Baby walking in circles and dragging left paw

[Clare]

Hey guys. I rescued a three month old Indian palm squirrel baby from a tree.

I was on the lookout for another baby that jumped from inside my house onto the tree. That's when I found this baby(the other one also came back inside thankfully).

The baby in question was falling from branch to branch downwards. She falls on a branch, tried to hold on, slowly went sideways and fell to the branch below. This kept happening as I saw her come lower and lower. I picked her up from the lowest branch.


She was extremely emaciated and dehydrated.
And very very thin I could see the structure of her spine and hind legs bones.

Her hair was also falling out in clumps.

And she was not able to hold her head up for more than a second. She'll try to raise it, and it slowly went back down below the shoulders.

She did move a little bit inside the cage though. She only moved/hopped/rigidly moved in circles to her left.

I got her last week on Friday.

I only rehydrated every two hours for close to 24 hours since I obtained her before starting on a homemade formula mixture [probiotic yogurt (three parts)+ heavy cream(1 part) + milk(1 part)](I've been feeding that to babies for three years and it works really well)

Now, she is putting on weight quite well and passed the turger test.


I gave her meloxicam.



Now, since she is more active now and moves around more often, she is able to lift and hold her her head up for longer. Although it still slowly drops after a few minutes.


She is still walking in left circles.
And she is dragging her left paw. (Her left arm/elbow is working. Paw with the toes are being dragged)
Regarding her tail, she moves and flares her tail when she is alarmed. But the movement of the tail is not smooth and elegantly(?) like other squirrels her age. It is more stiff up and down movement.

She lifts her butt up more when walking. Her hind legs joints are not functioning well. As in, she is unable to jump at all. They do move a bit for walking. And she uses them to scratch her neck. Saw her use both hind legs for scratching. But the joint where they connect to the hips look stiff.


What could the issue be?

[Clare]

To note also:

There is a tiny water boil(colourless liquid boil) on the pinki toe of her left forearm

[CritterMom]

Given her terrible condition when you found her, I have to wonder how many times she hit her head. It could be just a bunch of trauma making her whole body sore and not working properly, or it could all be caused by a hit to the head.

Continuing to get nutrition and care and not be out where her disability would be a death sentence, she may improve but how much is anyone's question.

If she is not able to live wild, do you have the ability to give her a home?