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Thread: Ahrlan is having seizures

  1. #1
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    Default Ahrlan is having seizures

    I heard him chirping so I went to go check on him. I opend his house box and he was walking around looking dazed. His tail is all fluffed up and he keeps trying to climb to the top shelf of his cage and falls from half way up. I put him on a heating pad in a small plastic bin for now to stop him from climbing. Every time i touch him he jumps and starts shaking all over. What should I do? He used to do this before but never this bad.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Get calcium into him immediately...
    I'm looking stuff up not too familiar with chipmunks...


    Emergency Treatment for Metabolic Bone Disease

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Emergency Treatment for Metabolic Bone Disease (updated 3-31-09)

    Get calcium into the squirrel IMMEDIATELY, not later, not tomorrow, NOW. Delaying treatment can cause death or permanent paralysis.

    You will need:

    --Tums or calcium pills (any kind)
    --a syringe, eyedropper, or spoon

    Crush one Tums or calcium pill and add a little water or fruit juice. Use the syringe, eyedropper, or spoon to force-feed the mixture, a little at a time, until it is all gone. Feed a total of 600-800 mg of calcium, and spread it out through the day and night to keep his blood calcium levels as steady as possible.

    If the squirrel is having seizures, weakness, or paralysis, the symptoms will usually improve within a few hours, but this does not mean the squirrel is cured. It will take many months to rebuild the calcium in the bones.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    I am just copying and posting what I can find to try to help you...

    Okay, it's important to keep her very warm. Low blood calcium interferes with all bodily functions: breathing, circulation, digestion.... So keep her warm. You can keep her next to your skin, or you can make her a rice buddy, which is an old sock filled with dry beans or rice, microwave it for around 20-30 seconds until it's toasty warm but not hot and put it next to her.

    I would crush up one more Tums with water, and give her a little bit once per hour until by morning you have given her the whole pill. You can also give a little pedialyte or fruit juice, no food til morning.

    Try to dribble a little bit just inside her lips so that it goes onto her gums. Then let her swallow it on her own. Philomycus is correct that you don't want to aspirate her; that is, you don't want her to accidentally inhale the fluid.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    He doesn't have mbd calcium is part of his weekly diet

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Can you tell us exactly what Ahrlan eats, including supplements? It takes more than just calcium to prevent MBD; a lack of other minerals or nutrients can also cause it.
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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Romaine lettuce

    Baby carrot (every other week)

    Bell Pepper

    Cucumber

    Spinach

    Portabella Mushroom

    avacado

    A few kernals of fresh corn

    a few green beans

    a few peas
    -----
    Small piece of whole wheat bread

    a few cherrios
    ------
    1 cherry

    1 blackberry

    1 blueberry
    -------
    small dab of peanut butter
    --------
    spoonfull of yogurt
    -------
    1/4th cup of chipmunk food

    which can be found here http://www.cunipic.com/ if you go to the "Home > Productos > Alimento > Alimento Conejos y Roedores > ARDILLA"

    --------

    5 mealworms

    -------

    2 squirrel blocks

    -------
    1/4th tum once a week

    He hasn't had squirrel blocks in a few months.
    His food is chopped into a small salad.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    I came across this while trying to find help for your little one...this is from Jackie in Tampa


    Re: FLYING SQUIRREL SEIZURES!

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Fred recently was reading/studying 'calcium avenues' for me. He read the tums ingredients and started the study on them....he has found that the other ingredients do not allow calcium to absorb...
    According to nutritional books used for RN training, he thinks tums is not the calcium fix we thought it was.
    Fred i not a rocket scientists, but is sure that is the jist of the study.
    Just a heads up...
    I will no longer recommend Tums as a quick fix...
    jmo.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    so if not tums then what?

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    A calcium pill...you would find them in the vitamin section of any store...
    How is the little one doing?

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    All I have right now are tums it will have to do untill tomorrow.
    He has stopped trying to climb. He is curled up in a ball shaking.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    When was the last time he ate? Blood sugar dropping can cause seizures, as well.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    He must have eaten some time this morning. I was out most of the day but left him with a saucer of his food like I always do. He only ate half of what he normaly does.

    Also for his food he gets a bit of radish and apple every day.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Does he like anything like applesauce or yogurt or something you may be able to get him to lick off your finger (applesauce for now would be good if he will take it). It will help to bring up his bloodsugars if they are low.

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Yea I have yogurt downstairs. I've never tried giving him apple sauce. Which would be better?

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Try the yogurt -- or a bit of maple syrup or Karo syrup -- it may be low blood sugar....
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  16. #16
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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    PF -- you said he used to have seizures in the pas t-- did you know the cause back then?
    Island Rehabber
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  17. #17
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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    No I've never found out what caused them. They just happen in winter. He seems alert and responsive now. He is trying to get out of the plastic bin. Does this mean he is ok now?

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    If Ahrlan hasn't had his rodent block in a few months, that could have caused MBD. He's eating a good selection of veggies, but 1/4 tums once a week isn't enough calcium, and the corn and chippie mix will be very high in phosphorus. Plus spinach interferes with calcium absorption. Spinach is not recommended on the Healthy Diet.

    I'm afraid it looks like with his current diet, it COULD be MBD.

    Crush up the Tums in water and get it down him. One whole Tums. I agree some molasses or something sweet rubbed on his gums can help too.
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  19. #19
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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    PF, you said he did this before? How long ago and how often was it?

    If he has not been eating his Rodent Blocks for months he may not be getting enough calcium. Also, the light is getting a lot less here in New England; if he hasn't been getting enough sunlight then he can't absorb the calcium, either. This is the time of year that people get SADS from lack of sunlight. Better give him emergency MBD treatment and a full spectrum light, too.

    On another note, Ahrlan has been exhibiting other signs lately of not being well, signs that you attributed to hibernation and then to his being angry with you (lethargy and the peeing on his food). Could this have been coming on for while now?

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    Default Re: Ahrlan is having seizures

    Quote Originally Posted by psychotic feather
    No I've never found out what caused them. They just happen in winter. He seems alert and responsive now. He is trying to get out of the plastic bin. Does this mean he is ok now?
    With a POSSIBLE history of MBD in the past, Ahrlan would be much more prone to getting it, even with a short period of too-little calcium. The fact that he has improved quickly after the Tums also is a strong indicator of MBD.

    It seems unlikely that a well-fed pet with a full food dish would have low blood sugar.
    Henry's Healthy Pets
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    The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations… ~Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

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