Baby bitten by ants!

[MissDolittle]

I just got her in half an hour ago. I gave her amoxicillin and put benadryl on
the wounds. I hope that was alright. She was thirsty and drank well. She is
warm and not dehydrated.

Her left hind leg is moving back and forth, not quite trembling, but it looks like
she had no control over that leg, but then it was fine again. No other injuries
that I could see.

I don't know if those were fire ants or not..but does anybody know how bad
the ant poison is for them? The people also brought me her 2 siblings that have
already passed.

She doesn't act sick or anything, just a bit weak. She was found last night at 9 PM.
The lady fed her KMR..at least not cow's milk. She thought it was a kitten.

[atlantasquirrelgirl]

I had a baby attacked by fire ants. He was well furred, and didn't realize it until they scabbed up. It looked very similar to your picture. He didn't seem affected by it, but I kept him on Trimeth for a week to ward off any other ailments.

[Squirrelly1]

You can also administer children's Benadryl (no alcohol) diluted at .1 cc Benadryl to .9 cc water. But I am soooo frustrated - because I cannot find the recommended dosage per weight......
If all else fails call and ask a vet for rec. dosage for a kitten at close to the same amount of grams that your little one is....
I am going to keep looking through my journal and try to find it.

[MissDolittle]

Thanks! That gives me hope!

I only used topical Benadryl on the bites. It seems to work, they are going
down a bit. I counted over 50 bites...that poor baby! I'll call my vet tomorrow,
all closed right now.

[muffinsquirrel]

This is a 3 day old flyer I had last year that was really covered with fire ant bites. He did not make it, and if I had it to do over again, i would pop every one of the pus filled bites and then use an antibiotic. I think that there was just too much infection for his small body to fight it off.



I hope you have better luck with yours - it was really heartbreaking. Since your baby is larger, maybe he'll be able to fight harder. I do not know if popping the bites would have saved my baby or not, but I decided that I would be much more aggressive in caring for the next one I got like that.

muffinsquirrel
JudyC.

[MissDolittle]

Urghs! I have been googling to see if I find something online, but no luck so
far. I would love to pop those things if I knew for sure that's the right thing to
do. I'll keep looking..if I haven't found anything by the next feeding in 2 hours
I'll go for it! How would you clean and treat the wounds?

[MissDolittle]

I read about the treatment when humans get stung. The stuff hurts only
locally and doesn't go into the system, unless the person is allergic. Since
Mona (I named her Mona Lisa hehe) has these stings or bites for over 24 hours
and is still seems to be ok, she can't be allergic.

It also says to leave those bumps alone and cool them with ice once they
appear. Well, I'm not gonna put ice on that baby. I guess I just wait and see
and hope for a miracle.

[Squirrelly1]

I think you are doing good with the topical Benadryl. I would be afraid to ice something so tiny.... could cause tissue death and make your little babies body temp drop too much. As long as there aren't extensive bites, she should be fine. In dealing with bites that covered the extent of the babies body we would always give Benadryl by mouth - because when something swells on the outside of the body it swells on the inside too.
She honestly doesn't look too badly bitten up, IMO I think that with the topical she should be just fine - I have seen much worse.


You are doing a great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the the good work!! Thoughts and prayers are with you and Mona Lisa!

[MissDolittle]

Thank you Hun, I passed it on to Mona . The bumps are 50% down! But she
has diarrhea and wouldn't eat even half a cc. But I also know it's normal after
she got KMR and Pedialyte and Antibiotics and now Esbilac. I'll stick with the
Esbilac now and she'll turn normal soon. Providing she beats the poison and
the wounds.

[Momma Squirrel]

Miss D, I wish you and Mona the best of luck. I really don't know how you do it day after day, but I am very glad you are there to help these little guys as much as possible. It is your turn for sure to have a GOOD outcome. Our thoughts are with you

[Squirrelly1]

How are we doing today???

[Mrs. Jack]

All those little bites just make me want to cry. Nature is too hard for me sometimes. I'm glad baby is with you and wish you both the best.

[Secret Squirrel]

Wow....you really have your hands full with this lil one MissDo! One of our members Sparkysmom raised sparky from a pup....he was eaten up by fire ants too. He made it just fine....so there is hope you might check out her early posts to see what she did......but we haven't heard from sparkysmom lately.
Any way keep us posted on this special baby!!!

[MissDolittle]

Thank ya'll!!! Mona is doing good ! She is a bit of a finicky eater compared
to Itzy Bitzy, but at least she takes it slow. The wounds you could see in the
picture that look like cat bite wounds but are ant bites (do they now sting or
bite??), are closed already.

So now all we got to do is get her digestion back to normal and the skin cleared
up. I couldn't see any pus in those bumps this morning anymore .

[thundersquirrel]

wow, poor baby. i'm sure that as the bites cure, she'll feel a little better and want to eat more. keep us updated on her progress.

[Momma Squirrel]

Miss D how is Mona today??? With your new arrival of the coon Ridgie and Mona you really have your hands full. Need update.

[MissDolittle]

Thanks Momma .

Mona is constipated now! She has always a big belly but is not bloated. Looks
like I have to make the formula thinner for today and see if that helps some.
But otherwise she's ok.

I also found a great home for the coon from where he will be released, whoohoo!
I'll post about that in the coon thread .

[Momma Squirrel]

Great news on the coon, will give you more time to concentrate on little miss Mona. keep us posted.

[MissDolittle]

BLOAT!!!! I don't know what it is with the babies here and bloating, but holy cow
did she balloon up.

Here is a picture..I know the blisters look bad, but they are actually drying up,
makes them look worse:



You can see her ribs and bones, but her belly is big. She put up her tail today
for the first time and she is always hungry, but I do not feed her more than
1 cc at a time. I added some infant anti-gas drops, but they didn't make a
difference.

I held her in warm water and rubbed her belly for 5 minutes..nothing. She
doesn't poop.

I just fed her a half cc with a drop Mylanta in it..hopefully that works.
All she gets is Esbilac..how can that be?

Also, I just got a little boy in, Tommy. He is dehydrated and weak. I found
a bite mark on his hip, so I tried to give him antibiotics right away, but I
cant' get him to swallow for the life of me. Any idea how to get that stuff
into him? He's getting cold real fast and keeps falling over..and he just got
a nose bleed.

[Mrs. Jack]

My little boy (the ant lover) just saw these pics, and I have to say he is really upset. But I told him about you and how good you're taking care of him, and he wants you to know you're wonderful Good luck with the bloat, that's not good.


I do not know if this works for baby squirrels.. but the best way to get rid of gas/constipation in a baby human is to support them on their back, and bring their legs up into a kind of bicycling motion.. it did the trick every time.