Squirrel died from heat stroke or stress. What should I have done?

[boglord]

To start things off I really really regret how I handled things today. I am hoping that by posting on this board that I can learn more from experts about what I could have done differently in the unfortunate situation that I was in and hope that you can be kind.

We have a raised, screened in back porch that we keep a bird feeder hanging off of and store the seeds inside a home depot bucket to discourage mice and other interested parties. Today one of those interested parties, an adult gray squirrel, chewed a squirrel sized hole into our screen and trapped himself inside the porch. It was 95 degrees today. The squirrel was freaking out, running back and forth all over the screen, throwing himself at the screen and the corners and generally really really scared and panting a lot. He couldn't find the hole he had made for whatever reason, even though many times he was right next to it. I put out some water for him and left him alone for about an hour and hoped he would calm down and find his way out, but when I checked on him it didn't appear that he'd drank any of the water and was still freaked out and trying to escape without any success.

I decided that the best thing to do was to catch him and release him into my front yard. I put on a coat, some glasses, and some thick gloves and caught him with my hands (in the gloves) after chasing him around the porch for 5 minutes. He was clearly very scared and tired. I put him in a bucket with a lid and quickly transported him outside and released him, he wasn't in the bucket for even a minute. He ran out from the bucket, stopped in the middle of the yard and laid down. I thought he was probably exhausted and so I brought him out some water and when I put it down near him he ran over to underneath a bush to cool off (or so I thought).

I left him alone for the rest of the day and about 6 hours later went to go check to make sure he was doing alright. Anyway, based on the title of the post you can imagine what I found- he was clearly very dead. I wish that I had brought him to a rehabber after capturing him. I did some quick research and found out that sometimes squirrels can die not only from heat exhaustion but also from something called capture myopathy. I hope I didn't cause this guy's death to be extremely painful and terrifying. Now I know better and would definitely bring the squirrel to a vet afterwards, but is there any way to avoid capture myopathy when trying to rescue wild squirrels? I just want to know what to do differently if anything like this were to ever happen again.

[Charley Chuckles]

:Welcome thank you for trying to rescue this squirrel.
That said I doubt you did anything wrong, this squirrel may have had internal injuries you could have not known.
RIP 🙏

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

To start things off I really really regret how I handled things today. I am hoping that by posting on this board that I can learn more from experts about what I could have done differently in the unfortunate situation that I was in and hope that you can be kind.

We have a raised, screened in back porch that we keep a bird feeder hanging off of and store the seeds inside a home depot bucket to discourage mice and other interested parties. Today one of those interested parties, an adult gray squirrel, chewed a squirrel sized hole into our screen and trapped himself inside the porch. It was 95 degrees today. The squirrel was freaking out, running back and forth all over the screen, throwing himself at the screen and the corners and generally really really scared and panting a lot. He couldn't find the hole he had made for whatever reason, even though many times he was right next to it. I put out some water for him and left him alone for about an hour and hoped he would calm down and find his way out, but when I checked on him it didn't appear that he'd drank any of the water and was still freaked out and trying to escape without any success.

I decided that the best thing to do was to catch him and release him into my front yard. I put on a coat, some glasses, and some thick gloves and caught him with my hands (in the gloves) after chasing him around the porch for 5 minutes. He was clearly very scared and tired. I put him in a bucket with a lid and quickly transported him outside and released him, he wasn't in the bucket for even a minute. He ran out from the bucket, stopped in the middle of the yard and laid down. I thought he was probably exhausted and so I brought him out some water and when I put it down near him he ran over to underneath a bush to cool off (or so I thought).

I left him alone for the rest of the day and about 6 hours later went to go check to make sure he was doing alright. Anyway, based on the title of the post you can imagine what I found- he was clearly very dead. I wish that I had brought him to a rehabber after capturing him. I did some quick research and found out that sometimes squirrels can die not only from heat exhaustion but also from something called capture myopathy. I hope I didn't cause this guy's death to be extremely painful and terrifying. Now I know better and would definitely bring the squirrel to a vet afterwards, but is there any way to avoid capture myopathy when trying to rescue wild squirrels? I just want to know what to do differently if anything like this were to ever happen again.

Hi Boglord and thanks for finding The Squirrel Board! I agree that this poor Squirrel likely developed Capture Myopathy (CM to save typing for me) but you did not have any direct on whether or not CM was going to to occur nor did you cause or hasten his death by your thoughtful final action of actually capturing him to facilitate a resolution from the Squirrel's predicament of having in a sense, capturing himself! It helps to know and understand a bit about CM and it certainly seems, Boglord, that you did some quick research on this subject. The reason that CM is actually termed a myopathy is that among other things, a major condition associated with the overall "syndrome" of CM is rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis is a breakdown of muscle tissue and the muscle pigment within the muscle cells which is called myoglobin (similar in some ways to hemoglobin in the red blood cells) leaks from the muscles. There is also release of other substances from the muscles and development of what can be a severe metabolic acidosis (the actual acidity of the blood increases and that is reflected by laboratory tests that demonstrate an increased lactic acid and a decreased serum (blood) pH (pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of the blood). Commonly associated with rhabdomyolysis and the release of myoglobin is the development of acute kidney failure. Often there is multiorgan failure as well and there can be sudden cardiac death from a number of causes, one being the the potassium level can be increased by leakage of potassium from the damaged muscle cells. Potassium is normally far more concentrated within cells than in the blood itself! The acidosis also increases likelihood for a cardiac event and multiorgan damage and failure!

Recovery from CM once it has begun is rare and there is NO definitive cure! This poor Squirrels destiny of crossing over the Rainbow Bridge was sealed NOT by his final capture by you, Boglord or your placement of him into the bucket or the release outside; it was sealed by his fear and extreme activity within your porch! Once he developed such severe, acute CM, absolutely NO intervention or effective treatment exists and while there have been reports of recovery, this is extremely rare and some of these cases probably do not even represent recovery from definitive CM and the animal may have been just severely exhausted by the recent activity or struggling! IF you had been able to take this little Squirrel to a Veterinarian, there would be little this professional could do except possibly prolong the time until actual death occurred or as would be most appropriate is such a case; the a Vet could facilitate a compassionate means for euthanizing this poor animal!

You did nothing wrong, Boglord, and thank you for your care, concern and love for this unfortunate little Squirrel! I too, of course wish that the outcome had been different but CM is almost universally fatal! You did the best you could and all for the right reasons but, once again, the destiny of this Squirrel was already determined BEFORE you captured him! A couple of things of note is that Squirrels are prey animals and if in the rare instances where they may escape a predator, they may very well develop CM from the encounter and die later anyway! Also, not that it changes what finally happened; is this little Squirrel passed knowing and feeling something that he never would have experienced in the wild and that was love, Boglord; your love! Thanks again for caring and for trying!

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[Chirps]

Thanks for trying to help this squirrel. To add to what StS said, if you had tried to take him to a vet, he would probably have been dead by the time you arrived anyway. RIP, Squirrel!

If you are afraid this may happen again, is there a way to make a portion of the screen able to be opened so a squirrel can find an exit more quickly? :thinking