Hello. I've been lurking & learning on here for about a month.. My sons friend found a baby squirrel after we had a tropical storm on 8/10/20. I have no idea if she fell from a tree (probably) or if mom dropped her.
Everything has been going good until now..
She had no visible parasites but seemed very skinny for her age - 3.5 weeks, 54g.
Going off of her eyes opening at exactly 5 weeks, she is 8 weeks old today.
On 9/7 I noticed that she didn't have as many bm's in her cage/bed as normal so I gave her 2.5cc of diluted infant apple juice (she had this before when we felt with a little constipation after switching from Esbilac Goats Milk to FV 20/50 on 8/17).
9/6 she didn't have much of an appetite.. she's usually ravenous with each feeding but throughout the day were less & less (she had been eating 15cc - could have ate more if I let her, her abdomen still soft). I tried to give her formula or diluted apple juice about every 3 hours, so she wouldn't get dehydrated throughout the day.. really had to coax her & got about 4cc into her at each feeding. She was still her active, normal-self and the next day at about 5pm her appitite was back to normal. About 34 hours of untypical appitite. Stools were normal but about 25% less.
Last night when I was cleaning out her bed & cage (I have her sleeping in her "incubator" bin - though the heat seems to bother her so I make sure it's warm before I put her to bed but have her off the heating pad- Is this okay/normal? She seems to be doing good holding heat with her fur now. Then during the day I was putting her bed in the cage so she could get used to it - she is now. I have her on 1 floor of a Critter Nation cage) so, cleaning out her bed/cage I noticed there wasn't much stools and the ones I saw were dark brown/black.
I know that usually means old blood. Today I saw that she had chewed on her plastic "bed". I haven't seen any stools today, she is acting normal but at her last feeding, after about 9cc (she is drinking 18cc now) she wasn't really interested in her formula - specifics below.
I am so worried that she injested the plastic & it messed her up internally. I could kick myself for not taking her bed out sooner 😔.
Specifics:
She is on FV 20/50, is drinking 18cc (belly soft, she would eat 18 more (normally) if I let her.
7-8% is FB Ultra boost
I've been sneaking in about 3 cc of water with her formula to work on her digestion and using a Simethicone drop with each feeding.
I feed her about every 5 hours, at night she goes 7-8 hours.
She is on the 1x a week maintenance of Bene-Bac Plus FOS & Probiotics - next dose is tomorrow.
I give her a "pinch" of Pure L-Glutamine 2x a week
She gets 2 Henry's Blocks a day - Hi-Protein in the am, Healthy Block after she has shredded & eaten most of her 1st block.
The past 2 days she has either hid or thrown her 1st block in her pee corner, 2nd block I then give her at bedtime and she shreads it but I don't think she eats much.
She always has an antler to chew on
I give her cherry sticks to chew on when I'm with her (I realize they live in trees but am scared of her biting off and swallowing a splinter).
According to the charts I saw, she is small for her age & that's one of the reasons why I give her the supplements.
Her weights:
3 weeks - 54g
4 weeks - 59g
5 weeks - 88g
6 weeks - 131g
7 weeks - 176g
8 weeks - 214g (today)
I gave her about 1/2 tsp of yogurt today.. about 2 hours before her last feeding at 5. I'm hoping that's why she wasn't as hungry but the black stools really have me worried.
She doesn't have any clicking noises.
Sorry this is so long.. I wanted to provide as much detail as possible. I'm trying really hard with this little fuzzy butt and am hoping to be able to release her this spring so she can join the wild ones I feed on my porch.
(Sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry)