7 yo flyer with probable UTI

[Roxi's mom]

I've been a member on this board for a while but I haven't been on this stream in a long time. I noticed last night that my flyer had a UTI. She peed on me when I was in my bathrobe, and this morning I noticed it was dark spots. One of the spots had a little bit of red in the middle. I have 50 mg and 100 mg doxycycline and I want to know if that's good to give her and how much do I give her. She is not a Hands-On squirrel. She will sit on me, crawl on me, jump to me, but she doesn't like me to touch her. Any help would be wonderful. I'm also in the state of Pennsylvania which is illegal to own a flying squirrel, but I did bring her from Florida which is a legal state. I've had her her whole life. Any help would be appreciated.

[CritterMom]

I've been a member on this board for a while but I haven't been on this stream in a long time. I noticed last night that my flyer had a UTI. She peed on me when I was in my bathrobe, and this morning I noticed it was dark spots. One of the spots had a little bit of red in the middle. I have 50 mg and 100 mg doxycycline and I want to know if that's good to give her and how much do I give her. She is not a Hands-On squirrel. She will sit on me, crawl on me, jump to me, but she doesn't like me to touch her. Any help would be wonderful. I'm also in the state of Pennsylvania which is illegal to own a flying squirrel, but I did bring her from Florida which is a legal state. I've had her her whole life. Any help would be appreciated.

Well, a few questions and observations. First, have you fed her any acorns? They have a ton of tannins in them which dyes their pee red - like not a slight pinkish tinge - dark red-brown like blood. If she had any within 24 hours of the first signs in the pee, I would look in that direction rather than UTI.

Is she peeing a lot more than usual or trying to pee and not going? That is more indicative of UTI.

We need a weight on her to properly dose meds. You can get digital gram scales at Walmart in the $10-$15 range. And you will need a 1cc syringe or smaller with clear markings on it to do the dilution and dosing. A larger syringe will not do. No needle - any meds would be given orally, but they are made for humans so first they need to be diluted, and then you dose with the dilution you have made, and all of those measurements will need to be made with a syringe.

From what I am able to find, doxycycline if not a great choice for UTI. There are a number of things that can cause UTI and doxy does not work on all of them.

Perhaps ask around of friends and coworkers to see if anyone has any leftover antibiotics from a past illness. Cipro would be a good choice. SMZ-TMP sold under the brand name Bactrim would as well.

[Roxi's mom]

Thanks quitter mom. I actually have been giving her acorns from oak trees cuz we had plenty of them this past fall, so I will stop giving those to her for a while and see if that's what the problem is. I don't know how I would have been able to give her the meds because she won't let me touch her, or even to get a weight, so I'll try stopping the Acorns first.

[CritterMom]

Well, if you continue to find "blood" do let us know - maybe we can hide the dose in something she will eat voluntarily.

Most digital scales have a "tare" function. If you have a little container, box, etc., that the squirrel can be closed up in to weigh, you can place the box on the scale, press the "tare" button, and it zeroes out the weight of the box - when you add the squirrel, the weight you see on the screen is ONLY the squirrel, not the container it is in.

But if this little one has been eating acorns, I bet that is what you are seeing.

Do not feed acorns that have fallen to the ground. They can quickly develop toxic mold growth inside where you cannot see it.

[Charley Chuckles]

Years ago I fed acorns and then the pee looked like blood 😳
I stopped acorns they can be deadly 👍

[Roxi's mom]

That is probably what I'm going to do. I don't need to give her anymore acorns. I buy nuts from nut.com anyway so she can have those. I just break them up and give her little pieces. Thanks everyone. I will update the thread if this doesn't help.