Unsure Diagnosis

[TK-SQRL]

Greetings, Rehab friends!

Two weeks ago I took in a young adult female fox squirrel who presented with very labored breathing, a stuffy nose, dirt in nose and mouth, mouth breathing, some blood from the nose which went away quickly, dehydrated, but mostly "healthy body and fur." She did not seem to have any other injuries, so we treated it like a head trauma, cleaned her up, and got her back to breathing normally with antibiotics, hand feeding, and so on. I know the injury was at least 48 hours old because I had tried to catch her the day before. Within 6 days she was bouncing back, and became active, but could/would not eat solids. On about day 10 she was eating blocks as well as the baby food mixture (below) on her own. After 14 days she seemed on the mend, no sign of injury other than her nose was still occasionally snotty. But she still would not eat anything more solid than a Henry's block.

Then on day 15 she "crashed" -- I could tell something was wrong. Her nose was stuffy again, though she was not heavy breathing. She needed to be hand-fed and only the soft food. On day 16 she was limp, lying on one side (her left front leg seems lame), listless, and she was becoming dehydrated again, stopped eating and drinking on her own. I put her back on antibiotics, and on day 17 she seems a little more alert, hungry, and rehydrated, but still lame. I can't feel any broken bones or anything amiss, and she does not indicate any pain when held or moved; it's more like she is palsied in that left front arm/paw.

Anyway, some theories going around my rehab group might be:
- Possible MBD - does this come on suddenly like this? She IS getting calcium supplements already, so I added more just in case.
- Possible internal injuries we could not notice before, that are flaring up or something.
- Possible that if the cause of her breathing/nose difficulty was an infection, the antibiotics may not have been long enough or strong enough to kill the "bug" completely.

If anyone has any other thoughts, and/or some ideas for continued treatment, I'm all ears.

Thank you!!!
Ingrid

[CritterMom]

Can you tell us which antibiotics you have tried to date?

[TK-SQRL]

Can you tell us which antibiotics you have tried to date?

Septra 0.2 for the first 12 days, now Septra 0.1 and Baytril 0.1 (based on how it is mixed for our squirrels; the lady at the vet who does the meds is also a rehabber).

The food has been:
+ stage 1 apple cinnamon oats
+ stage 2 sweet potato
+ stage 2 kale and pear
+ Henry's healthy vitamins
+ a small amount of Exact (it's bird food, I know, but we use it to add protein)
+ almond flour
+ a little water

She also eats a little bit of soaked primate biscuits which are full of calcium, and is getting Fox Valley electrolyte formula.

[Rock Monkey]

How's your fox squirrel doing today?

If you post a photograph of her that might help give some insight.

[TK-SQRL]

Greetings,

The squirrel has been doing better again. Hoping it's the antibiotics. Her left side is still a little limp but she is eating on her own again and rehydrating (again).

Thank you!