Pet squirrel injured or sick?

[cinnabun0912]

I have a pet squirrel named Cinnabun. He is a New Mexican Rock Squirrel. I have had him for over two years now. He came to me when he was only a couple weeks old. He had become very tame and entirely domestic. He never goes outside (although I’ve tried to get him to) and is litter trained. He’s the perfect pet and I love him to bits. About a month or two ago, we decided to bring a kitten home. The kitten is also entirely indoors and tame. The two have never had issues since being introduced, and get along fine. We never let them around each other unsupervised, though, on the off chance something does happen.

About two weeks ago, I had been away from home for about 28 hours straight, working and running errands. Both Cinna and the kitty had been in separate rooms the entire time and had no way of interacting. When I returned home though, I went to greet and play with cinna for the evening, as I always do. Normally, he would be bouncing all over the place, chirping and squeaking with excitement to see me, and ready to play. However, when I went in to see him he was the opposite.

He refused to come out of his cage, he growled when I touched him or moved him, didn’t want to move at all, and was cold to the touch. He is never like this, and never growls except at bathtime. When I finally got him out and tried assessing him and his behavior on the floor, I noticed that he had trouble walking, was very wobbly, his balance was exceptionally poor, and his back was swollen. He would come to me and wanted me to hold him. But he would get upset if I even breathed and it caused him to move. Again, all of this is so opposite to his normal behavior.

Now, I have tried to find a regular veterinarian to see him routinely in the past, but none in my area will see him because they consider him to be exotic. I finally found a 24 hour vet emergency clinic that was an hour and a half from me to take him to that night. They said they didn’t have enough experience with squirrels but they think he has a soft tissue back injury and prescribed meloxicam and put him on bed rest for the week. He seemed to do a little better on the meloxicam, but still wasn’t himself.

Today, he is completely back to where he was two weeks ago. He is wobbly, limping, swollen, upset, and ice cold even though the house temp is 74°. I’m not sure what to do at this point and I’m worried sick about him. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be wrong with him? I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks.

[CritterMom]

I guess they didn't do any x-rays to rule out anything broken, right?

Is he no longer getting meloxicam? How long since he had any. There is a pretty good chance that it was suppressing the pain while he was taking it and now that he is off, he hurts again.

I would really like to see what a round of prednisone would do for him. Is there any chance that anyone you know, live near, work with, etc., has any leftover from having taken it themselves? Prednisone, prednisolone, any will work. We would need to know the size of the pills in milligrams, the weight of your squirrel preferably in grams, and YOU will need a 1ml or smaller syringe without the needle to dose. We can instruct you how to properly dilute and dose the meds. Fepending on the size of the pills and the size of your squirrel you may need 2-3 pills. It is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and if he has a still swollen soft tissue issue, this should be a good choice.

If you absolutely cannot find any prednisone, we can dose Infant Ibuprophen, an OTC cherry or grape syrup with ibuprophen for him, which will help the pain. Both meloxicam and ibuprophen are NSAIDS. You dose the ibuprophen more frequently than the meloxicam. With his weight we can also dose this for you, and again, you will want to use a 1ml syringe to do this.

You cannot mix NSAIDS - the meloxicam or the ibuprophen - with prednisone and should have 24 hours between last dose of NSAID and first dose of prednisone.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hi Cinnabun:
Thanks you for finding The Squirrel Board!

I just have one question beyond what CritterMom has said and that is since you spent so much of your initial post on the presence of the cat; even though the Cat and Squirrel supposed to have been separated; do you suspect that somehow the Cat and the Squirrel may have gotten in a "tussle." If that is possible, Cinnabun may have been bitten by the Cat and now has an infection. Cat's teeth are very sharp and relatively long and they can penetrate deep within an animal and leave very little evidence that a bite even occurred. This can result in teeth that broken off and retained inside the bitten animal and a bite itself from the cat's long teeth can lead to development of a deep abscess (a pus pocket). A change in body temperature; either high or low can be a sign of an infection. Cat's mouths harbor a bacterium called Pasteurella multocida that can cause a severe infection. I'm just mentioning this as a thought.

Is there any evidence of injury to Cinnabun? I do wish, as does CM, that the Vet had performed an x-ray study!

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[Tashahaven]

What does his diet consist of? Is he being fed a properly balanced diet with adequate calcium?

Have you ruled out metabolic bone disease?

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

What does his diet consist of? Is he being fed a properly balanced diet with adequate calcium?

Have you ruled out metabolic bone disease?

Thanks TH! These are very appropriate questions and your concern about MBD is in my opinion extremely valid. This illustrates one of the "thinking traps" that all of us are subject to. I truly do not know if the cat has any relationship to what is going on with the Squirrel's problems but the presence of the cat interwoven into the post seemed to me to require some association with the actual problems and concerns regarding Cinna, the Squirrel, that Cinnabun had described when in fact, the cat; after further thought on my part (with my obvious limitation in thinking in general taken into consideration), probably plays no part and served as a distractor! I am not absolutely certain of this BUT MBD is often belatedly or never suspected, let alone diagnosed even when there is very reasonable evidence to at least investigate the possibility so I am very appreciative of TH for mentioning this very real possibility! Thanks again TH!

Cinnabun0912, please do post Cinna's diet in detail and even if it might appear adequate, I would recommend immediately starting the Emergency Treatment for Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) from Henry's Website! This is harmless if Cinna does not have MBD but it can literally save her life if she does! The treatment protocol is very simple and, again, extremely safe! Here is the link; https://henryspets.com/emergency-treatment-for-mbd/

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[Tashahaven]

Starting emergency MBD treatment will not cause any harm, and can only HELP! It is extremely easy to start this treatment at home, with medicines readily accessible over the counter at any store, even gas stations carry Tums!

Starting the protocol, may start improving symptoms relatively quickly, if that is what is causing it. If we start seeing improvements, then it will be important to thoroughly dig in to cinnabuns diet and fix the nutritional deficiencies moving forward.

2 things to keep in mind though:
1. NO NUTS or junk food!
2. If you start seeing improvements, it is critical to continue the treatment and follow it through till the very end!

Im not as knowledgeable about MBD as others (like StS, Crittermom, IR and other rehabbers) but in very simple terms, it is caused by inadequate absorption (or lack of) of calcium. Even if you give foods high in calcium, many other foods if provided to the squirrel, will basically block the body from being able to get enough calcium. Nuts are the biggest culprit, but there are many others.

The lack of adequate calcium causes the squirrels body to then start depleting the calcium stored in the bones. The bones will get very brittle and break easily, and the squirrel will be in a lot of pain with very limited mobility. It may seem as though your squirrel went from OK to NOT OK overnight, but squirrels are well known for hiding injuries and illnesses until they can’t any more. (As a prey animal it is in their dna to not show vulnerability) Often times MBD can show up like paralysis, but it isn’t typically due to a traumatic injury, but the weakness and frail ness MBD has caused.

The good news is, if you can treat it and alter diet, it’s 99% reversible.

Please let us know if you have ANY questions about how to start treating for MBD! I don’t wish MBD on any animal, but at least if we determine it is MBD, we know she can get treatment, and be ok. Especially since it seems we don’t currently know what is wrong with her 😢❤️