Lethargic 12 week old baby squirrel

[Kimberley]

All of a sudden the baby squirrel I’ve been caring for since he was about a week old has become very lethargic. He has slept for two day. He has only gotten up when I have picked him up and made him come out of his cage. Normally he runs around inside and on the screened in porch all day or in the yard if I’m out there working. He is still drinking a bottle and is taking that when I wake him up and give it to him. He drank his bottle better yesterday than he has today. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am worried sick about him. This is just not normal behavior.

[CritterMom]

All of a sudden the baby squirrel I’ve been caring for since he was about a week old has become very lethargic. He has slept for two day. He has only gotten up when I have picked him up and made him come out of his cage. Normally he runs around inside and on the screened in porch all day or in the yard if I’m out there working. He is still drinking a bottle and is taking that when I wake him up and give it to him. He drank his bottle better yesterday than he has today. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am worried sick about him. This is just not normal behavior.

Yes. He should be being fed with a 1ml syringe, not a bottle. It allows way too much milk to come through and he very likely has aspirated on it and has aspiration pneumonia now. Check your medicine cabinet and call all of your friends and see if anyone has any leftover antibiotics - not necessarily vet meds - I am talking about human antibiotics. Good ones to find will be Cipro or Amoxicillin clavulanate, but see what you can find. Come back and tell us what you have located. In order for us to help you to properly dilute the antibiotics and give you a correct dosage for him, we will need to know his weight, the size of the pill in milligrams, and YOU will need a 1ml syringe with clear markings. As I said, you also need some of these to feed him.