Fall from tree 7-8 feet

[Scrappy Doo]

Hello everyone,

My favorite yard squirrel, Sweet Boy, has limited back leg mobility. He gets around well enough and will still climb some. Just a few minutes ago I was watching him climb a tree and he fell from about 7-8 feet. He is now sitting at the base of the tree in a form. Is there anything I can do to help him? I am so worried!

thank you!

[sundoesshine]

Hello everyone,

My favorite yard squirrel, Sweet Boy, has limited back leg mobility. He gets around well enough and will still climb some. Just a few minutes ago I was watching him climb a tree and he fell from about 7-8 feet. He is now sitting at the base of the tree in a form. Is there anything I can do to help him? I am so worried!

thank you!

Others can chime in but I'd try and provide his favorite foods and water in a safe place so he can stay immobile and heal as much as possible without having to forage.

[TubeDriver]

Under normal conditions, a fall of 7-8' probably will not hurt a healthy adult squirrel. But of course, there are exceptions.

Is the leg injury/deficit something new or something he has had for a long time?


In the short term, keep an eye on him and make sure he can still move around and climb.

[Scrappy Doo]

Thank you all for your advice! I was worried that the fall would be automatically fatal, so I'm really glad to hear that it can be survived.

Sweet Boy remained at the base of the tree for around 10 minutes before he attempted to climb it again. He made it this time, thankfully! Since then he has been laying on one of his favorite branches like he usually does in the afternoons.

Sweet Boy's back legs/feet don't seem to move as well as they should but I have no idea what the problem is. Here is a video of him climbing a different tree just a few days ago.

https://youtu.be/GQawzTI9dRo

[TubeDriver]

He is having a pretty tough time climbing. I can't tell from the video, is one of his legs weaker or are they both affected? He would probably benefit from getting some extra food/treats from you and try to leave out a bowl of fresh water for him ,to drink from (clean it daily).

Thank you all for your advice! I was worried that the fall would be automatically fatal, so I'm really glad to hear that it can be survived.

Sweet Boy remained at the base of the tree for around 10 minutes before he attempted to climb it again. He made it this time, thankfully! Since then he has been laying on one of his favorite branches like he usually does in the afternoons.

Sweet Boy's back legs/feet don't seem to move as well as they should but I have no idea what the problem is. Here is a video of him climbing a different tree just a few days ago.

https://youtu.be/GQawzTI9dRo

[Scrappy Doo]

I think both of his legs are affected. Here is a video of him from a few days ago walking on the ground. https://youtu.be/C7qSkQJH4V8

Here is a video of him climbing the tree yesterday after his fall. The branch he is climbing in the video is not the branch that he fell off of. He fell from the far left branch that you can see at the very beginning of the video. https://youtu.be/PzhqSs2Gjm8

I am thinking I would like to modify the tree to make it easier for him to climb. I have a few different ideas. For one, I was thinking of adding a piece of wood along the left side of the left branch as a kind of guard rail. Or, I was also thinking maybe I could add some little strips of wood along the branch to give him extra things to grip, sort of like a rock climbing wall. Has anyone done anything like this before? Do you think either of these things would help, or would they make it worse? The left branch leads to a hollowed out area where he likes to sleep. I call it his canoe.

Thank you all so much for your help!