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Thread: Small Squirrel Losing Balance

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
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    Default Small Squirrel Losing Balance

    Small Squirrel Losing Balance

    I hope you will get back to me soon and if you think this should be in the emergency help needed section would you move it there. I may be able to help this squirrel but I am not positive I can.

    There is a small squirrel that comes to my deck. I wonder if she is old enough to be weaned. If she is not I wonder where her mother is. She is old enough to eat nut, but there is a time when young squirrels eat solids and are still not weaned. She has taken nuts in the shell from me but I do not remember if I have seen her open them. Young squirrels take nut and hide them before they can open them. She has a problem balancing. At first she would fall over when she scratched herself, I thought this was just because she was young but today she has fallen over when she was eating nuts and a few time fell off a bench she was eating on, I was afraid she might fall off the deck. She fell over once when she turned and she sometimes holds her head on a slant. When she walks you can see that she has a problem with balance. It may not have been her but I may have seen her run fairly fast which might make it hard to catch her, but if she gets much worse I will probably be able to cache her by hand.

    I have been bitten hard by a squirrel before and I am not afraid to get biting by her (beside she is a small squirrel) but what I am most worried about is scaring her and losing the chance to help her if she really needs help which I think she probably does. The only thing I can think of that might help is to treat her as if she is not completely weaned and feed her formula. What happens to a squirrel that is old enough to eat solids but not completely weaned if it does not get milk?. Is there anything else this could be. I have once seen an older squirrel that held it head slanted. I thought it was probably caused by a concussion but with this squirrel it has developed over time and at first it did not look serious to me.
    I cannot take her to a vet. If I take her to a rehabber she will not come home again and it is possible that she still have a mother that is alive.

    I am planning to go shopping today and pick up what I need to make formula.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    Louisiana Bayous
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    Default Re: Small Squirrel Losing Balance

    Sounds like the little one has had some head trauma. When did you first notice the balance issues and head tilt? Do you have any medications on hand?

    Can you post a picture of her? Or a video? Does she circle at all?

    Goat's milk powder or Esbilac Puppy Powder (white dog on can with pro/pre biotics) are your best bets for finding things at the store, though if she's old enough to be on her own, there's no guarantee she'll take any formula.

    --

    Edit.

    Thinking about this again, since it came on gradually, I wonder if an inner ear infection would cause this? Thinking aloud as I don't remember if that causes head tilt in squirrels or not right now

  3. Serious fuzzy thank you's to DarkLies212 from:

    island rehabber (07-19-2017)

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