Is she dehydrated and constipated? Or is she neither?

[1 4 Precious]

I've had the little squirt since August, I'm pretty sure, since she was about 5-6 weeks old. when I found her she was not using her back legs, and she was not moving her tail. a couple of days later she was moving her tail, and using her back legs a tiny bit. she slowly got bigger, but did not use her legs. then about a month ago we took her to a vet, and he said that she was paralyzed for life. since then she has gotten kinda hard down between her back legs, and has been pooping hard, black turds, for....I'd say...(when we noticed it) two weeks or so. then last night she did one really dark brown turd, and two black turds. all of them were really hard. the thing that really confuses me is that, in all the research I've done, the only thing that matches her being dehydrated and constipated is her poop. she loves to eat, she is VERY active, and is pretty happy. I just noticed today that her genitalia area is turning purplish. that's not natural, is it? what do I do for her? how can I help her?
Please tell me if this is the wrong place to post this.

[farrelli]

Everyone's going to want to know her diet and how you feed her over the day. We see a lot of MBD here, which might be the source of her paralysis. It is often reversible if found early by diet change. Diet in squirrels is CRITICAL. You should review the Nutrition section:

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/f...play.php?f=191

And the MBD section. You might want to start emergency treatment if she hasn't been paralyzed for long.

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=34495

[Kebtaz]

Is she peeing on her on or do you have to make her due to being paralyzed? Is the poop sitting there for a while or is it hard coming out of her?

[1 4 Precious]

well, since we are really busy, and since she is big enough to eat large nuts all by her self, I usually just put the nuts in her bowl. she eats apple slices, pecans, almonds occasionally, and I was giving her walnuts and pine nuts, then I ran out of them. when she was younger, she LOVED the pine nuts. now that she is older, I give her some grapes, and she absolutely loves them. I had given her one and that's when she pooped the brown turd. she does go pee by herself, and when she was younger, she never went for me, I would try till my arms hurt, then I would put her down, and she would pee. it was hilarious! she has been paralyzed since we found her. I'm fairly sure its hard coming out of her.

[farrelli]

Well, as you are abut to find out, nuts should be treats only, maybe a couple a day. Squirrels need calcium and her diet right now lacks it significantly. Lack of calcium is the cause of MBD (which she may or may not have right now but surely will in the future), and MBD causes paralysis, seizures, and death. We've seen a two or three die in just the past week or so. What you need, as you will see from the nutrition thread, are rodent blocks, ideally Henry's Health Blocks (HHBs). They should form the bulk of a squirrel's diet. They provide the the right balance of nutrients to keep a squirrel healthy when they're not getting their natural diet that they'd get in the wild (they eat way more things that you'd ever expect). Regular blocks can be gotten at any pet store, but HHBs are available only online. In the end, they are actually the cheapest, densest, most easily accepted block available when you do the math. Someone other than me (one of our experts) would have to say whether any MBD would be reversible at this point, but they will ward it off and save you terrible heartbreak and your squirrel terrible pain and a horrible death. If she does have MBD, and you should probably treat her as if she does due to her diet, her bones may be very brittle and she may be in pain though not show it. I'm sure others will be on this topic shortly and be able to advise about the poop.

[farrelli]

Btw, here's the healthy diet pyramid thread. Those who follow it have a healthy friend for many years. It's especially important seeing that, as you may know, most vets have no real knowledge of squirrels and generally want to put them down for any reason, often for legal reasons. Finding a vet can be heard, so being proactive in healthcare is very important.

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=32218

There's LOTS to learn here. I've been on the board for maybe three months and still learn something new every day.

[farrelli]

Oh, and the usual test for dehydration is the pinch test. Pinch a fold of skin behind her neck and see if it stays tented. Just like if you do it on the back of your hand, the should immediately smooth back out and not stay tented.

[1 4 Precious]

I tried doing it on her neck, but she has no extra skin. I did it lower, on her shoulder blade, and it didn't go back immediately, but not really slow, either.

[farrelli]

Push the fluids then. If she won't drink plain water, some people sweeten it a little, often with a bit of apple juice.

A bit of pumpkin can also clear out constipation. Prunes work too.

[1 4 Precious]

how often should I give her prunes? or pumpkin.

[farrelli]

I've never done it and I just searched through the threads for people who have (I don't know if you have access to search right now), and out of maybe 10-15 threads that I found, no one ever states an amount, just to not overdo it so as to cause the opposite problem. My guess? Maybe a half of one and see how it goes. I'm surprised that no one else has been on this thread yet. It's usually a lot of help really fast. Maybe everyone's busy at work right now.

