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Thread: Wild adult male grey with hurt arm/paw

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
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    Lee’s Summit MO
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    Unhappy Wild adult male grey with hurt arm/paw

    Hello everyone, I'm new to posting here though have lurked and found so much wonderful information here for so long time, but I can't find any posts where this particular issue has come up.
    We love our area squirrels and do everything we can to make our back yard an area they can find food, water, shelter, and people who will respect and love them even if they barely catch a glimpse of us. One of furry friends has injured his front paw, and I'm not entirely sure how. He is a frequent visitor (stops in several times each day), and on the day he was injured I had seen and even caught some adorable videos of him not more than an hour before he limped back in cradling is left front paw. In fact, my toddler and I were watching the shadow of a squirrel which turned out to be him, running across the roof quite normally, only a few minutes before. Since he can still climb, though it looks obviously painful, I made no attempts to capture him as I feared that would be traumatic and likely he'd hurt himself worse trying to escape. My thought was that it seems likely that he will recover on his own - if you all advise otherwise, we have a wonderful vet who happens to volunteer at the local wildlife rescue so I know if it is necessary, the only issue will be in catching the poor guy.

    So he has been less playful and very cautious and his little paw obviously hurts. I'm going to try to post a few pics but I had a hard time getting a pic from just the right angle. Since this little guy has come around here for quite a while, he is at least used to my face at the window and i'm fairly certain he knows that me holding my bucket means that if he wants to sit in the tree for a minute, there will be food and water momentarily. I never go out on the deck if the squirrels are still on it unless it's an emergency, but they all will hop over to the tree if i'm holding my feed bucket instead of my camera! He actually stayed on the yesterday while i opened the window and shooed off another male squirrel that was bothering him - he and this other fella usually are competing with each other for the attention of the lady squirrels. I'm not sure how he could know, but he seemed to sense that I wasn't threatening him.

    Sorry this was so long winded! my question is: is there anything I can do that might help him? Supplements? Anything that might help him heal faster? I noticed he has been spending a lot of time resting in a tree in my yard so I left clean water and a small bowl of almonds and walnuts dusted with a tiny bit of calcium supplement at the base of the tree. I called the local wildlife rehab, and they advised that if he seems to be taking care of himself relatively normally, they would not recommend trying to capture him. I just really hate seeing this little guy in pain and cried my eyes out on Monday when it happened! Thank you in advance if there is any advice you can give! Haven't got the pics figured out yet so that will come in second post.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    Planet Earth
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    Default Re: Wild adult male grey with hurt arm/paw

    Have you noticed any injury or obvious swelling on the paw?
    That's something I'd keep an eye on, other then that it's a wait and see.
    He may have tangled with another taken a fall or landed wrong and just needs
    a few days to recover. Not unusual for them to just want to sleep (just like us)
    when they don't feel well. These babies are pretty resilient and recover many
    injuries on their own without intervention. One really wouldn't want to trap a wild
    squee unless it is necessary to intervene, it's very stressful on them.
    Kudo's to you on the supportive care, that will definitely help him to be able to
    rest and not have to forge for food.
    Step-N-Stone
    State Licensed
    Wildlife Master Rehabilitator


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Florida
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    Default Re: Wild adult male grey with hurt arm/paw

    to TheSquirrelBoard Robynbird78

    I can tell from your post that you're 'one of us'. Those with a compassionate heart for life worry about our wild friends when they get hurt. Thank you for caring. I agree with your local wildlife rehab. I would not attempt to capture your friend at this point. They have remarkable abilities to heal. While he seems to be managing on his own, the stress of capture outweighs any benefit. Of course, if you observe his condition to deteriorate that would be different. At that point I would definitely try to capture unless it could be managed in nature. An example of that would be an infection that could be treated with antibiotics applied to a nut. For now I would do exactly as you're doing. Readily available water and food limits the amount of time foraging. He can rest the foot and heal.

    Keep an eye on him. Make sure he gets to eat without bullies fighting him. If it's a sprain it should heal pretty fast. Your friend is lucky to have you to care for him.

  4. 3 TSBers pass along the fuzzy thanks to HRT4SQRLS:

    Robynbird78 (06-07-2019), SammysMom (06-07-2019), stepnstone (06-06-2019)

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Location
    Lee’s Summit MO
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    Default Re: Wild adult male grey with hurt arm/paw

    Thank you for the welcome and for taking time to reply - it's helpful to hear that we are on the right track! I had been wondering if it was possible to get medicine to a wild squirrel by putting it on food or in water that they are very likely to consume - although it's not likely to be needed for this incident, it's good to know that might be a possibility. I am extremely lucky that the wonderful vet who treats our bearded dragons happens to be the only one in the whole area that treats small wildlife (I have confirmed squirrels and raccoons, as those are the critters who seem drawn to us), and was told by the rescue center that he frequently volunteers there and if ever I couldn't reach someone from the rescue center in a wildlife emergency, to contact his office directly, because that's where they'd end up taking a pet with life-threatening injuries or illness.

    I feel very blessed to have found this community of kind-hearted folks who share our love of these adorable little fur balls!

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