Eye infection, lethargic for 3 days in a row, PLEASE HELP

[Salty]

Hello! Please help, our squirrel got lethargic about a week ago, and today his irritated eye, which he had for at least a couple of months turned into infected eye, and it also spread into a second eye, and possibly a nose! He does look like he is in some serious discomfort, if not pain. I really need some advice, as there are no squirrel doctors where i live.
Trouble started around past 7 days or so. He was lethargic for first 2 days, and i though it was the return of MDB, but on the third day he was his usual self, and everything seemed good. Than, back to sleep for another 2 days, and on six day he was lively in the morning and afternoon, but slept all through the evening into the night. Today, he was out for ~40 minutes in the morning, and in the evening he woke up with right eye lids sticking to each other, so he could not open the eye. His skin around the eye had to be pulled to help him open it. I have seen this (not opening) on the same eye once or twice, long time (at least a year) ago, but he managed to open it himself then.

After he open left eye, watery discharge started appearing, but soon turned into white, milky discharge. Please look at the video, the white discharge can be seen closer to the end.

He was rubbing his nose as you can see in the video. He showed very low interest when we offered him chestnut. And then, after about 40 minutes after he woke up, we saw a white milky discharge on his second (left) eye.

Sorry, if my writing is confusing, i am not good at this!

He is about 7 y.o. Found him on the parking lot, a baby, no traumas at the time. We tried to release him, and he was living on his own for about 4 days, but i had to take him back as he had something happened to him, he had a puncture at his side, a broken back leg and ripped lip.
He developed the redness around the eye around Thanksgiving time, when we had covid in the house. There was one time when i saw a white discharge around his eye after he got up from his day nap, and he just brushed it of with his paw. Also, lately, he started having some white color in his poo, don't know if this has anything to do with anything.

The two pictures are showing the redness in his right eye, and a normal looking left eye from 3 days ago, when there was no discharge from the eyes.

[Salty]

The video: (sorry for bad quality, i will try to get a better one)
https://vimeo.com/1049571187/e99064ba09

[Mel1959]

White discharge is a sign of pain. Can you call around to family and friends to see if anyone has any leftover human antibiotics. Post what they are here and the strength. Also see if anyone has any eye antibiotics. This will be medication specifically intended for use in the eye. Many times it’s prescribed for conjunctivitis or other eye infections.

Have you examined his teeth? Do they appear to be normal length? Is he eating and drinking?

If you’d like to send me your location in a private message I can check to see if I know of any vets near you that might see a squirrel.

[Salty]

Hello! Yes, his appetite worsened lately. He is eating and drinking, but lost interest in a lot of stuff like cherries, and mango and eating less in general. Below are pictures of his lower teeth, that we managed to take 3 days ago, when he was feeling better. I did not notice this gap between lower teeth before.

[Salty]

About antibiotic - i have Amoxicillin-Clav 125 mg tablets. What would be good antibiotic for him?

[CritterMom]

His uppers look very short - is that true or am I seeing a camera thing there?

This is an excellent drug choice. To allow us to help you, we need to know the weight of your squirrel. If you don't have one, gram scales are available inexpensively at Walmart in the kitchenware section or at Staples as a postal scale. You will need to have a 1ml syringe with clear markings on it (no needle).

[Salty]

Hello CritterMom!
His upper teeth looked ok when i saw him yawning recently. Probably just the way the picture is taken, i will try to check more.
To tell you the truth, don't know how i am going to weight him, but i will try! I have scale and syringe (i was force feeding him calcium to treat MDB)
It is noon, and he is still sleeping.

[CritterMom]

If you can, pick up a bottle of infant ibuprofen. Don't bother with the "zero sugar" stuff - get a flavor - it is often berry flavored. Do try to get the INFANT strength. With the 1ml syringe you can give him some of that - we can dose it, too when we get his weight. If he is having pain it will help and helping relieve pain will make them start eating, too.

[Salty]

Got to weight him: 780 - 800 grams or about 27.5 - 28 oz.

I am going to pickup Ibuprofen now. He came out once around noon and ate half block. And he came out around 4 to drink, ate another half block and a grape (that's when a put him to eat on scale). Thank you!!

[CritterMom]

I sent you dosing for both the amox/clav and the infant ibuprofen by PM.

I did forget my standard "If you are unsure of how to ready a syringe, please ask for help here before you do anything" statement in your PM.

[Salty]

Hello!
We did manage to give him one dosage of antibiotics and one dose of ibuprofen mixed together. He made high pitched squeaking sounds as we try to pry him out of his willow house, not sure if it is pain sound, always thought that squirrels make low tone growling оr grunting type of sound for pain. He had some white discharge from eye, now i know it is like tears. Sleeping almost all day.
CritterMom, the pillow trick worked really good, but we put pillow to the chest and and then press him into pillow! It is much harder for him to hide his mouth, when i can just push down on the pillow with my finger and expose it.
Thank you!

[CritterMom]

Sounds more like he didn't want to come out of his house! Glad you got the meds in - they don't make it easy and they have so many pointy parts!

As long as we have you now, give us more info on him. What exactly is his diet? Sometimes there are issues there that need to be tweaked a little. Also, given his symptoms, it would be a good idea to take stock of things in his area that he could be having allergic issues from. Mold and/or mildew is an issue of course, but things like laundry detergent and perfumes and anything being used as a room freshener needs to be looked at (preferably they should be looked at while they are lying in the garbage). They can be very problematic for little guys like this. Mine benefit from the fact that I have two parrots and artificially scented stuff is the kiss of death for them so there isn't anything but power cords stuck in my outlets.

And what is his name?

[Salty]

His name is Kuzia. He is about 7 years old. He was on very unhealthy diet for about 6 years of his life, until we discovered, with help of one very nice rehabber from TikTok that he developed MDB. After the treatment, we removed all the nuts from his diet, and start giving Henrys Blocks to him. Besides blocks, he likes fruits like cherries, grapes, blackberries, mango, persimmon (these are also not the best, so I’ve heard) sometimes pear or apple, a little spring mix salad, avocado (not too much), sometimes citrus like mandarin, orange, or grapefruit. He will also chew on endive a little, mainly he likes to take them apart. I try to make him eat ZuPreem primate blocks, and he chews on them sometimes. He likes butternut squash seeds, and seeds from cantaloupe or melon. That is about all. I let him have acorns sometimes, mostly he just hides them around the house, but sometimes hell eat it. He likes pine cones in the fall, when they have seeds in them.

[Mel1959]

His diet looks pretty good. Congratulations on his MBD recovery! It takes a lot of time for them to recover and we know it’s not an easy task.

One of the better fruits to feed is papaya because of its high calcium content. Greens like kale, watercress, arugula and Swiss chard are also good. Your spring mix may contain some of these. Here is the link to the healthy diet for captive squirrels. https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...-Pet-Squirrels

[Mel1959]

Please look closely at his upper teeth. After looking at the pictures you posted it looks like they are non-existant. This can be a sign that they are growing inward which can be caused by odontomas. The only way to diagnose odontomas is by x-ray. This could also explain the issue with the eyes and nasal discharge. It is a painful condition.

[Salty]

I am going to go through and clean his stuff, while he is sleeping. We use fragrance free detergent.

About teeth, i think it is just a way his lip was covering the teeth at the time. Saw him do a stretch and yawn after a nap, and upper tooth seemed normal at the time, it was after we took the picture. I will try to check again, just to be sure. Short upper teeth is what to look out for, right?

Gave him the antibiotic/ibuprofen this morning.

[CritterMom]

Yes. We are looking for odontomas. Eventually the upper incisors will disappear into the gums.

We talked about this earlier and I am thinking it is a focal length problem on the picture, not his actual teeth. It isn't easy to get decent pics!

[Salty]

Hello Everyone!
A new development - Kuzia's right eye lids seem to become swollen. Left eye seem ok. Could not get a good chance to double check the upper tooth as he is always in hiding, but i will try more.
He is getting his medicine. On the second day there seemed to be improvement, as he was out for a 30 - 40 mins and even re hid his some of his acrons. On third day he was also out, but for a little less time, and was chewing on the block, but using his teeth very gently (have a video of it, here is the link, please, try reloading if does not work on first try: https://vimeo.com/1051260483/33c31eacda)
Bellow is a picture and a link to a video of him today (please, try to reload if does not work on first try, and let me know if there is a problem playing the video, i will try fix it).



Video of swollen eye: https://vimeo.com/1051249873/5b9e113147

Thank you!!

