So I have a sterlite box filled with groundhog

[CritterMom]

sitting on a heating pad in my garage now. Didn't see that comin.'

I assisted (food provider) in raising the brood of a mama groundhog who made her den under my front deck/porch last year. She had 3 babies and it was so enjoyable watching them and going into hock to FEED them (blocks and veggies). This spring, two of the babies returned. One was in rough shape after winter, but found an awesome den - a gray fox denned there a few years ago - under my neighbor's shed which is right on my property line. The second fared better, and has built a big, messy hole in one of my retaining walls about 50 or 60 feet from the shed. I can see both out my back picture windows and have been watching. I noticed that the rough looking one appeared to have some mange...but has been filling out again. I have been plotting how to get some ivermectin onto him. Then day before yesterday I saw the healthier one chase the other one, who was trying to just head home. She really went after the poor thing, chasing him all over the woods and finally completely out of sight.

Fast forward to a couple hours ago, and I was looking out my kitchen window. My long time neighbors in the house behind me sold and are building a new house - on the lot next to their old one, which they bought years ago. I saw what I thought was a big clump of mud and dirt (it is raining today) in the private drive that serves the 4 houses. Then it moved. I went out and approached and realized it was my little sketchy groundhog, soaking wet, sitting hunched forward with his forehead on the ground - classic sick posture. Oh Lord.

Dug up a not very big bin that I have that already has wire mesh set into it for ventilation. The top is hinged on one side and latches on the other, and I dropped it over him and used the lid to scoop him inside. He wasn't happy. Their teeth are very large.

I don't know if he was displaced from his den and has been out in the cold and rain for two days and combined with the mange just brought him to the brink, or if the other groundhog injured him - an exam is out of the question. Did you know that they have scent glands that they use to exude a vile, foul odor when upset? Yup. For now he has stretched out - I am guessing the warmth feels wonderful. I cannot even get water in there for him, but hopefully he has seen quite enough of water until tomorrow.

I am hoping that he is still alive in the morning and that he is acting a little peppier. If he is, I am going to run a chopstick into his bin and use it to apply some ivermectin topically to SOME part of him and see if he can be let go and will go back into his den in the shed.

I am hoping very much that I do not get up to find the bin box a shredded pile of plastic and pi$$ed off groundhog in my garage. I have a scrap wood corral filled with wood that would be a nightmare to de-groundhog.

If he is not looking any better I am going to have to see if any of the wildlife centers will take him. He is a nearly year old hog - he is NOT small and my suspicion is they would euthanize him before my car left the parking lot.

Why?

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Mel1959]

Is there any facility around there that can help that you trust? What about a vet?

[CritterMom]

Well, they aren't close - I have two different ones about 50 miles from me. Both are fair sized wildlife centers, but this time of year with all of the babies, I worry about what attention an adult incapacitated adult will get. They are also rabies vector animals and a lot of placed don't take them in due to all of the additional work and cost of innoculations for the rehabbers, etc. The problem is that nobody is going to TELL you that they will euthanize immediately so it is very hard to tell. I am just hoping like crazy that this guy snaps out of whatever is happening.

[Milo's Mom]

Standard squirrel diet times about 4. Soak the greens and put them in Bin soaking wet. Sweet potatoes and bananas are faves.
If you have to examine use gloves and place a big gulp cup over the bitey end.
Anal glands are on all of them but females are very quick to use them.

[CritterMom]

Standard squirrel diet times about 4. Soak the greens and put them in Bin soaking wet. Sweet potatoes and bananas are faves.
If you have to examine use gloves and place a big gulp cup over the bitey end.
Anal glands are on all of them but females are very quick to use them.

Thanks. I would need a second set of hands to examine and I just don't have them. "It" is sleeping curled up like I would expect an animal like that to sleep - on it's side. It is cool in the garage so the low heating pad probably feels pretty good.

[CritterMom]

Well, the groundhog made it through the night. It was sleeping soundly on the half of the box that was on the heating pad, and started emitting that noxious odor as soon as I went out there. I decided I needed to knock together a temporary cage in the garage so it could get out of the little box and hopefully I could assess it some. I have been an artist all my life, and for quite a few years I regularly did those weekend art shows they have all over. The display I have is this one: http://www.graphicdisplaysystems.com/ with a couple more panels. The panels for my old display racks can be thrown together all sorts of ways to make a really fast cage - like once you drag the panels up from the basement, you have 5 minutes of work and simple spring clamps will hold it together.

