metronidazole for wild squirrel with eye injury

[fernthesquirrel]

Hello squirrel friends. One of my favorite backyard squirrels Vinnie has a nasty eye injury. Probably from a fight with another squirrel. His cornea is pretty badly scratched. He's had it for a bit and stopped coming around when the injury was really fresh but now he is regularly back - however the eye still looks pretty nasty. I happen to have a single 250mg metronidazole pill from a kind soul on here that I didn't end up having to use for my now released rescue girl. I am wondering if I can just mix the ground-up metro into some boo balls and feed them to my sweet little friend. He comes around a lot and is quite tame so I should have little trouble hand-feeding him a boo ball or two a day. Any thoughts on dosing? Based on his size I think he is probably 600 grams maybe a bit bigger. I was thinking of mixing the pill with boo ball ingredients and covering it with ground nuts, maybe make 5-7 of them and feed them once a day? Would making more and trying to feed them twice a day be better? Any suggestions are welcome!!

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hello squirrel friends. One of my favorite backyard squirrels Vinnie has a nasty eye injury. Probably from a fight with another squirrel. His cornea is pretty badly scratched. He's had it for a bit and stopped coming around when the injury was really fresh but now he is regularly back - however the eye still looks pretty nasty. I happen to have a single 250mg metronidazole pill from a kind soul on here that I didn't end up having to use for my now released rescue girl. I am wondering if I can just mix the ground-up metro into some boo balls and feed them to my sweet little friend. He comes around a lot and is quite tame so I should have little trouble hand-feeding him a boo ball or two a day. Any thoughts on dosing? Based on his size I think he is probably 600 grams maybe a bit bigger. I was thinking of mixing the pill with boo ball ingredients and covering it with ground nuts, maybe make 5-7 of them and feed them once a day? Would making more and trying to feed them twice a day be better? Any suggestions are welcome!!

Hello FerntheSquirel:
I'm sorry that you have not had any responses to your thread yet! I am at work but had an unexpected lull and access to a computer and checked TSB and noticed your post. What are you noticing regarding the condition of Vinnie's eye condition and specifically why you believe he has sustained a corneal "scratch?" These may appear as nonsense questions but of course we are not there and photos would definitely be helpful if available; but a detailed description would also be very advantageous. First of all, if all was ideal in nature, this would not have happened but the issues seem to be that since Vinnie has a significant eye injury could lead to blindness or decreased visual acuity which obviously would put Vinnie at increased risk for predators or other injuries while also causing significant discomfort in the process; my impression would be that this is an emergency. My recommendation above all other (again this would be in an ideal world) would be for Vinnie to be seen immediately by a Veterinary Ophthalmologist! An ophthalmologist is a physician specializing in the eye and yes, there are Veterinary Ophthalmologists! This is difficult as many do not see wildlfe but some do Please refer to this thread for an example: ( https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?68891-Has-anyone-seen-this-eye-condition-before ). If Vinnie was a captive Squirrel it would be easier but trapping is an option. I would hope that this avenue of intervention would be available to Vinnie but probably not. I would like to encourage you to try if at all possible.

In regard to use of Metronidazole; this is an antibiotic that is usually used for treating a what are called anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that do not require oxygen to grow) which can cause very severe infections and is commonly used for abscesses and abdominal infections. What would be ideal for treating corneal injuries would be a topical antibiotic that is applied directly to the injured part) formulated specifically for use in eye conditions; not a systemic (one that is given orally or by injection) antibiotic such as the metronidazole . Usually for corneal injuries an antibiotic in the fluoroquinolone family such as Ofloxacin is ideal. Sometimes aminoglycosides such as Gentamycin can be used as well but ofloxacin (or similar) is usually a better choice and is far less likely to cause an allergic reaction than an aminoglycoside (especially neomycin which is notorious for precipitating allergic reactions!).

I realize that this response is probably not what you were looking for but.... I hope it can be of some help to you and Vinnie and also will help clarify the metronidazole question.

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel