Greetings,
I have two 11 week old gray squirrels (black) that I have raised from about 4 wks. A little over a week ago I spoke to a rehabber in the area - Northern Michigan. On the advice I received on this forum, I thought I had to keep them inside for the winter because it was late in the season. The rehabber, with 30 yr experience in this area, really tore me a new one. She insisted that I take the cage outside and then let them roam at about 12 weeks. All was well for a bit, then they escaped while I was cleaning and didn't come back til the next morning. Since then the health of the female (Nugget) has slowly been deteriorating.
Her right eye has become blue and cloudy, and I don't think she can see out of it. She has no energy and refuses to eat anything but a few walnuts and 3-4cc of formula once or twice a day. She won't leave the box anymore, and when I put my hand in to check on her she clings to me and doesn't want to let go. She seems to be fading fast and I'm afraid of what I'll find when I go out in the morning. Her poops seem ok, but since there are two of them, and the cage is outside, it's hard to track their potty habits. They are litter trained, and she sometimes seems to chew on the paper ferret litter. The ingredients for the litter is simply "100% clean virgin paper."
The male (Bean) seems fine, although there may be a blue cast to his eyes - or I'm imagining it because I'm a worried mama. They are in a big cage with a nice wood box filled with fleece fabric strips which keep them warm and quite dry. For a couple of nights they were in a plastic storage bin while my husband built the box (see pic). They did chew on it a lot, and I'm afraid she may have ingested some plastic, but the cardboard box we used in the house had to be replaced because it has been raining for days.
I feed them Henry's squirrel blocks but they really don't like them much. They mostly eat walnuts, meal worms, sunflower seeds, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. For I treat I was giving them a grape or a bit of avocado. I offer lots of other things but they are very picky. She had a great appetite and kept taking formula even after he had pretty much weaned himself. Now she hardly eats at all and she feels so skinny. Today she would not come out of the bed box at all.
Please help! I've read a few things about the cloudy eye, but nothing really seems to fit all of her symptoms.
Forever grateful,
Rabs