Kitten milk / unbalanced baby.

[ConkerChild]

A friend gave me a call a short while ago saying he had a friend who found a squirrel. I tell them to give mom a chance to come back for it, but he told me they found it somewhere there were no trees.

Met him just now to grab it. Baby is thin but bloated, he said he /thinks/ they were using kitten milk. I asked if they had been making the baby go to the bathroom, he said they said it has been peeing by itself. (Unlikely, since the eyes are still closed.) I have no idea if this baby has been heated since I told him to keep it warm an hour ago. Baby is also very dehydrated and I'm going to go ahead and give her a sub-c injection.

She is also very unbalanced, and I realize this may be because she is just out of pinky range, but she seemed unusually so.

Do I need to run to walgreens and get baby gas medicine? Is there anything special I should feed her to try and help pass whatever they fed her?

Issues in a nutshell:
Bloating
Fed kitten milk
Prolly hasn't been going to the bathroom.
Dehydration
Balance issues

[ConkerChild]

Poor thing. Her name is Alphonsa.

[PeeWee's Mom]

Awwwww, poor baby! Thank you for getting him!!
What part of Florida are you in?

We once rescued a little guy that had been fed kool aid.... he was all bones. I thought he might die in my hands as we drove him home.
The advice we were given was to hydrate with home made pedialyte for several feeding. Potty like crazy and then start them on 1:3 puppy esbillac w probiotics and to be patient. It was almost a week before he had a regular poop...His body was so malnourished that there wasn't to excrete. He made it and lived on to run free in the trees!

I don't have any experience on the bloating, someone more experienced will get back to you. I don't know about the salt in the hydration if he is already bloated?

You got this!!

[ConkerChild]

I went ahead and gave sub-q, I think the dehydration is the most pressing issue.
After giving her that, I tried to see if she would pee at all. She peed and pooped a tiny bit, but her genitals seem red and swollen, so? Also, her poop was a very runny consistency.

Thanks PeeWeesMom, I'm trying to get everything set up for success. I'm in Marion county, south of Ocala. This is my third squirrel this year, but I don't have a lot of experience dealing with babies that were kept by people who don't have a clue what they are doing for three days.

Kool-aid? FOR REAL? The things that came out of my mouth upon reading that were not polite.

[Nancy in New York]

Check out Leighs site on Baby squirrel care. Very informative.
At the top you will see NEXT, click that on to get to the next page,
this is 6 pages long.
http://www.henryspets.com/baby-squirrel-care/

For the bloat, try gas X (simethicone) a couple of drops,and massages on the belly.
You may also need to do a warm water soak while massaging the belly downward,
to get the gas to release. Just soak his lower half in warm water and massage. Make
sure you dry him off really well IF you do the soak.
Personally for now I would treat with Gas X and massage the belly without the water, since
he is pooping.
I suspect the poop you are seeing now is a result of the formula.

[ConkerChild]

Check out Leighs site on Baby squirrel care. Very informative.
At the top you will see NEXT, click that on to get to the next page,
this is 6 pages long.
http://www.henryspets.com/baby-squirrel-care/

For the bloat, try gas X (simethicone) a couple of drops,and massages on the belly.
You may also need to do a warm water soak while massaging the belly downward,
to get the gas to release. Just soak his lower half in warm water and massage. Make
sure you dry him off really well IF you do the soak.
Personally for now I would treat with Gas X and massage the belly without the water, since
he is pooping.
I suspect the poop you are seeing now is a result of the formula.

Thanks for the webpage! I'll read up on it right now. How much of the gas medicine should I administer? She is 33 grams.

[Mommaluvy]

The genitals.... Maybe she nursed herself

Watch for pus filled bumps. I have had bad luck with kitten milk babies this year. 50% of the kitten milk ones died but.. They were also complicated by staph infections.

Poor baby.

[Nancy in New York]

Thanks for the webpage! I'll read up on it right now. How much of the gas medicine should I administer? She is 33 grams.

I would give .07 every couple of hours as needed.

Here is a 1 cc syringe showing where the dose should be.
Keep us posted on this little one.

[ConkerChild]

Thank you all for your help. I have just returned from work to find that she is passing away.
She was hydrated this morning, her skin wasn't staying tented up when I pinched her, it went right back down. I gave her more fluids this morning which she drank with gusto, and I thought we were getting somewhere.
Now, she looks like a little deflated balloon; very skeletal. She will not drink, she is not moving, just sucking in a breath every few seconds. I think whatever they fed her was the cause of this.

[Nancy in New York]

Thank you all for your help. I have just returned from work to find that she is passing away.
She was hydrated this morning, her skin wasn't staying tented up when I pinched her, it went right back down. I gave her more fluids this morning which she drank with gusto, and I thought we were getting somewhere.
Now, she looks like a little deflated balloon; very skeletal. She will not drink, she is not moving, just sucking in a breath every few seconds. I think whatever they fed her was the cause of this.

I'm SO very sorry to read this.
SammysMom recently went through something exactly like this.

Can you sub q her?
Is she crawling off the heat?
Again, I am SO very sorry.
I so wished there was something I could suggest that would help, other than prayers.
I'm at a loss.



Edit: Was this baby alone all day until you got home?
OR was someone tending to her while you were at work?

[ConkerChild]

She passed away in my hands about 20 minutes after I posted that. I didn't subq her because she was passing the pinch test, and I have been giving her only fluids. For the time that she was with me, she was not thirsty or cold. I just wish I could've gotten her sooner. I talk to the guy who connected me to the people she came from, and gave him the "next time you find a baby squirrel" talk, and told him to relay it to the finders. I just want to buy a couple billboards and put "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, CALL A REHABBER" on it. Ugh. Human beings.