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Thread: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

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    Default HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    We found three baby squirrels two weeks ago at approx 3 weeks of age. I have been feeding them Esbliac formula with the probiotic included in it. The 3 were doing great and gaining weight every day. They opened their eyes this week. I decided to switch to Fox Valley gradually this past Monday. Both boy squirrels are fine and are thriving and very active. Out of nowhere last night the girl became very lethargic and had very runny watery yellow diarrhea. She has been lethargic all day and has lost about 8 grams of weight overnight. She is back to 125g and the brother are now 160g. She was slightly smaller to begin with . She did aspirate a little last week but I cleared the formula and she has had no symptoms from that. She has no sound or clicking. I am not sure what is wrong with her or what to do next. She feels very light and seems to have lost body mass. I have her on the heating pad. I gave her mostly rehydration fluid today (salt/sugar/water) but also some Esbilac. She has very little appetite. I feel that this might be from the Fox Valley but I am not sure. Any ideas??? She is not doing good. No more diarrhea since last night but no poop either only pee. PLEASE HELP. I am really worried now.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Can someone please tell me how much SMZ dosage that I can give a 125G squirrel. I believe that she has AP because there is now a clicking noise that wasn't there before. SMZ is the only antibiotic that I have access to. They are 800 mg pills and I am not sure how much to give her. She is having a hard time breathing now. PLEASE HELP so that I can get her started on this.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Quote Originally Posted by CMK View Post
    Can someone please tell me how much SMZ dosage that I can give a 125G squirrel. I believe that she has AP because there is now a clicking noise that wasn't there before. SMZ is the only antibiotic that I have access to. They are 800 mg pills and I am not sure how much to give her. She is having a hard time breathing now. PLEASE HELP so that I can get her started on this.
    I will send dosing in a pm but you really need a better antibiotic for ap,
    baytril animal form or Cipro human form or Augmention.
    Step-N-Stone
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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Does this little one still have diarrhea? If so, give .25ml Pepto Bismol. Sometimes if you can just STOP the diarrhea for a while the system gets itself back in synch and it stays stopped.

    The pepto will make the poop turn black and frightening looking but don't freak - it is normal and is helpful to you. When the poop has turned black you know for sure that the pepto has actually gone completely through the system. If the poop is firming up even though it is black, wait and see if it continues to improve. If you get black poop that is still diarrhea, then give another dose of the pepto.

    Diarrhea dehydrates- you need to push fluids to compensate.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    UPDATE: She no longer has diarrhea and I was able to get my vet to prescribe Baytril for her. She has had a couple of doses but I am still very concerned. I no longer hear clicking when I hold her up and yes she seems a little better. I am wondering how long it takes for her to bounce back from this. She did not poop for two days after the diarrhea and then did last night late. It was softer than it should be but was not diarrhea. My concern is that she has lost weight since Tuesday when she got sick and she is frail. She doesn't want to eat like she was prior to getting sick. She is taking formula drop by drop from the syringe using a mini miracle nipple. She has been peeing but is very wobbly when she walks to pee. Before she was sick I was feeding her 6.5 cc of Esbilac powder with the probiotic included every 4 hours, 5 feedings a day. She was gaining weight every day and was very active. I am not sure if this why she became sick but I switched (gradually) to Fox Valley 32/40 and she became ill the next day. I don't know if its connected. I am not sure what to do from here. I am hydrating her with fluid (recipe found here on the board) in between feedings and trying to give her 4-5 cc of formula instead of the 6.5 because she vomitted once. I weigh her every morning on my gram scale. On Monday 4/15 before she got sick she weighed 135g. This morning she weighed 120g. I am worried about the weight.

    Does anyone have any other suggestions?

    I will post a picture shortly.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Please post a picture...I want to read back posts to see what happened before. Pictures help ALOT.
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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    How do things look on the hydration side of things? Any tenting skin, spikey fur? After a bout of diarrhea, not eating well, she may be very dehydrated. I would probably try some DIY pedialyte between feedings for 24 hours or so. If she will not take pedialyte orally, consider SubQing with lactated ringers . Hydration is even more important when sick and taking meds.


    Quote Originally Posted by CMK View Post
    UPDATE: She no longer has diarrhea and I was able to get my vet to prescribe Baytril for her. She has had a couple of doses but I am still very concerned. I no longer hear clicking when I hold her up and yes she seems a little better. I am wondering how long it takes for her to bounce back from this. She did not poop for two days after the diarrhea and then did last night late. It was softer than it should be but was not diarrhea. My concern is that she has lost weight since Tuesday when she got sick and she is frail. She doesn't want to eat like she was prior to getting sick. She is taking formula drop by drop from the syringe using a mini miracle nipple. She has been peeing but is very wobbly when she walks to pee. Before she was sick I was feeding her 6.5 cc of Esbilac powder with the probiotic included every 4 hours, 5 feedings a day. She was gaining weight every day and was very active. I am not sure if this why she became sick but I switched (gradually) to Fox Valley 32/40 and she became ill the next day. I don't know if its connected. I am not sure what to do from here. I am hydrating her with fluid (recipe found here on the board) in between feedings and trying to give her 4-5 cc of formula instead of the 6.5 because she vomitted once. I weigh her every morning on my gram scale. On Monday 4/15 before she got sick she weighed 135g. This morning she weighed 120g. I am worried about the weight.

    Does anyone have any other suggestions?

    I will post a picture shortly.
    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: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    YES!!! PLEASE get her off of the Fox Valley 32/40. TSB doesn't recommend the 32/40 due to the insane number of digestive problems it started causing in baby squirrels. The problems do not seem to extend to the FV 20/50 and some members transition to this from the esbilac, and some do a half and half of 20/50 and esbilac.

    I would expedite changing her back to the esilac over the next few feedings.

    Make sure she is hydrated. That kills appetite.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

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    These pictures are from a few minutes ago. Right before this she took 5 cc of sugar/salt/water mixture.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    I took her off the Fox Valley the first day that she got the diarrhea. She hasn't had that since Monday.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Quote Originally Posted by CMK View Post
    UPDATE: She no longer has diarrhea and I was able to get my vet to prescribe Baytril for her. She has had a couple of doses but I am still very concerned. I no longer hear clicking when I hold her up and yes she seems a little better. I am wondering how long it takes for her to bounce back from this. She did not poop for two days after the diarrhea and then did last night late. It was softer than it should be but was not diarrhea. My concern is that she has lost weight since Tuesday when she got sick and she is frail. She doesn't want to eat like she was prior to getting sick. She is taking formula drop by drop from the syringe using a mini miracle nipple. She has been peeing but is very wobbly when she walks to pee. Before she was sick I was feeding her 6.5 cc of Esbilac powder with the probiotic included every 4 hours, 5 feedings a day. She was gaining weight every day and was very active. I am not sure if this why she became sick but I switched (gradually) to Fox Valley 32/40 and she became ill the next day. I don't know if its connected. I am not sure what to do from here. I am hydrating her with fluid (recipe found here on the board) in between feedings and trying to give her 4-5 cc of formula instead of the 6.5 because she vomitted once. I weigh her every morning on my gram scale. On Monday 4/15 before she got sick she weighed 135g. This morning she weighed 120g. I am worried about the weight.

    Does anyone have any other suggestions?

    I will post a picture shortly.
    Usually you see a noticeable difference from treating AP with Baytril within a 24 hour period. I am not sure what you mean by wobbly and I am assuming she was not wobbly before this illness? I think that you will see a big difference by the end of the day with her appetite.

    Why did you switch the babies from Esbilac to FV 32/40? FV 32/40 WAS used for babies under 4 weeks of age. TSB no longer recommends using it cos it causes issues with bloat and turning pinkies guts to cement. But of course it would not cause AP. I would recommend keeping your babies on Esbilac since they were doing fine on that. If you want to use a FV product, I would recommend fv20/50.