[Salty]

He is also hiding for most of the day, don't know if he is trying to avoid us (with our syringe) or just does not want to be out in general. First two medicine feeding was easy for us, as he was very dormant to fight, but after that he started to fight it every time. So, on one hand it looks like he became more energetic, but on the other hand his eye is swollen more. The white discharge seems to be much less, i have noticed little yesterday, after giving him the medicine, and only in his right (bad) eye, just a tiny drop at the corner.
Also, at the bottom of the bad eye, there seems to be a milky area that goes across horizontally. Cant tell if this is like a film on top, or inside the eye itself.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

Hello Everyone!
A new development - Kuzia's right eye lids seem to become swollen. Left eye seem ok. Could not get a good chance to double check the upper tooth as he is always in hiding, but i will try more.
He is getting his medicine. On the second day there seemed to be improvement, as he was out for a 30 - 40 mins and even re hid his some of his acrons. On third day he was also out, but for a little less time, and was chewing on the block, but using his teeth very gently
Thank you!!

Hi Salty:
I'm sorry that you have not yet had a response to your recent posts! I am at work and just got a moment and noticed your posts. I have reviewed your thread as well. I have several questions and comments and maybe some suggestions as well. It certainly appears that Kuzia has some swelling involving both the upper and lower right eyelids. Please very whether or not there appears to be any swelling of any other part of Kuzia's face, especially around the already swollen right eyelids. The reason I am asking this is that the swollen eyelids may be from just a conjunctivitis which is a infection/inflammation of the covering over the eye and/or the "back" of the eyelids or it maybe swelling or infection of the skin near the eye that exists secondary to a dental infection such as an abscessed tooth or an infection associated with an odontoma. Another question would be in regard to Kuzia's breathing, Is he breathing easily through his nose or does there seem to be some nasal congestion or worse yet, is Kuzia trying to breath through his mouth?

The conjunctiva is a thin membrane present over the entire globe (eyeball) except for the clear part of the eye called the cornea and this same membrane extends somewhat behind the visible portion of the eye and then curves outward again and covers the "back" of the eyelids. Do you have access to any ophthalmic antibiotics? These are liquids or ointments that are applied directly to the eye and are a first-line treatment for a conjunctivitis. One of the ophthalmic antibiotics that I use for Squirrels is Ofloxacin but there are many others! Please see (pun intended) what you may have or may be able to obtain from friends or family! The systemic antibiotic that you are using; Amoxicillin plus Clavulanate; is actually my recommended antibiotic for treating most of the likely bacteria that cause oral or dental infections. This antibiotic does not necessarily cover all of the likely bacteria causing a bacterial conjunctivitis and that is why I would also strongly recommend utilizing a topical (applied directly to the eye) ophthalmic antibiotic!

IMPORTANT!!! Getting back to the antibiotic that you reported having available and are now dosing; I have some very pertinent questions for you to answer! I mean no disrespect, but it is extremely important for me to point out that there is no such antibiotic as as Amoxicillin plus Clavulanate 125mg!!!! Amoxicillin plus Clavulanate is a combination of two medications; Amoxicillin and Clavulanic acid (or Clavulanate). Amoxicillin is an antibiotic and the Clavulanate is present to only to block a particular enzyme made by many bacteria that can break a certain chemical bond of the Amoxicillin molecule which if permitted, would render essentially useless! The Clavulanate, itself, does not have any appreciable activity as an antibiotic! It is only present to protect the structure of the Amoxicillin! The number "125mg" alone cannot tell us what strength your particular preparation of amoxicillin plus Clavulanate is because the weights (expressed in milligrams) of the BOTH Amoxicillin AND the Clavulanate must be known! In other words, the 125mg may be the weight of the amoxicillin component OR the Clavulanate component but NOT both!

Because of this, I am concerned about the effectiveness of how this medication is being dosed! IF the 125mg is the weight of the Amoxicillin component and the mixing and dosing was based only on the 125mg Amoxicillin component and the mixing and dosing was based upon Kuzia's weight and the antibiotic was prepared properly for administration to your Squirrel, all should be OK! BUT, if the 125mg is the weight of the Clavulanate component; the dosing is completely a "crap-shoot!" This is very important, Salty! Please take photos of the medication label and post them ASAP! Also, just to have this information available expeditiously; please write post exactly what you see on the label of your medication bottle!

Thank you for your love of and care for your little Squirrel, Kuzia!

Regards,
SamtheSquirrel