Very limp. barely moving

[fallstherain]

So I went away for two days. I made sure Spike (my 3 month old flier) had enough food and water when I left and my family took him out to play on sunday. I just got hope and woke him up from sleeping and he just kind of layed there. He has nver been this inactive before. He feels a little cold so I am trying to warm him up. I offered him food and water and he didn't take either, he just bit my hand (it could have been to tell me to leave him alone or something) I'm really worried. Any information would be helpful.
Thanks
Nathan

[4skwerlz]

Get him warmed up first thing, with a heating pad, or with hot water in a plastic bottle, or a rice buddy (some rice or beans in a sock, microwaved for about 30 seconds or until nice and warm but not hot). A flyer expert will be on shortly.

[Apple Corps]

Gently squeeze the skin behind the neck and observe if it remains "tented" or returns to normal position. Remaining tented indicates dehydration - some water or pedialyte after he is warmed up would be in order. Then - if there are no other symptoms, I would get a small amount of sugar or sugar water in him to be sure that low blood sugar is not an issue.

Is this the first time you have been away from him?

What do you feed him? How old is he?

[Secret Squirrel]

What condition was he in before your trip ???
What is his main diet ??
How did your flyer act when your family took him out on Sunday ???
Did he fall or get drooped by accident.....sometimes accidents happen when we are away from our kidz.
Is he peeing and what color is it ??
Lots of questions need to be answered because you are our eyes in a situation like this. I am sorry this has happened to your baby.
As the others have mentioned....give him a heat source until he can thermo regulate on his own again.

[fallstherain]

I heated him up. He's about 3 months old. He still doesn't feel as warm as normal but I put him on a heating pad and he keeps crawling off onto my leg. He's not peeing, so I don;t know the color. I offer him water and he doesn't take it. I offered him a peanut and he is just keeping the nut in his mouth. He's just sitting on my leg, not moving unless I pet him. He eats kaytees fiesta parrot food regularly, and I always have water available for him. I haven't been putting calcium on or in anything because I heard that nuts have a lot of calcium in them and there are a lot of nuts in the bird food he eats, and he does eat them. He has cotton balls and newspaper shreds for bedding.

He was fine before I left. When my family took him out he was really hyper. He made a lot of big jumps and fell on the floor, but he does that a lot and gets back up and tries it again. That and I am the kid. I'm 18. My mom and probably my 15 year old sister took him out so I don't think anything could have happened that they didn't notice.

I tried the pinching of the neck skin thing. It stayed tented for about 5 seconds and slowly went back to normal.

I'll try the sugar water and the tums.

[Secret Squirrel]

Sounds like dehydration and MBD....the parrot food has too many nuts and seeds. Not good for him.....he needs to get on a better diet with lots of natural calcium in the foods he eats. Give him water or pedialyte every half hour for the next 12 hours.
MBD can kill him.......it takes time to properly heal the effects of MBD. If you act fast and change his diet them MBD can be arrested and your little guy will recover.
If he won't stay on the heat source then put him in your shirt against your chest to keep him warm.
Yogurt is a good calcium source which you can get into him ASAP.
Add cuttle bone, deer antler or femur bones and sea shells to his cage for chew toys...they are all good natural sources of calcium.

[Secret Squirrel]

On second thought....do you have a vet you can get him to ASAP.....he really needs to be seem by a professional since he is so sick.
Yes....your baby is sick....don't waste too much time before you get him to an exotic vet.

[atlantasquirrelgirl]

Another bit of advice, get that baby warm. Warm first, hydrate second.

[fallstherain]

We gave him sugar water with ground up calcium tablets in it. We fed it to him through a dropper. He ate a lot. He was looking skinny but he looks a lot fuller than he did. While we fed him he started getting kind of stronger. He actually started grabbing the dropper himself and not letting go of it when it had to be refilled. Then I put him back on the heat source and he did a lap around my room (not his quickest, but still an improvement from the situation) and climbed up my leg and went to sleep on my lap. He seems a lot better. Now he sleeping half under a warm heeting pad. I'm watching him. So does he still need a vet? I don't have one for him. Do you think he'll be alright?

[4skwerlz]

You've gotten good advice.

Warm him up first.

Then rehydrate him with pedialyte, or you can make your own:
--1 teaspoon salt
--3 teaspoons sugar
--1 quart warm water

then feed with a syringe or eyedropper.

[fallstherain]

We gave him sugar water with ground up calcium tablets in it. We fed it to him through a dropper. He ate a lot. He was looking skinny but he looks a lot fuller than he did. While we fed him he started getting kind of stronger. He actually started grabbing the dropper himself and not letting go of it when it had to be refilled. Then I put him back on the heat source and he did a lap around my room (not his quickest, but still an improvement from the situation) and climbed up my leg and went to sleep on my lap. He seems a lot better. Now he sleeping half under a warm heeting pad. I'm watching him. So does he still need a vet? I don't have one for him. Do you think he'll be alright?

Anybody have a response for this??
Thanks for all of your help so far!

[atlantasquirrelgirl]

Since you are seeing some improvement, I'm going to suggest that you keep doing what you are for a while. Sounds like you had a cold/dehydrated/hungry baby. Poor sweetie.

[4skwerlz]

Sorry your thread got interrupted, but don't worry, we're following along.

What AtlantaSquirrelGirl said is true: sounds like he was cold, dehydrated, and hungry. So keep him warm, feed plenty of fluids, and maybe some watermelon, grapes, or other juicy fruit until morning. Then check back in please, and let us know how he's doing.

[Apple Corps]

OK - I found the other posts - please discount my last post :-)

[Secret Squirrel]

I am glad Spike is coming around. He is still a sick baby and it will take time for him to fully recover. It will take several days to get him back up to 100% from being dehydrated as severely as he was. Good job !!! :thumbsup

You may consider finding a vet for any future emergencies that may arise, it's better to have one ready then to have to scramble around at the last second ......time is critical when dealing with a sick squirrel.
Good luck and check out this link. It's for HOF's and their kids !!!!:)
http://www.nfsa.us/phpBB2/index.php?sid=487f6358aaec406b87225812d3c44f11

[Secret Squirrel]

How is Spike doing today ???:dono

[fallstherain]

Hey, thanks for the link secret squirrel. No one ever gives me information on there when its needed though. I posted the same thing on there and someone told me spike was just real tired. And it's the only thing anyone said for like 3 hours. But everyone is really helpful on this forum.

Spike is doing a lot better today. He's running around a lot more. We've been feeding him the mixture of calcium and sugar water 3 times a day. He still seems a little sleepy, but it makes sense after how weak he was yesterday. Thanks again for all of your help.

[skye]

Ok I didn't want to bud in when you needed help. I just want to say now :Welcome and good luck with your little guy Spike. Yes there are many good people here that can help you.:) Hope to hear tomorrow he is doing better.