Think my Chappy may have pneumonia.

[Chappys Grandma]

Chappy is 3 years old. He has been suffering from MBD. I’ve been giving him tums for calcium. He doesn’t like. He has inhaled some I think and isn’t eating much and very lethargic. I feed Henry’s healthy blocks. He has a Uv light, heating pad.I don’t have a small syringe, just a dropper.I’ve been reading all morning about pneumonia and understand he needs an antibiotic. I have 100 mg. Doxycycline. Will that work? He weighs 375 grams. He’s a picky eater and I understand I’ve been giving him too many food choices. I live in Ohio. He is my very best friend and I need help.

[CritterMom]

What is the expiration date of your doxy? It is one of very few drugs that you CAN'T use past the expiration date.

[Chappys Grandma]

10/20 it expired. That’s all I have.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

I'm so sorry about your friend, Chappy! I do have some questions and some comments for you: 1) How was MBD diagnosed? 2) Was he seen by a Vet and were x-ray films taken? 3) How long ago was the diagnosis made? 4) Assuming Chappy was seen by a Vet, has he been seen again, especially recently? 5) I know that you suspect a pneumonia and you may be right but please also be aware that MBD can cause lethargy and decreased appetite. 6) even if Chappy did inhale some of the Tums, it is not destined to cause a pneumonia or even a pneumonitis (lung inflammation as opposed to a pneumonia which is an infection in the lungs), 7) Tums are a great emergency source of Calcium but Squirrels should be transitioned to a pure source of Calcium such as Calcium Carbonate within a few days. Also, avoid any source of Calcium that contains Vitamin D as the added Vitamin D is based on Human estimates of need and this far exceeds the very minimal Vitamin D requirements of a Squirrel and could be toxic at best and fatal at worst! 8) It is essential that his diet contain healthy blocks. HHBs are fine but they are marketed to be used as daily supplements rather than a regular, ad-lib diet and in fact Henry's states specifically that the usual "serving size" is 2 blocks which contain about 275mg of ELEMENTAL Calcium and 54 IU of Vitamin D which is truly a lot of vitamin D and I would not recommend any more supplementation of Vitamin D if you are already giving Chappy 1 or 2 of the HHBs. His regular diet should consist mostly of other Blocks that you can offer regularly throughout the day. Avoid most nuts and treats and use nutritionally optimal Blocks. My suggestion would be the Harlan Teklad 2018 formulation (by the way, Harlan Teklad is now Envigo Company). The Envigo 2018 formulation contains 1% Elemental Calcium so if Chappy eats (for an example) 15 Grams of the 2018 Blocks (approximately 3 blocks), he will get an additional 150mg of Elemental Calcium. (Elemental Calcium should be the way to determine the amount of actual Calcium Chappy gets and not the weight of the calcium supplement itself!), 9) Here is a link to Henry's information on MBD which is really useful and also includes some information on the use of Elemental Calcium to guide your Calcium Supplementation: https://henryspets.com/emergency-treatment-for-mbd/ , 10) again, Chappy may not really have a pneumonia but to answer your question about Doxycycline; yes this medication can be used for Squirrels. It is usually dosed at 10mg/Kg orally every 12 hours. This would be 3.75mg, a very tiny amount and the difficulty would be to crush the tablet into a powder and then accurately separate out 3.75mg (or even 4mg) and then administer this to Chappy. You could dissolve the tablet in a known amount water or juice or mix it thoroughly with a known weight of Baby Food Fruit Puree but it is critical that he be dosed correctly and accurate determination of the amount of Doxycycline to be dosed is key! 11) is there any chance that Chappy could be seen by a Vet tomorrow, Monday morning (or today even?) and get the Vet's recommendations before you start any antibiotics?!?
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

Edit:
TSB does not dose medications on the open board! Please stop doing this! An innocent member could see this misinformation use it and unintentionally harm their squirrel either by under dosing and not helping or over dosing which is self explanatory.
One can not separate a pills powder to accurately breakdown dosing without specialized equipment and/or a pills components may not be distributed evenly to be separated in this manner. Knowing how many cc's of water that's actually needed to be applied to the (powered) milligrams of the pill to arrive at the proper milligrams for treating a squirrel by it's body weight is crucial.

