a tree as a juvenile squirrel, we took him in and tried to get him to someone to rehab him but no one would take him (the UK is an awful place to be a grey squirrel). Honestly my partner and I were both convinced he would die overnight but he has gone from strength to strength. He has long lasting neurological symptoms, but nothing that gets him down. He has a lovely temperament and we both love him to pieces.


Can you post a picture of him please? We have occasionally had issues with hair loss. I suspect mites that come from tree branches brought in. We use revolution which you can order from Joe’s Pet Meds without a prescription.

Does your boy get a rodent block? Diet is everything when keeping a squirrel. If you let us know what he eats in a detail list we can let you know what, if anything, needs to be tweaked. A bad diet will cause injury or death to a squirrel. It is that important.

We would love to hear his background story.:grouphug

[uksquirrelfriend]

320216

Here is a bit of a better picture of him!



Can you post a picture of him please? We have occasionally had issues with hair loss. I suspect mites that come from tree branches brought in. We use revolution which you can order from Joe’s Pet Meds without a prescription.

Does your boy get a rodent block? Diet is everything when keeping a squirrel. If you let us know what he eats in a detail list we can let you know what, if anything, needs to be tweaked. A bad diet will cause injury or death to a squirrel. It is that important.

We would love to hear his background story.:grouphug

[redwuff]

So glad to hear he is eating block and that you realize how important the diet is. When you feed a rodent block, be aware that it should be appropriately 70% of his diet. I have a recipe to make ‘boo balls’ out of the Mazuri if you are interested. I would cut down to an occasional nut versus two a day.

Thanks so much for doing such a great job with him. Very sad to be a grey squirrel in the uk.

It does take time to grow hair back in. If he is dealing with mites his hair loss will increase. I don’t think the flea tx will touch mites. But give the flea treatment time to see if it works and his problem was fleas.

He is a pretty boy. What are his neurological deficits?

[uksquirrelfriend]

Thank you so much for your reply and for your kind words about him - thanks for your input on his diet too, I’ll cut his nuts back (and I would definitely be interested in hearing the boo ball recipe for him!) I’m going to try treating him for fleas again and will see how we go… the baldness on his leg doesn’t appear to be getting any worse (it’s been about the same for a few weeks) but I think anything is worth a try at this stage. In terms of his neuro issues, he’s made a huge recovery - when we first had him he could barely move his back legs at all, then once he recovered use of those he did the dreaded spinning in circles which almost always signals the end (most folks say, anyway!) but now he’s just generally a bit wobbly. He can really get around as fast as any squirrel, but he does sometimes bump into things and his jumping really isn’t great, we have to make sure he doesn’t fall from places, we’re just generally quite careful with him. He just overall doesn’t have the best co-ordination (he kind of lists to one side? Not all the time, some days are better than others, we have got to know when he’s having a wonky day!) but he gets around very well and enjoys life.



So glad to hear he is eating block and that you realize how important the diet is. When you feed a rodent block, be aware that it should be appropriately 70% of his diet. I have a recipe to make ‘boo balls’ out of the Mazuri if you are interested. I would cut down to an occasional nut versus two a day.

Thanks so much for doing such a great job with him. Very sad to be a grey squirrel in the uk.

It does take time to grow hair back in. If he is dealing with mites his hair loss will increase. I don’t think the flea tx will touch mites. But give the flea treatment time to see if it works and his problem was fleas.

He is a pretty boy. What are his neurological deficits?