    Once she feels better she will gain weight quickly.
    redwuff
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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    She has only had the Baytril (loading dose) last night and the regular dose this morning. So tonight will be 24 hours on the Baytril. I shouldn't have switched from the Esbilac because she was doing really well on it but I have been reading so much conflicting stuff and read so much saying that Fox Valley was better. I was going to give the 32/40 for a week because I wasn't totally sure how old she was and then switch to the 20/50 because I have both. I will leave her on the Esbilac because I don't want to change anything now that the diarrhea is gone.

    When I say wobbly I mean weak when she walks. She was not like this at all before being sick but perhaps its just from going through all of this.

    Should I give her as much fluid as she will take and cut back some on the formula?

    She definitely has perked up since the fluid 45 mins ago. She is walking around and trying to climb. She wasn't doing any of that since she got sick.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Sounds like the hydration is helping, maybe the Baytril is starting to kick in too, it usually starts working pretty quickly (24-36 hours). I would not cut back on formula as long as she is not bloated or suffering from diarrhea but I would continue to push hydration between feedings. Let her drink as much as she wants but keep her feedings as usual.

    Quote Originally Posted by CMK View Post
    She has only had the Baytril (loading dose) last night and the regular dose this morning. So tonight will be 24 hours on the Baytril. I shouldn't have switched from the Esbilac because she was doing really well on it but I have been reading so much conflicting stuff and read so much saying that Fox Valley was better. I was going to give the 32/40 for a week because I wasn't totally sure how old she was and then switch to the 20/50 because I have both. I will leave her on the Esbilac because I don't want to change anything now that the diarrhea is gone.

    When I say wobbly I mean weak when she walks. She was not like this at all before being sick but perhaps its just from going through all of this.

    Should I give her as much fluid as she will take and cut back some on the formula?

    She definitely has perked up since the fluid 45 mins ago. She is walking around and trying to climb. She wasn't doing any of that since she got sick.
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
    https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...quirtle-s-Yard!

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Keep giving hydration as much as she will take, do not cut back on the formula, she needs the nutrition.
    How often are you giving formula now?
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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    The formula is full strength correct? Full strength is 1 part powdered formula to two parts hot water.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    I am giving her full strength formula every 4 hours, 5 times a day. The past couple of days I wasn't able to give her the full amount because she wouldn't take it. At 3PM today she took 5 cc easily. 2 hours after her regular feeding I have been giving her the rehydration water, sugar, salt mix. At 5PM she took 6 cc of that. She seems like she is perkier. Not sleeping as much as she was. I work from home so I have been watching her constantly and sticking to that schedule. Every time she has to pee and poo she is coming out of her bedding and going to the corner. The past couple of days she had no energy for that so she was going in her bedding. So that aspect has improved a lot. I am feeling a lot better now because she seems to be improving and she isn't 24 full hours on the Baytril yet.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    It sounds like she is improving. I’m relieved to read this. . Continue doing what you’re doing and keep us updated if there’s any change.

    If her stool isn’t loose anymore you can cut the salt out of the hydration fluid and just add a little honey or sugar to the water for taste. Hydration can make a huge difference in how they act.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Ok. Thank you for all the advice. I will give an update soon.

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Hello Everyone. The little girl is doing much better today. She is a lot more active and gained 7 grams since yesterday. She was even giving me a little growl this morning when it was time for her antibiotic. Her appetite is not what it should be but I am going to continue with hydration and doing what I did yesterday. My vet also told me that this antibiotic can cause appetite loss so possibly from that. I will update as she progresses. Thank you everyone!

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    Default Re: HELP!!! 5-6 WEEK OLD BABY SQUIRREL WITH DIARRHEA & LETHARGIC

    Quick help please I have a baby squirrel and he is very lethargic with diarrhea no clicking sounds but shallow slow breathing.. please really want to help him survive

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