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Kalanchoe
04-07-2023, 10:44 PM
I have a bird feeder outside my window that is frequented by four fox squirrels.
One squirrel, named Fabrizia, has become a favorite of mine. She knocks on the window when the feeder is low, takes food from my hand, visits me on the porch, and let's me walk right up to her in the yard.
She's been itching a lot, resulting in hair loss, mostly around her shoulders. Four days ago she showed up with a bloody nose. Yesterday her nose seemed fine. Today she came by and acted strange. She knocked at the window as usual (even though the feeder was full) but was leaning to her left, seemed a little unstable, and she kept dropping whatever she was eating. She'd sniff around and find what she'd dropped, but she usually drops nothing. She wasn't falling over, she just leaned or had her head rolled to the left when on all fours.
I've done a little research and hope it's nothing serious. Is there anything I should watch for? Or anything I might do to help?
This pic is today, with her lean.
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Mel1959
04-08-2023, 08:35 AM
It sounds like head trauma from a fall. The bloody nose is indicative of a fall as well. The treatment that we have found to work best for head trauma is dosing with prednisone or Gabapentin for a few weeks. This would require you to catch her in a havahart trap and dose daily. Obviously this would be traumatic for her and would be nice to avoid, but if you think she’s incapable of climbing well, not maintaining her balance and could fall from a tree or escape capture then it might be necessary.