Went into the back of my ancient Rav4 which was parked on the other side of the garage to get something, and managed to slam the 5000 pound door on my left thumb. I have never had my brain explode but it must feel just like that. I have done this a couple times, and the trick is that you have to get it in a crushed ice and water bath immediately and leave it there for an hour or two and you can usually keep the nail. So I stuck my hand in a cup of ice and water that I could carry, and decided to get some ivermectin on the poor thing and postpone trying to carry the racks for a while until I was sure I wasn't going to pass out. I got some measured out, went out to the garage, scooped some onto a little skewer I had rounded the tip on, ran it through the wire mesh on the bin she was in to apply it to her skin and she didn't move a muscle. Oh no. I tried again and realized that poor hoglet was gone.

So I unfortunately had an unfettered opportunity to examine and discovered that in addition to the mange, she was absolutely covered in ticks. I am sure this is what killed the poor baby. I believe it was probably the runt of the trio - and there was one - and she just barely survived hibernation. I saw her when she first emerged and she was emaciated - her hind end was skin and bones. It is the reason I have been putting so much food out for them. I think that the parasites just got their teeth into her and she had zero reserves to fight them. She had been getting steadily chubbier but by then they were busy sucking her dry. It makes me so sad.

So I am left with a house, garage and basement that look like an explosion took place, a thumb that I am way more aware of than I should be (how many times will I wake myself up tonight TOUCHING it on something hard like sheets?) and absolutely nothing to show for it. And tomorrow I get to dig a one handed grave. Sigh.

If Milo's Mom stops by here again, I do want you to know that the only thing that got eaten, just before she passed, was the banana. She got to have a wonderful, exotic food, anyway.

Happier times, last summer:


324778

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Well, the groundhog made it through the night. It was sleeping soundly on the half of the box that was on the heating pad, and started emitting that noxious odor as soon as I went out there. I decided I needed to knock together a temporary cage in the garage so it could get out of the little box and hopefully I could assess it some. I have been an artist all my life, and for quite a few years I regularly did those weekend art shows they have all over. The display I have is this one: http://www.graphicdisplaysystems.com/ with a couple more panels. The panels for my old display racks can be thrown together all sorts of ways to make a really fast cage - like once you drag the panels up from the basement, you have 5 minutes of work and simple spring clamps will hold it together.

Went into the back of my ancient Rav4 which was parked on the other side of the garage to get something, and managed to slam the 5000 pound door on my left thumb. I have never had my brain explode but it must feel just like that. I have done this a couple times, and the trick is that you have to get it in a crushed ice and water bath immediately and leave it there for an hour or two and you can usually keep the nail. So I stuck my hand in a cup of ice and water that I could carry, and decided to get some ivermectin on the poor thing and postpone trying to carry the racks for a while until I was sure I wasn't going to pass out. I got some measured out, went out to the garage, scooped some onto a little skewer I had rounded the tip on, ran it through the wire mesh on the bin she was in to apply it to her skin and she didn't move a muscle. Oh no. I tried again and realized that poor hoglet was gone.

So I unfortunately had an unfettered opportunity to examine and discovered that in addition to the mange, she was absolutely covered in ticks. I am sure this is what killed the poor baby. I believe it was probably the runt of the trio - and there was one - and she just barely survived hibernation. I saw her when she first emerged and she was emaciated - her hind end was skin and bones. It is the reason I have been putting so much food out for them. I think that the parasites just got their teeth into her and she had zero reserves to fight them. She had been getting steadily chubbier but by then they were busy sucking her dry. It makes me so sad.

So I am left with a house, garage and basement that look like an explosion took place, a thumb that I am way more aware of than I should be (how many times will I wake myself up tonight TOUCHING it on something hard like sheets?) and absolutely nothing to show for it. And tomorrow I get to dig a one handed grave. Sigh.

If Milo's Mom stops by here again, I do want you to know that the only thing that got eaten, just before she passed, was the banana. She got to have a wonderful, exotic food, anyway.

Happier times, last summer:

I went to your website. You are quite talented!
Sorry about the loss of the little Groundhog! That is so very sad! RIP Little Groundhog!
I'm also sorry about your injured thumb! Do you think an x-ray might be in order?
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[CritterMom]

I went to your website. You are quite talented!
Sorry about the loss of the little Groundhog! That is so very sad! RIP Little Groundhog!
I'm also sorry about your injured thumb! Do you think an x-ray might be in order?
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

I don't think it is me. I shut my site down many years ago.

My thumb - there is a black "bruise" under the nail which is the place where it got sandwiched between the metal on the door and the metal where it seats, which is only about 1/4" from the end of my thumb. I think it closed on the very tip of the bone and it got squeezed out of the way! I think I dodged a trip to the Quick Care, which would have been very embarrassing, since I was there last week after having run a twig into my eye, scratching the cornea and actually poking a hole in the underside of my upper eyelid. I don't ever want to be a "regular" at the quick care...