5 Week old baby with congestion

[Rocky2023]

Hi, my baby squirrel just open her this week. I tried to switch her to a 3cc syringe since she eats about 5cc's each feeding now. She aspirated and now is eating less and sounds slightly congested. I have Baytril and gave of 1ml (she weighs 102 grams) my question is for how long should I give it to her and once a day or twice a day? I see mixed posts about how many times a day and for how many days. She took the first dose yesterday and is back to eating better.

Thanks.

[CritterMom]

Hi, my baby squirrel just open her this week. I tried to switch her to a 3cc syringe since she eats about 5cc's each feeding now. She aspirated and now is eating less and sounds slightly congested. I have Baytril and gave of 1ml (she weighs 102 grams) my question is for how long should I give it to her and once a day or twice a day? I see mixed posts about how many times a day and for how many days. She took the first dose yesterday and is back to eating better.

Thanks.

What is the strength of the Baytril?

[Rocky2023]

Good question, I have no idea. I guess I will just give BID for 5 days because I am pretty sure that is what I was told to do. I just read that some give it for once a day for 7 to 10 days. I guess they are going by the strength of the Baytril.

[Mel1959]

Most Baytril has to be diluted to the proper strength for a baby squirrel. Don’t keep giving it without more guidance or you could over medicate her.

Can you post a picture of the medication bottle?

[Rocky2023]

That will not help, it is not in the original bottle. I got if from my rehabber prior to him getting on a plane and he cannot be reached for the next 2 days. I am sure it is the correct strength and dose was 1ml. I was just asking whether or not most give once a day or twice a day and for how many days. I will just do what he said to do which is BID for 5 days. It would be life threatening to stop giving her medication to breath. Like I originally said, I was just asking because I have seen post where some have given once a day for 10 days.

[Mel1959]

I can pretty much guarantee the dose would not be 1ml!! 1ml might be ok for a 250gr squirrel, but if your baby weighs less than that then it’s too much. This is also dependent on the strength of the medication. The strength of Baytril can range from 5.7mg tablets to 136mg tablets. You can see how different the dilution would be for each strength. Without knowing what your strength is it’s impossible to tell you what is correct.

What does your squirrel weigh? At the very least I’d give half that amount and only once a day. And that’s a crapshoot guess, but it’s better to err on the side of caution IMO.

When you hold your squirrel up to your ear like a phone do you hear clicking with each breath?

[Rocky2023]

Hi, sorry, the dose is .01 ml. Unfortunately, I cannot hear if he is congested. Scott listened to him and said he sounded a little congested and gave him a dose and left the meds and said to continue giving BID for 5 days. I will just do that, sorry I brought it up really. I was just trying to get some feedback. Thanks for your help.

[CritterMom]

OK, that makes a huge difference and is why we all freaked out!

BID means twice per day so that is your answer.

We work very hard here to not just help, but to also NOT SCREW UP when we are trying to do that, and between the incorrect size of the dose you typoed and not having a key piece of info needed to calculate the dose ourselves to figure it out, we were stopped in our tracks.

Baytril is EXTREMELY effective for aspiration pneumonia.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

That will not help, it is not in the original bottle. I got if from my rehabber prior to him getting on a plane and he cannot be reached for the next 2 days. I am sure it is the correct strength and dose was 1ml. I was just asking whether or not most give once a day or twice a day and for how many days. I will just do what he said to do which is BID for 5 days. It would be life threatening to stop giving her medication to breath. Like I originally said, I was just asking because I have seen post where some have given once a day for 10 days.

Hi Rocky2023:
Welcome to The Squirrel Board! First of all; just for general information; there may be some theoretical rationale for giving antibiotics in the event of an aspiration to help prevent aspiration pneumonia but there is little data to support this this and there is a good study in humans that shows no benefit. Also, with that being said, not every aspiration results in a pneumonia which is an infection. Many aspirations do not cause any problems. Nevertheless, ALL means should always be utilized to prevent aspiration because it can be deadly and there is no way to know which aspirations will cause problems and which won't!

Are there any other signs your Squirrel exhibiting beside slightly decreased appetite and nasal congestion. While decreased appetite is common with infection, it is also commonly associated with many other causes including just normal variation in the Squirrels preference. Nasal congestion in itself, is not a sign of pneumonia as nasal congestion occurs in the upper respiratory region while pneumonia is in the lower respiratory area (in the lungs).

My suggestion is; if there is suspicion of aspiration pneumonia and in light of the fact that you really don't know what the concentration of the Baytril is or the dosing frequency that war recommended by your Rehabber or possibly even the dose itself; is to start over with a new or the same antibiotic in "original condition!" Do you have any antibiotics available or can you get any antibiotics from a friend or relative that you can use (even 1 or 2 tablets or capsules is plenty!)? Then we can compute for you, based upon the strength of the antibiotic and a recent accurate weight of your Squirrel; a dosing regimen for your new antibiotic. If you have Cipro, it is very similar to Baytril or another choice might be Augmentin (Amoxicillin plus Clavulanate)? A potential advantage of Augmentin is that Baytril and Cipro do not cover anaerobic bacteria while Augmentin does. In my opinion, dosing in the manner you are talking about is not close to ideal or close to being accurate! It appears that your real question is whether or not the dosing should be once or twice daily and you are assuming that your recollection what your Rehabbber said regarding the amount to be dosed (1ml) is accurate as you seem certain of the dose (1ml). Even if 1ml might be the correct does based upon how the original Baytril tablet was prepared; you are not sure how often it was to be given; once daily or twice daily. As an example, IF the Baytril was originally to be dosed once daily, giving 1ml twice daily would obviously be giving twice as much as the intended total daily dose!