[Chappys Grandma]

I found this disease online and I found it described his symptoms. He had it when he was a baby and recovered quickly. He’s never been to vet. I live in Ohio, so I understand it’s illegal to have him as a pet. He’s gone out a few times but always returns home. I’m hearing a noise when he breathes like a piff sound. He’s a very picky eater. I bought picky blocks and hazelnut blocks. He has quite an appetite when he feels well and has eaten 3 to 4 blocks a day as well as veggies and some fruit.I backed off on the calcium for awhile because he was eating well and seemed to be doing better. I restarted the tums because he started feeling sick again. Also he had diarrhea for awhile and I gave him some pedialyte and some pepto bismal. Diarrhea has stopped.No vitamin D in the tums. I wish I could take him to the vet.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hi Chappys Grandma: I am relatively new to TSB but in my short time here I have found that there are many wonderful, knowledgeable and "in-touch" people who can help almost anyone with a Squirrel need or problem. Someone on the Board may know of a Squirrel Friendly Vet near where you and Chappy live. I don't know for certain but someone may be able to help with that. In the meantime, if you have the the Doxycycline and you are convinced that Chappy has an infection and you only have this one antibiotic available and you are certain that you can accurately prepare the appropriate dose for little Chappy from a 100mg tablet; this option can certainly be pursued if that is what you would like. For your information, I believe I know what it is that CritterMom is referring to that prompted her to make her comments about concerns with using outdated Doxycycline. The Tetracycline family of medications that Doxycycline belongs in has a number of members, including Tetracycline itself that can undergo a couple of chemical degradation steps, usually requiring a somewhat acidic environment in which a particular chemical reaction can occur which results in a a substance that is potentially harmful to the kidneys. Doxycycline does not possess the chemical structural component required to generate this harmful substance and as such, a relatively recently expired prescription of Doxycycline should be safe. I still wish you could take your Little Guy to a Vet who is knowledgeable about Squirrels. Few Vets (if any, I guess) specialize in Squirrels but Rats are commonly kept as pets and they are similar to Squirrels in size and the fact that they are rodents. It would be far more likely to find a Vet who treats rats and it may be that if they do, they may see Chappy as well. Be very cautious however because in States where it is illegal to keep wildlife as pets, a Vet might confiscate or euthanize your Squirrel and feel justified doing so! Sad, but these stories are out there! Please let us know what you have decided to do and, of course, how Chappy is doing.
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[stepnstone]

Chappy is 3 years old. He has been suffering from MBD. I’ve been giving him tums for calcium. He doesn’t like. He has inhaled some I think and isn’t eating much and very lethargic. I feed Henry’s healthy blocks. He has a Uv light, heating pad.I don’t have a small syringe, just a dropper.I’ve been reading all morning about pneumonia and understand he needs an antibiotic. I have 100 mg. Doxycycline. Will that work? He weighs 375 grams. He’s a picky eater and I understand I’ve been giving him too many food choices. I live in Ohio. He is my very best friend and I need help.

I have sent you dosing instructions in a pm.
Measured use is by syringe which you say you do not have.
If you can tell me the size dropper you use where or what it came from, I can try to duplicate
a measured dose syringe to dropper here to get you in the ball park of a correct dose.

[Chappys Grandma]

It’s a dropper that fits a small brown glass bottle. I will go get a proper one tomorrow. I crushed a tiny part of the tablet tonight and added a little water and gave it to him. He ate a little afterwards.What size syringe should I get for him?

[stepnstone]

It’s a dropper that fits a small brown glass bottle. I will go get a proper one tomorrow.
I crushed a tiny part of the tablet tonight and added a little water and gave it to him. He ate a little afterwards.What size syringe should I get for him?

A 1cc is a must have for dosing meds.
I understand your desperation but not a good way to dose meds....
If you have already cut into the one tab the dosing instructions I sent you will not be correct, even a "pinch" will make a difference.
If you have another I would use a complete one to get the correct milligrams for dosing.

[Mel1959]

It’s a dropper that fits a small brown glass bottle. I will go get a proper one tomorrow. I crushed a tiny part of the tablet tonight and added a little water and gave it to him. He ate a little afterwards.What size syringe should I get for him?

You can go to a pharmacy and ask if they’ll give you a 1cc syringe. Tell them you’re feeding a kitten....they might be more receptive to giving it to you.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

How is Chappy Doing?