Help Dosing Antibiotics

[mosaicsformiles]

Found a pink baby last Wednesday after a bad windstorm knocked the nest out of the tree. Four babies in all, only one little girl survived. Tried to find mama, but the rain was heavy and I don't know how long she had been out there already. She was cold to the touch. I brought her in, warmed her, started her on diluted (50/50) pedialyte. Used distilled water to dilute. After I noticed her coming around, I moved to hydration mix (3tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1qt distilled water). Then I started her on Esbilac goat milk powder. 2tbsp distilled water with 1tbsp powder. Mixed hydration water and esbilac in syringe to feed. I started out drawing about .3 hydration water into syringe, then drew about .6 formula into syringe and feed her. Then Saturday started giving her straight formula in the syringe, but still alternated some hydration mix throughout the day. Feedings are good, she is not lethargic, body temp good, and until Monday, poops were good. She had some bloat Monday, got that down. Then poops started getting runny yesterday (Tuesday). Gave a little pedialyte to help with any electrolyte loss. Alternated every hour or 2 with diluted pedialyte, then went back to mixing hydration water and esbilac formula in syringe for feedings again. I tried to avoid mixing the pedialyte and esbilac hence why I spread out the feedings and alternated the two when I thought she was getting dehydrated and having tummy problems.

So now she is starting to look skinny and (more) wrinkly. She still isn't really lethargic, and she still shows interest in her esbilac formula, but I am hearing some clicking when she breathes, and now her little tongue sticks out when she sleeps. She looks like she might have some labored breathing, but its mostly by the way her throat and cheeks looks while she is sleeping. She does occasionally draw in deep breaths though. I can just tell something is wrong. She is not the same little plump baby that I had nursed back to health after the storm.

She can't be much more than a week old. Her umbilical stump fell off Monday.
I weighed her this morning, she is 14g.
I have 500mg Cipro tablet and 500mg Cefprozil tablets on hand.
I also have a compounded Tobramycin125mg/Mupirocin 5mg/Budesonide 0.5mg I was prescribed for nasal rinse therapy after a bad sinus infection. (Doubt this one could be used, but figured I'd throw it out there just in case.)

How do I dose and administer these human tablets for pink baby? First time giving antibiotics to squirrel.

Thank you so very much for your help!

[Spanky]

I brought her in, warmed her, started her on diluted (50/50) pedialyte. Used distilled water to dilute. After I noticed her coming around, I moved to hydration mix (3tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1qt distilled water). Then I started her on Esbilac goat milk powder. 2tbsp distilled water with 1tbsp powder. Mixed hydration water and esbilac in syringe to feed.

Never mix hydration with formula. They should be fed separately.

Distilled water should not be used to prepare formula. Use bottled water or tap water.

So now she is starting to look skinny and (more) wrinkly. She still isn't really lethargic, and she still shows interest in her esbilac formula, but I am hearing some clicking when she breathes, and now her little tongue sticks out when she sleeps. She looks like she might have some labored breathing, but its mostly by the way her throat and cheeks looks while she is sleeping. She does occasionally draw in deep breaths though. I can just tell something is wrong. She is not the same little plump baby that I had nursed back to health after the storm.

The will all click sometimes after eating; this is a mouth click. It is a persistent non-stop clicking form the chest that indicates a lung infection.... let us know if the clicking is intermittent or persistent (constant).

She can't be much more than a week old. Her umbilical stump fell off Monday.
I weighed her this morning, she is 14g.

The stumps usually falls off at 10 days. BUT a 14gram squirrel is very light for a 10 day old. I believe the mixing of pedialyte and distilled water is causing issues with the formula. Although I am aware some rehabbers use the Esbilac Goats Milk formula, TSB recommends the plain Esbilac Puppy Milk Replacer (powdered). I have no experience using the Esbilac Goat's Milk formula.

I am adding some links that may help and a cheat sheet for formula feeding amounts.
SquirrelBoard Feeding CheatSheet.pdf

https://www.henryspets.com/1-baby-squirrel-care-guide/

[mosaicsformiles]

1.) Well I'm an idiot because I was calling FILTERED water "distilled".
Its the water from my fridge and I warm it up to mix in the formula powder. Same I would use when making human baby formula. Sorry about that. Lets blame that on the lack of sleep in the past week...

2.) I read somewhere about the puppy milk replacer early this morning before I started this thread. So immediately I went ahead and ordered some from Amazon. It will be here tomorrow. Whew.

3.) On the sugar/salt mix water AKA hydration water- no more mixing it in the syringe with the formula. Got it. The only reason I did was because I had read it was okay to do that when introducing the formula slowly. I knew it was a NO to mix any electrolyte solution with the milk formula, but didn't realize you shouldn't draw up hydration water and formula in the same syringe and feed at one time. Thank you for that information!

4.) Poops are solid again and bloat is gone, by the way. Not as many poops as before, but at least it isn't runny.

5.) The clicking is becoming more and more consistent. At first it was only around eating. But now its just a steady click sound and its in sync with her breaths. She also is acting more tired now. And even though she still shows signs that she wants to eat, she won't latch or take as much as she was before. She was a pretty enthusiastic eater before, but now she just acts like its a struggle. My instincts tell me its because she is having trouble breathing. I'm starting to get worried. I spent the last hour crying over her little tiny "bedside" and praying she gets better.

Oh, and thank you SO much for the cheat sheet and valuable information!!

[mosaicsformiles]

Okay she isn’t doing good now at all. Not eating. Vets in town weren’t helping. Found out one of the clinics feeds the babies to the owls they rehabilitate.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME DOSE HER! I DONT WANT TO LOSE HER!!!

[Spanky]

Dosing sent in a PM