Running out of options to give meds for pneumonia, help please!

Hi Everyone,

I'm Sarah and my little girl has the beginning of pneumonia. I caught it in time. She is an outside inside squirrel. Mostly outside but comes in when her acorns are out. She has a litter currently that is almost 7 months old. So when she showed up yesterday I was able to get her inside with no problem at all she slept literally all day. Called the vet and they had it ready right before dark, figures. I went and got the RX by the time I got back she was already in bed outside. So I had to wait til this morning. Her litter is just about on their own and has moved out of "Mom's house" but they hang out with Mom before bed and then one goes this way the other her way and Mom goes to her bed. So that's why she's outside and inside. But she too smart I'm running out of options to give her her meds. She is wild and tame, but only to me. But here's the catch if I play mean Mommy then in the future how will I get meds in her if she needs them? Hopefully someone else has had this dilemma. She's really congested and has liquid clavamox. I snuck the first dose past her but now I can't get any in her to save my life. And honestly if I can't it's her life too. So anything would be of a huge help. I've already tried the usual sneak tricks and nope she isn't having it. Please let me know if anyone has any ideas.

Thank you, Sarah Chance's Mom
Please feel free to email huntredneck@gmail.com.

Pneumonia in an adult squirrel is not very common. However, Clavamox in solution is fairly decent tasting so mixing the dose into a booball should work if she will eat a booball? If she really has pnumonia and this is a matter of life and death, I would trap her and keep inside where you can provide treatment. Squirrels will remember this for a while but they seem to "forgive" you once they have been released again. It sounds like her babies are completely independent so bringing her inside will not cause them any issues?

Hello,

Nope no issues and she basically gave me the look of I'm going to bed Mom. She's been sleeping pretty much all day except when she came out of the curtains to eat and stretched and yawned climbed on the couch for a few and groomed and went back to bed. She comes in freely when ever she wants. The babies are fine. I watched them earlier to make sure they were having a blast playing with each other. Nope they don't mind at all. I'm keeping her inside until she's totally clear. Sorry for asking what's a dooball? She eats totally wild food so I'm not sure what that is. Her next dose is in about an hr so any thoughts would be great. Please and even the vet said it's rare for her to get pneumonia. But she's got it and soon as I heard the weezing I called the vet and got the RX filled ASAP. Does anyone have any other ideas for this???

Please and thank you

Sarah

Hi Sarah,
A booball is a mixture of various things. Different folks have different recipes. I make mine with 50/50 mix of Teklad rodent block and almonds. I grind them up very fine, mix together and use organic apple sauce as a binder. The ground almond makes it tastes and smell good, the Tekland block provides nutrients and vitamins. Some people will add other things like almond butter etc to make it attractive.


I make up a softball size booball, place in tupperware in fridge. When I want to feed a squirrel I am am rehabbing, I scoop out two tea spoon sized chunks, roll into a small balls. I also make fresh veggies available but wilds don't seem to like them much. It is easy to mix meds into a booball.

Does she eat nuts? If so, chop/grind some walnuts or pecans quite fine, then use Nutella to glue everything together into a ball. Add the clavamox to the mixture, roll into balls equal to the dose you need. I give meds that taste a lot worse than clavamox to wilds using ground nuts and nutella all the time.

Hello Everyone,

Update- I was able to get the second dose in her last night. I waited until she was sound asleep and right inside the cheek and done. This morning was a bit more trying but I got it in. I'm going to get some almond butter from the organic food store that has zero added sugar. Her absolutely fav is almonds she doesn't get them every day, more like once a week so this will make it Soo much easier. She coughed and sneezed to clear her airway and it landed on my arm that was kind of gross but I was able to get a really good look at it. Yep, green and yucky. Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas. She's anxious to get out but nope not happening little lady. Babies outside are fine and running all over the roof sounds like a small herd LoL.

Have an awesome day everyone and thank you so much for reaching out to me.

Sarah - Chance's Mom

Hi Everyone,

Afternoon update- She's still coughing and still congested but HUGE difference. Now she's just lounging and feeling kind of yucky my poor baby. I count my blessings that I caught it in time. Here in Florida we have moist ground all over. With the humidity it creates mold really really easy. So it's really easy for these little ones to get sick.

She was curious as to why Mommy was taking her picture, she just haaaaddd to come look. Lol. Crazy girl.

Not sure why it attached 2 pictures I double checked and there was only one lol

SarahAttachment 313110Attachment 313110

I’m not a big fan of head mounts but I have to admit, this cracked me up.

:laugh2:laugh2:laugh2:laugh2:laugh2