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Thread: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

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    Default Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    A friend of ours called us up with an adult female gray with bite wounds and rear legs paralyzed. I immediately administered a dose of 5mg Cipro upon pickup and administrated 300ug (0.3mg) Tramadol for pain when we got her home. We applied chlorohexadine (hibiclens) to the wounds and she is resting in a tub with some towels.

    My question is how should we deal with the possible broken spine? Should we be hydrating her forcefully? or should we just let here drink from a bowel (which she has not done yet)? What is the proper treatment to give this little girl the best possible outcome?
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    Shewhosweptforest (03-27-2016)

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Niapet, I'm bumping this to the top so others can see it. I haven't personally had a paralyzed squirrel so I don't have any advice but others might suggest a steroid.

    If the spine is broken, depending on where the break is, it might be fatal in a few days. It might not be broken and there might be some hope of returned function. Often these injuries are permanent. Only time will tell. Hopeful someone with experience with this will sound in.

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    Shewhosweptforest (03-27-2016)

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Niapet thank you for helping this lil one...and giving her a chance

    Your concerns are valid about exacerbating the situation....but in order to help her you need to take the chance. I would burrito her heavily.....as a makeshift body cast I would keep her on the Tramadol that will make her relax....so definitely hydrate I would also get my hands on some dex or pred....to help with any inflammation and reduce swelling that may be causing her paralysis. You also need to check to see if she is urinating on her own....if not sure I would palpatate her bladder to see if it's full the rest is a waiting game to see whether she responds to the meds...and tolerates you handling her you may want to give molasses to help with shock symptoms....if you can..it won't be easy...I'd check her gums to make sure they have good color...pink...not pale or gray keeping her in a small bin is good

    Good luck....I pray she rallies and starts moving those legs...poor baby.
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    Spanky (03-27-2016)

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    It is hard to tell if she is getting the medications down or if they are drooling out of her mouth. She is the first wild adult I've delt with. When Imp was a baby he slurped down all his meds, and when he had a gash on his side once, we gave Cipro and it was easy to tell he was swallowing it, because i could massage his throat without fear of biting. With this wild girl, its a whole different ball game =/
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Well good news, she made it through the first night and is a lot more feisty this morning, though that could be because the Tramadol has worn off. She took her meds better this morning, and even drank some home made pedialyte, from a syringe (i made it at home from honey, water and saline because the store bought stuff had phosphates in it and that seemed like a poor choice for a squirrel).

    We noticed her nipples are visible, as in hair not covering them, but not swollen. I was a bit worried she might have pups, or even be pregnant, but I have no experience with females.
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    Shewhosweptforest (03-28-2016)

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Maybe you could post a picture of her overall as well as her nips? That may help folks evaluate and even provide some potential feedback.

    Can you elaborate on the bite wounds... does it seem like a cat bite or maybe a dog? Or something else like a hawk? Where was she bitten / where are there puncture wounds? I am wondering if the paralysis is a puncture along the pine or maybe from a dog shaking here.

    Do you have a vet that can see her?

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    They seem more like puncture wounds than a bite from what we've been able to tell, because it appears to be one on each side instead of 2, on each side of her spine where she is paralyzed. It definitely appears her back is broken. It's difficult to examine the wounds closely because she just wants to hide, but we will try to get some pictures.

    Her nipples aren't swollen at all, they're just visible. Will work on getting pictures.

    We know of no vet who can see her. Anywhere we bring her will euthanize her due to the fact it appears she won't be releasable. We are trying to give her the best shot we can.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Okay, pictures don't show much until we can get rid of more of the hair, but she has one puncture wound on each side of her spine. Her spine appears broken, and she may have a broken rib under one wounds, but she can't feel anything from her chest down. Her heart and lungs are working fine, she has no control over her bladder and bowels though, she just goes. On one side, the matted hair over the wound is working like a scab, so that little bit I am afraid to remove. We are slowly removing more of the hair around the wound areas.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    We are still working on getting pics that would be of any use, but if i were to hazard a guess, I would say she was hit by a hawk. The wounds are on both sides of her body and they are not very big, as in not anywhere near the size of a dog's mouth. The only think I can think of that could break her back and leave this size wound would be a bird of prey, but I am not an expert on the subject.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    A picture with the location of the spinal injury might help folks here to offer suggestions. Can you feel the break? I would let her drink on her own if she will do it consistently but if not then use a syringe or sub-Q if you have too. Check her bladder regularly and make sure she does not need to be expressed?

    Poor thing, she sounds very badly hurt.
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    What do you mean by check her bladder? Just feel to see if she is voiding? I also can't give fluids, or meds, sc or im, because I have no access to needles and don't know of any sympathetic local vets. We have had to rely on oral route for everything, which is suboptimal considering her back injury.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Feel her bladder and make sure she is voiding and not building up urine. Here is how to express the bladder if needed:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cf0CwuDvlM


    Quote Originally Posted by niapet View Post
    What do you mean by check her bladder? Just feel to see if she is voiding? I also can't give fluids, or meds, sc or im, because I have no access to needles and don't know of any sympathetic local vets. We have had to rely on oral route for everything, which is suboptimal considering her back injury.
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
    https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...quirtle-s-Yard!

    Loving dad to Sir Max, 2017-2018. There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world.

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Quote Originally Posted by niapet View Post
    What do you mean by check her bladder? Just feel to see if she is voiding? I also can't give fluids, or meds, sc or im, because I have no access to needles and don't know of any sympathetic local vets. We have had to rely on oral route for everything, which is suboptimal considering her back injury.
    We use a syringe to give meds and fluids orally. We do not use a needle, we do not inject.
    With subQing fluids of course one has to use a needle. If a vet (or a doctor) were to send one
    home with meds most would be in the same form as we already administer them, orally.
    The purposes of oral medications and injections are the same, they are achieved differently.

    Do you see/feel an obvious "lump" on her back that gives you the indication it's broken?
    Non use of back legs due to injury often relates to nerve or spinal injury, does not necessarily
    mean the back is "broken."
    Many of these injured babies such as yours respond very well with the use of predisone, some
    even re-gain the use of or partial use of their legs, bladder, etc. We have even had a back broken/
    fractured baby show remarkable improvement on meds although I'm unsure of just what type med
    she was particularly taking.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Her back has a noticeable bend in it when she drags herself around. Running a finger lightly down the spine does not reveal any noticeable gaps in the vertebrae but there is a hard spot under the wound on her left side. I think that might be swelling, or a broken rib. Her spine does seem bent when she drags herself but that could be because that part of her body is paralyzed, and therefore limp from that region down.. I really do not know.

    I am concerned about the fact she wont eat solid food. She has started drinking the honey/molasses/vitamin(imps squirrel vitamins) mixture. I am trying to prepare a similar solution that has some olive oil in emulsion with the rest the fluids via a long time on a magnetic stir plate (I'm a biochemist so I have access to helpful devices like this). My thinking is that olive oil is calorie dense and will deliver lipids that the molasses mixture will not. If I can get an emulation formed, the vitamin d in the vitamin mix should be absorbed better also.

    Lastly, I tried to make a brace out of popsicle sticks and Imp's harness. The harness is the type meant for ferrets. We cant seem to get it on her though; she puts her head into her hands and tries to hide her face when we try to put the thing on her. Imp hates the thing too =P. We do have Ativan (lorazepam) available if that is safe to use to sedate her. If any of you know if benzodiazepines are safe for squirrels, and at what dose, we could use that to sedate her and get the brace on. The strength of Ativan, mg/kg, combined with its not wonderful solubility in water, makes me think it would not be suitable to prepare for her...

    Note: she is not a baby, she is adult size, a rather big girl too. I don't have any prednisone, but i suppose I could order some with overnight shipping if any vets are willing to let me put their name down on 1800petmeds. We have been giving her ibuprofen with the Tramadol so she has had some antinflammatory aid, though obviously not as powerful as a steroid.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Quote Originally Posted by Spanky View Post
    Maybe you could post a picture of her overall as well as her nips? That may help folks evaluate and even provide some potential feedback.
    I really felt this was worth re-posting.

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    We will try to get a pic of these things. The only time we try to get the pics is during meds and feeding time, because with the spinal injury, we dont want to move her more than absolutely necessary.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

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    It’s hard to get a good shot while she is sleeping. The missing hair is our doing; we clipped off the hair around the wound and irrigated it. I will try to get a picture of her nipples in the morning when she gets her next dose of meds. It is probably better not to mover her for something not as critical.
    Sciurus meus amicum optimum est!

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    Thank you for posting the pictures, but I now have to agree that unfortunately the pictures do not reveal much.

    It has been posted previously steroids (pred/dex) may help if the paralysis is do to inflammation and not an actual fracture of the spine. If her back is broken, it may be more merciful and compassionate to take her to a vet. But if this is believed not to be a break (hard to determine without an x-ray?), giving the the steroids sooner is better since minimizing the inflammation can reduce damage that can occur from inflammation over the long term.

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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    I don't have access to steroids and we don't have a sympathetic vet nearby. If it is possible to send some we can discuss that via pm, we would pay for the meds and shipping.

    As for whether it would be more humane to euthanize her... well she seems to still have an instinct to go on living at this point... I suppose my take on the matter would be to see if she makes it, and if she is paralyzed, but healed, then we would see if she is domesticateable (eg won't bite). If that is the case we may be able to provide her with some quality of life worth living. However I have never delt with a parallized squirrel, I don't know if they can be happy in captivity or not.

    PS Is there any way to tell if the spine is intact by examination? Can feeling the spine with my fingers reveal anything? I tried running my fingers along Imp's spine to get an idea of what is normal, but he is really muscular and it's hard to even feel his cervical vertebrae.
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    Default Re: Adult female squirrel with bite wounds, legs paralyzed

    It's hard to explain online- and this sounds crazy- but if you know anyone who hunts or traps squirrels: they'd be able to show you directly how to see if the spine has broken, usually. I'm kind of...fond of the so-called lost cause cases, myself- for future reference, doing all you can to make friends with a vet is a big deal, but even then, most of them will say euthanize. Having said that- even if you don't have a fracture, I would say with those legs being as they are: you most likely do have an injury that will prevent eventual release. I say that, still yet cheering you on and hoping it's not the case, but from what you've said and what little I can see in these photos, you should start thinking about her long term care- or, well, the other option of euthanization. I've known a few rehabbers who ended up with adult wilds with similar issues and well, they are resilient little boogers, so don't think I'm advocating one way or another, because I have also seen squirrels that seem like they're paralyzed for a few days: but suddenly, aren't. Just...kinda keeping it real. (I mentioned in my intro, I do mostly eastern cottontail rabbits- so, keeping it real kinda saves my sanity most of the time. MOOOST.) I think the big concern is if she's getting blood flow to the lower extremities. If her legs are colder than the rest of her, you're going to have to get her to the vet- being really honest, with the spinal injury, I'd try anyway. The subQ fluids really aren't that big of a deal, if you have to do it, I promise- I usually do them on the hips, 4 times a day, depending on the size of the squirrel. I used to get ringers from shopmedvet.com or something along those lines. (It's been a while, I apologize, last time I had to use ringers was parvo pups.)


    I'm not quite all the way coffeed right now- but, if you haven't been doing so, you can get some betadine solution at Wal Mart and you need to be mixing it with saline- make sure the saline's around .9% and flush those wounds out. Keep an eye out for abscesses as you clean this, they happen and they happen fast. A large needle to puncture, drain it, rinse with the betadine solution if it comes to that. I *think* I read you were already doing antibiotics, but if not, do. (I'm trying not to repeat stuff you already addressed, but I'm pulling 3 hour sleep shifts. LOL)

    Anyway, you've only had her a couple days. Give it a couple more, keep the wounds clean and if you can get ahold of a rehabber close by, or via PM who has access to not just what you need, but, can help you learn to do it at a distance- go for it. Good luck. Definitely rooting for you.

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