5 week old with diarrhea please help!!

[Ms.SandyCheeks]

Hi, I know there are countless posts here regarding diarrhea but so much of the information I’m seeing here and elsewhere is contradictory and/or very old and I’m feeling pretty lost so I thought asking directly might not hurt.

I found a 4 week old baby squirrel last week that had fallen about 12 feet from a nest in my roof and I immediately started rehydration w/ pedialyte and then slowly worked up to full strength esbilac. The only esbilac available doesn’t specify that it’s goat milk based but it does have both pre and pro biotics. Her poop and pee was looking great, she went from 78grams to 112 in the first week, and her eyes opened. Then yesterday I noticed her stool seemed too soft, so I started giving about 1ml of water between feedings, and diluted the formula a bit more, but today stool is paste and has been involuntary at times. Skin takes about 3 seconds to snap back in pinch test. I was feeding her every 4 hours, overnight included, but replaced a feeding with pedialyte and water this morning bc of the stool and dehydration. She’s still SOO hungry and active. I just gave her a very small amount of pepto. Fox valley formula doesn’t arrive until next Friday but I bought ingredients for homemade goat milk formula. I have experience rehabilitating baby birds and baby possums and Ive spent so many hours reading about squirrel rehab and trying to do everything right. I also met with a local who rehabs the day after I found her and they gave me some advice as well. I just don’t really know what to do and I’m really worried this is going to get worse fast. I don’t know if it’s intolerance to that formula or a parasite or over feeding or what! I don’t think I’ve been over feeding - I weigh her daily and feed about 5% of her body weight each feeding.

- Should I make the homemade formula and give some to her at the next feeding? If so, how much and do I need to transition slowly from the esbilac she’s been eating to the homemade??
- Or should I not feed at all and keep trying hydration? She’s just so hungry :(((
- Should I keep trying pepto and homemade formula and if nothing improves take her to a vet?
- Should I give up and try again to find a rehabber? I would have done so but I haven’t found any nearby and I have a lot of experience with animals, rodents, and rehabbing in general so I really thought I’d be able to do this.

Please help!

[Spanky]

Is the Esbilac the powdered one? I'll check back in after baby feedings...

[Spanky]

If you are using the liquid Esbilac. that will almost always eventually lead to diarrhea... the powdered Esbilac is what is needed. It is nutritional deficient for squirrels and not the same as the powdered version.

If this is overfeeding her poops would have become more white and less mustard yellow which is Esbilac poop coloring.

Pedialyte has a lot of salts for a baby squirrel... best to dilute half and half with water. And not use Pedialyte for more than the first 24 - 36 hours, after that use plain water for hydration. It also needs to be stored in the fridge and tossed out after 48 hours... using old pedialyte will cause diarrhea.

Other causes for diarrhea...

The opened powdered Esbilac should be stored in the freezer, minimally the fridge, it often will go rancid in a few days at room temperature regardless of what the labels reads.

Never reuse formula that was heated for feeding and not used... we see this too often and will cause diarrhea. Toss out any formula that had been heated to feed but not used...

Sometimes the water source (tap) is the culprit, and switching to bottled water can resolve... never use distilled either.

We seen this more recently... never use boiling water to mix the formula... that kills off the probiotics.

Once the formula is mixed with water, it is good for 48 hours max if stored in the fridge.