2-3 week old baby - lots of questions about weight gain and habits
Hello all! I am so grateful for this board, what an excellent resource this is! I have some minor experience with rehabbing wildlife and have a very strong interest in pursuing it as a hobby / career / calling. I would love to believe that I am on the journey to my first squirrel rehabbing success story, but I would like to consult you all as "experts" to make sure I am doing the right things to set my new little friend up for success. There are a handful of rehabilitators in my general area - I have reached out to one and she said she could not take on any more babies currently, but could refer me to others who may be able to help. I am 100% willing to turn my squirrel over to a seasoned rehabber if necessary, but really would like to give this a go, as I am enjoying it so much (and have the time and ability to dedicate to this project).
I found a baby eastern grey squirrel in my yard on Thursday 2/23/17. She was found in the middle of a clearing between trees, at dusk, being stalked by my barn cats. She had minor scratches on her (assumed from the cats), was very cold to the touch and pale, labored breathing. I searched the area for more babies and brought her inside, as I did not feel comfortable leaving her for mom with her injuries (and as the sun was setting, and with the cats still lurking around, etc.). I immediately set her up in a cardboard box (temporarily - she is now in an appropriate clear plastic container with window cut in the lid and wire mesh duct taped over the window) with a heating pad and some flannel. I washed her wounds with warm water and treated topically with neosporin - I consulted my vet (who does treat exotics) and was given directions on what to watch for with the wounds and offered to RX antibiotics as needed - I have her emergency 24 hour cell phone number for this purpose. At this point, the scratches are healing up great and there is no sign of infection what so ever! She does not appear to be injured in any way that I can tell.
Once her skin was warm to the touch, I did the pinch test and it took several seconds for a pinched fold of skin to return to even mostly-flat. She would not urinate with stimulation. I got her started on unflavored pedialyte every 2-3 hours via 1 cc syringe. We continued the pedialyte, offering her as much as she was interested in taking (anywhere from 1.5 - 3 cc), for almost 24 hours, repeating the test frequently and watching for urination (almost none, or very small amounts). At 24 hours, her skin was would return to flat within about 2 seconds of pinching, she was clearly much more active, and finally gave us a good pee and a significant poop (black, hard). At that point we began watered down Esbilac (the correct powder version prepared in a 1:2 ratio) at 1 part formula to 3 parts water, then 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, and then full strength formula by the 6th feeding. She is having healthy poops (golden, formed but soft, at least 2x day) and regular urination (clear, odorless, amount varies - sometimes small amounts sometimes wets a whole tissue within one potty session, about 5-6x day). She has been on full strength formula for 3 days now (though we did do some alternating pedialyte and formula feedings on Sunday when she was seeming a bit dehydrated again).
I have been offering her as much as 3cc formula every 3 hours (5 am, 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, 8 pm, 11 pm). I had been getting up overnight at 2am for another feeding, but read that was not necessary, so I did not do a 2 am feeding this morning. Yesterday evening after 5 feedings (before her 8pm feeding), she weighed 49 g. This morning before her 8am feeding, she weighed ~47.5 g (she was having a hard time holding still - very anxious to eat - but the number settled at 47.5).
She does get drowsy during feedings, much like a human baby, and I find myself having to wake her to get her to eat more than 1 cc. Some feedings, she is voracious and will eat the first 1-2 ccs faster than I can warm the formula, and then slow down on the last syringe. Other feedings, it is a chore to get her to finish a full 1 cc syringe. Is there any reasoning for this that you guys can think of? Should I be worried about her not eating the minimum 5% of her weight per feeding? How do I make sure she is eating enough? I believe she is underweight, if she is as old as I think she is (see below). At her 5am feeding this morning she took about 2.8cc, at 8 am she took about 2.8 cc, and just now at 11 am she took barely 1.5 cc before falling asleep.. and the last half a cc was a chore for me waking her up, making her crawl around, petting her, talking to her, etc. to keep her actively suckling. I gave up after 1.5cc, when she was just curling into a sweet little ball and totally refusing to suck... I can't really force her to drink it other than letting a little drop or two fall on her lips and trying to encourage her to keep drinking.
I am also having a hard time determining her age. When I first found her, she was very pale and thin and sad looking - I assumed 10-12 days old. That being said, within the first 24 hours and getting her rehydrated, she perked up so much that I thought she was more likely between the 2-3 weeks range. If she was truly ~10 days on Thursday, then as of today she would be hitting the 2 week mark... but if she is closer to 3 weeks as I suspect, then she is pretty underweight from what I can tell. She has light fur all over her body except legs, belly (which are pink, and have just the slightest bit of white hair - very scattered 1 or 2 hairs here and there). Her tail has furred out significantly compared to what it looked like 5 days ago. The slit in her eyes is well-defined. Her ears have just started to stick out from her head (and are absolutely precious). I do not see any teeth. Whiskers are abundant. I guess the ultimate point of really trying to pinpoint her age is to make sure she is on track weight-wise and developmentally.
Progression from first 24 hours:
Progression from past 3 days - lots of new fur on body and tail, ears popped out:
She really could not be cuter if she tried though
My questions:
1. How old is she? Is her weight dangerously low for her estimated age?
2. What kind of daily weight gain / loss is normal? At what point of weight loss is it failure to thrive? (several days in a row of loss, etc.). Now that I have a digital gram scale, I will be tracking her weight more diligently and make sure I am always doing it at the same time of day to ensure that it is as accurate of a trend as possible. If she continues to lose weight, I will do the right thing and turn her over to an experienced rehabber... but I would like to know if there is a point at which we determine that she is not thriving in our care.
3. How much *should* she be eating per feeding, and is it okay that she is frequently getting less than 5% of her body weight per feed?
3B. Should I try spacing feedings out more so she is hungrier, or feeding her smaller amounts more frequently just to make sure she is getting adequate caloric intake? Do I definitely need to be doing that 2am feeding too (I would prefer not to, but I can handle it if it will help her).
4. Is the falling asleep mid-feed normal?
5. Sometimes when she is rooting around in her incubator box, she suckles on the blankets and on the side of her sock buddy. Does this mean she is still hungry, or is it a normal comfort reflex like in humans and other baby mammals?
6. She is very twitchy in her sleep - sometimes jerking around and such. I've been told this is 100% normal baby squirrel behavior, but of course I want to confirm that it is.
7. I am SO paranoid about the temperature of her habitat. How on earth do I know if she is too warm, too cold, etc. etc. I have a heating pad on low that I keep half under her box, and she is on the warm side 99% of the time, but she does occasionally climb around and get on top of her blankets and sock buddy, which I cannot tell if it is her trying to cool off or just rooting around looking for a cozy place to curl up. I microwave her sock buddy for about 20-30 seconds every few hours to just keep it warm to the touch but not hot. She seems very fond of it, but I don't want to overheat her with a warm sock and a warming pad.
Thanks all! Sorry for the crazy long post, but I figured you guys will want lots of details to be able to adequately "diagnose" her situation. I appreciate the help and advice, and am excited to make sure the little baby has a happy, healthy, long life ahead of her!
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Originally Posted by redwuff