I would start again! Use a New and accurate weight, New antibiotics, along with New mixing and New dosing instructions from The Squirrel Board based upon the new antibiotic and the current weight of your Squirrel!

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

It sounds as if the issue is resolved! Please keep us informed as to how your Squirrel is doing! We can pretend that I did not post the above!
Regards,
StS

[Mel1959]

Hi, sorry, the dose is .01 ml. Unfortunately, I cannot hear if he is congested. Scott listened to him and said he sounded a little congested and gave him a dose and left the meds and said to continue giving BID for 5 days. I will just do that, sorry I brought it up really. I was just trying to get some feedback. Thanks for your help.

Yes, that tiny little decimal point makes a huge difference depending on where it’s placed! You’re doing a great job and it sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. :great Twice daily dosing is appropriate.

Thank you for the clarification. :grin3

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hi, sorry, the dose is .01 ml. Unfortunately, I cannot hear if he is congested. Scott listened to him and said he sounded a little congested and gave him a dose and left the meds and said to continue giving BID for 5 days. I will just do that, sorry I brought it up really. I was just trying to get some feedback. Thanks for your help.

Hello again Rocky2023:
I just read you post with the "corrected" dose. Are you absolutely certain about this dose of 0.01ml? This is 1/100th if a milliliter! That is an extremely tiny amount and it would be extremely difficult to dose this accurately or even prepare this accurately! Assuming that 1/100th of a milliliter is correct (which just doesn't seem right!), and even if you used an Insulin syringe designed to inject U-100 Insulin (in which case 100 units of Insulin could be loaded in the 1ml syringe and then each of the 100 tiny dash-marks on the syringe would indicate 1/100th of a ml); It would be nearly impossible to accurately give 1/100th ml orally to your Squirrel. Please verify and correlate the original Baytril tablet, how it was mixed (the actual concentration of Baytril in each milliliter), the weight of your Squirrel and the actual recommended individual dose of the Baytril.
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[CritterMom]

Hello again Rocky2023:
I just read you post with the "corrected" dose. Are you absolutely certain about this dose of 0.01ml? This is 1/100th if a milliliter! That is an extremely tiny amount and it would be extremely difficult to dose this accurately or even prepare this accurately! Assuming that 1/100th of a milliliter is correct (which just doesn't seem right!), and even if you used an Insulin syringe designed to inject U-100 Insulin (in which case 100 units of Insulin could be loaded in the 1ml syringe and then each of the 100 tiny dash-marks on the syringe would indicate 1/100th of a ml); It would be nearly impossible to accurately give 1/100th ml orally to your Squirrel. Please verify and correlate the original Baytril tablet, how it was mixed (the actual concentration of Baytril in each milliliter), the weight of your Squirrel and the actual recommended individual dose of the Baytril.
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

Good point.

Baytril is available as a 10% 100mg/ml strength, and undiluted, .01 would be the dose. But obviously a better way would be to dilute it with water in order to have a larger dose.

Are you absolutely certain that it is .01ml and not .1ml?

[Rocky2023]

UPDATE! She is doing great. I keep giving her the Baytril .01 BID as told to by my rehabber, tomorrow will be her last day of meds. She has decided today to become a real squirrel and is trying to jump out of her bin and play, so funny how fast they grew up!

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

UPDATE! She is doing great. I keep giving her the Baytril .01 BID as told to by my rehabber, tomorrow will be her last day of meds. She has decided today to become a real squirrel and is trying to jump out of her bin and play, so funny how fast they grew up!

Hi Rocky2023:
I'm so glad to hear your little Squirrel is doing great! That is most important and is wonderful news! What is her name? Out of curiosity, how did you measure out the 1/100th of a milliliter dose?
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[Rocky2023]

Her name is Raven. I just went by what Scott told me before he boarded. He said 0.1 ml BID for 5 days so I just trusted in him since he is the licensed rehabber and I just volunteer.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Her name is Raven. I just went by what Scott told me before he boarded. He said 0.1 ml BID for 5 days so I just trusted in him since he is the licensed rehabber and I just volunteer.

Thanks! Hi Raven! I'm glad you are doing better Little Squirrel! Still a question but I won' belabor this as Raven is doing much better but in your prior posts you stated the dose to be 0.01ml (1/100th of a milliliter!) but this most recent post you stated it was 0.1ml (1/10th of a milliliter). The 1/100th was my concern because that is so little a volume, it would be difficult to measure even in an insulin syringe and nearly impossible to give to Raven accurately because of its tiny volume. Anyway, I'm glad Raven is better and I wish you both the very best!
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel