Eye Issue May Affect Release

[akikendall]

Okay my squirrelly friends! My little Scoot is now about 7 weeks old and looking good. He can be a little bad on occasion but I can deal.

What I need help with is his eye. When I found him I noticed that one of his eyes was like a bubble and the other was flat. Now that they’re open it’s def an issue. I’m not sure if I can release him with this issue. What do you think?

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Okay my squirrelly friends! My little Scoot is now about 7 weeks old and looking good. He can be a little bad on occasion but I can deal.

What I need help with is his eye. When I found him I noticed that one of his eyes was like a bubble and the other was flat. Now that they’re open it’s def an issue. I’m not sure if I can release him with this issue. What do you think?

Hello Akikendall:
I apologize for you not yet having a respond to your post! I am at work but I have moments when I can get on The Squirrel Board to check things and sometimes post if I have time and I just noticed you post. At this time I cannot post more but this response will BUMP your thread back in view and hopefully others will respond. I will come back today when I am no longer so pressed at work and write more. Again, I am sorry you have not yet had a response. We will try to help you and your little Squirrel!
Regards,
SAmtheSquirrel

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hello again Akikendall:
Scoot is certainly a cute little Squirrel!

I now have a bit more time to write and once again, I apologize for you not having any other responses! My opinion is that there is no bottom line definitive answer to your question regarding whether or not a Squirrel that has had one functional eye its entire life and has also been raised in captivity can be released. Previously wild Squirrels that have been in captivity following an illness or injury and have lost an eye or sight in one eye as a result of whatever incident resulted in the period of captivity are probably the ones most likely to be successfully released as they are still wild Squirrels and the call-of-the-wild will probably outweigh the
disability!

It may also be that a Squirrel raised with blindness in one eye could also be successfully released. In fact, this baby may have even better success than a wild Squirrel who lost an eye because the Squirrel who has never had sight in one eye has never relied upon that eye and his instincts as they become kindled during the soft-release process will not need to be modified to compensate for something the Squirrel never had! That being said, I do not have any first-hand experience with either situation, however.

One of my concerns about a Squirrel with one eye is that they still are at a disadvantage because even though there are obviously more reasons for having two eyes than simply carrying around a spare; but a spare eye is still a potential benefit and in neither of the above situations will the Squirrel have a spare eye! If there is even momentary problems with vision such as getting a foreign body (even dust) in the one functional eye, the Squirrel has become effectively blind even if for a short period of time and this certainly would put a prey animal such as a Squirrel at great risk! If there was more extensive injury to the remaining eye or the time for resolution of what might ordinarily be a temporary vision problem might be more than a few seconds or minutes, the Squirrel may little or no chance for survival in the wild!

It may be worth going through the soft-release process with little Scoot when the time is optimal and at 7 weeks, I would like to suggest that you plan on over-wintering him and indulge in the soft-release in the Spring! Are you willing to keep him if it looks like the release will not be successful or it appears that it really is too much of a risk?

Thank you for caring so much about Scoot! Please keep updated on the Little Guy!
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[akikendall]

Thank you so much for responding Sam!

I’ll tell you, Scoot definitely doesn’t know he’s blind in that eye! He is 100% squirrel.

He is still in the weaning stage. He loves his formula!! I just added the 2nd story to his condo, so he’s in good shape for a while. I live in South Louisiana and it was 90 today so who knows what our winter will be like. But he’s welcome to stay however long it takes. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks again for answering!!

Alison and Scoot