[Sara89nicole]

Try to rehydrate before giving anything for constipation. Dehydration can be a culprit behind constipation, when dehydrated the digestive tract has a harder time moving waste through, the large intestine will soak up the water from the food passing through, causing hardened stools.

[SammysMom]

This thread is cause for dietary concerns. If she is eating properly her bowels will likely get on the right track. I personally would start by administering the Emergency MBD treatment. You will need Tums, preferably fruit flavored and water.
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.

Long-Term Treatment for MBD

The next step to curing MBD is to fix the diet.

1. Remove ALL seeds, nuts, corn, and treats.

2. Follow the Healthy Diet For Pet Squirrels, which can be found at the top of the “Squirrel Nutrition” forum. (http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=16093) Your squirrel MUST eat rodent block or squirrel blocks every day. If your squirrel doesn't like rodent blocks, you can try crushing them up with peanut butter or avocado temporarily. You can also make a tastier version of squirrel blocks using the recipe at the top of the Squirrel Nutrition forum.

3. In addition to the Healthy Diet, you will need to continue giving extra calcium every day for several weeks. Either use the syringe/eyedropper or you can try putting the calcium on a small piece of fruit.

Week 1: calcium = 500 mg per day
Week 2: calcium = 250 mg per day
Weeks 3-8: calcium = 100 mg per day

The cause of the acute symptoms—weakness, lethargy, seizures, paralysis—is a drop in blood calcium levels. If these symptoms return at any time, you will need to give another emergency dose of calcium.

More Tips
MBD causes brittle bones that break easily. Try to keep your squirrel away from high places, where he might jump and break a bone. Also, if he is in a tall cage, either place him in a smaller cage, or pad the bottom very well.

Heat is very soothing for a squirrel with MBD. A heating pad turned to low and placed so they cannot chew the pad or cord, or a rice buddy (a sock filled with dry rice/beans and microwaved for about 20 seconds) will work.
Reply With Quote

[farrelli]

One question SammysMom, I've seen people who give the Tumms treatment complain that their squirrel gets a bit constipated, so should she make sure about the hydration first?

Btw, 1 4 Precious, Henry's sells an MBD kit, so you might want to get that. It has regular blocks along with some MBD treatment stuff. A bag of regular blocks should last a month or so.

http://www.henryspets.com/mbd-treatment-kit/

[SammysMom]

Just be sure to get enough fluids into him and the constipation should resolve itself with a good diet.

[1 4 Precious]

Thanks SO much for the info. I will try to get what you have recommended asap.

[1 4 Precious]

Is it normal for squirrels with MBD to have no feeling in the back legs? the vet we took her to pinched her toes hard on both sides, and she didn't even flinch.

[farrelli]

Just go to the website:

http://www.henryspets.com/mbd-treatment-kit/

The MBD kit is $37 and has about a month's worth of "picky eater" blocks included. A regular month's worth is $18 for an adult and $20 for a youth or picky eater (which yours might be at first).

http://www.henryspets.com/mbd-treatment-kit/

But you really should start with the Tums. I cannot say if it's too late to reverse paralysis (if it was caused by MBD) but her current diet is not only VERY low in calcium but actually strips the calcium from her due to the phosphorous balance.

Just stick around and don't be afraid to ask ANY questions. The people on here are amazing beyond belief. (Really, you won't believe the extremes people got to here to help a squirrel.) And we have several experts who can help with all manner of issues. They, quite literally, tend to know far more about squirrels than most vets. There are actually several vets who use this as a resource for treatment.

Please keep us posted! We worry about these stories and whether or not people are giving proper treatment and if the squirrel is responding. People who just show up only to quickly disappear frighten us because we assume either the squirrel died or they were unwilling to learn and accept help.

Thanks for caring about your buddy!

[farrelli]

I believe so, yes. I know that calcium deficiency plays havoc with the nervous system, thus the paralysis. There have been several instances of vets saying that it was due to spinal trauma, but after MBD treatment, full or partial mobility is restored. Yours have been a long time in the works though, so I don't know if that would be possible in this case. MBD treatment is still necessary, however, because rear paralysis is usually just the beginning of the downturn. Seizures and death generally follow. Like I said, that's happened to 2-3 users with cases similar to yours in just the last week.

[1 4 Precious]

I'm not sure if she is a picky eater, but I hope she's not. we are going really soon to buy the Tums, so I will be starting on them right away. well, I hope this works. I will keep you posted, promise!