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Thread: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

  1. #1
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    Default I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    The vet for my dogs called me to see if I would advise/connect with someone who was caring for a squirrel who fell out of a tree and broke a hind leg. I wound up taking it because it is emaciated and looks like it's dying. She's an adult but shes skin and bones, definitely female cuz no testicles (we did this with Sterling) but shes definitely been suckling her vagina cuz it's long and tubular...

    And she's walking sorta like a wobbly stop motion or parkinsons disease person and she's not fast enough to outrun me. She doesn't like to be handled but seems too weak to fight and I cant get her to eat. She wont open her mouth. I tried some formula which usually works at getting them enthused and stuffing a miracle nipple into her cheek and injecting a little but she sorta tastes it then like uses her foot to push the syringe away.

    Am I looking at mbd here or is this another case of prednisone to the rescue?

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    I would just try to get even tiny amounts of food into her, along with hydration - maybe some water with honey in it. At this point, being emaciated, nothing will be working correctly so she needs to get some nutrition into her before you can really tell what is going on. But go slow - you don't want refeeding syndrom.

    Once you heat the formula, add a little blob of peanut butter to it and stir it until the peanut butter melts and mixes with the formula. Rewarm if needed and try that - the peanut butter is so strongly scented it sometimes triggers them.

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    Quote Originally Posted by CritterMom View Post
    I would just try to get even tiny amounts of food into her, along with hydration - maybe some water with honey in it. At this point, being emaciated, nothing will be working correctly so she needs to get some nutrition into her before you can really tell what is going on. But go slow - you don't want refeeding syndrom.

    Once you heat the formula, add a little blob of peanut butter to it and stir it until the peanut butter melts and mixes with the formula. Rewarm if needed and try that - the peanut butter is so strongly scented it sometimes triggers them.
    She took food yesterday, when i collected her. I gave her formula which she was so eager for that she destroyed the bottle nipple, I gave her a mound of henrys blocks, seems like she fully ate two, I gave her a stack of almonds which were touched, shelled walnuts which were not. Water in a bowl in case she couldn't figure out the hamster bottle and untouched hamster water bottle and a piece of rye toast with formula dribbled on it and also a big heap of PB on it which she ate and got all messy so I had to clean her up because I didn't want crusted shut mouth fur to make her not want to eat. Today she has that bloated belly but wont take food so I probably already screwed up in overzealousness to get her to eat. Granted I only saw her eat during like one sitting so to speak yesterday when I was actively urging her to. The other times i tried she wouldn't and I figured ok let her sleep at least until tomorrow, but now it's tomorrow and the food is until and she's refusing it with urging. She just wants to sleep.

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    She died.

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    Aw, I am sorry...and not. There is a line there that they can't come back from - it just moves around and is hard to pinpoint. She was probably on the wrong side. I am sorry for whatever is responsible for her awful condition when you got her.

    RIP poor baby...

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    Quote Originally Posted by MotherOfBadgers View Post
    She died.
    Ugh, sorry MOB. Injured adults, to me, are the worst. There can be so many things going on and they hide it so well. Rest in peace, poor girlie.
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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    Quote Originally Posted by island rehabber View Post
    Ugh, sorry MOB. Injured adults, to me, are the worst. There can be so many things going on and they hide it so well. Rest in peace, poor girlie.
    Whatsoever most suspect to me is that her supposedly broken hind legs seemed completely fine, i mean she wasn't walking right but not an an "i have an isolated injury" kinda way.

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    Default Re: I've been brought an adult female with troubling symptoms

    Quote Originally Posted by MotherOfBadgers View Post
    Whatsoever most suspect to me is that her supposedly broken hind legs seemed completely fine, i mean she wasn't walking right but not an an "i have an isolated injury" kinda way.
    Jeez the autocorrect and autofill on this site is GD awful. My posts sound like someone who doesnt know how to speak, or type I suppose. I guess I should spend more time proofreading before hitting submit.

    Anyway what I meant to say was that the "broken hind leg that she supposedly had didn't seem present/an issue" and it was mostly emaciation. While she was nothing like my Sterling in terms of domestication (this one was weak but didn't want to be handled and didn't seem accustomed to the bottle or hamster water bottle) she also didn't seem fully wild. She was definitely an adult judging by length and hair growth but aside from that there's no way for me to tell her age. She was also extremely clean compared to the rest of the injured wilds I come into contact with. My gut is telling me that she maybe did have an injury and the woman decided to try and keep her, for how long I cannot say, and that the squirrel was on a poor diet or maybe depressed from sudden captivity. She just seemed very emotionally defeated. It's hard to explain.

    Happy to have my girl in my shirt now as I sneakily eat some pizza and wind down for bed.

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