Diarrhea in NR fox squirrel

[Potassy]

I would. It made her feel better the last time. You might give a bit more - I gave you a really small dose of it.

Do you have a way to get your hands on antibiotics? There is a drug called Metronidazole that covers a bunch of things stomach related including some parasites. It has become sort of a "try it if nothing else works" med. It is available from some of the fish med sites: https://www.calvetsupply.com/fish-zo...onidazole.html and I am sure there or many other sites - but you have to buy a whole bottle so $$$.

Does the poop smell really awful or fairly normal?

Thanks, CritterMom, for continued help here. Will give her the kao at that slightly higher dosage right now, and will look into getting metronidazole just in case.
Poop is stinky but not fishy or smelling like festering infection; more the acrid, not-fully-digested food smell I associate with upset stomachs (in humans, cats, dogs—no experience with any other species before Sassy), so hopefully NOT bacterial?
Since my post this morning, Sassy did manage to eat most of a Henry’s block, plus some watermelon, a sugar snap pea and a bit of avocado. She has not wanted to drink.
I gave her a butt bath after wiping her with a baby wipe and freaking out about the color (see pic). Her anus obviously looks red and inflamed but her vulva looks abnormal too and I thought was perhaps bleeding. Given Sassy’s age and the time of year, not sure if she could be dealing with estrus on top of everything else or she’s just getting irritation from the diarrhea.

[CritterMom]

Well, eating is a good sign. Do keep pushing fluids though - she is sending more than a normal amount out the back end right now so she needs to take in more in the front end to compensate!

They both work the same way but if you have any, you could try Pepto Bismol. Same dosing as the other - she may not like it much because it is peppermint flavored and supposedly rodent don't like peppermint. I have had luck with it before. And yeah, she could be in estrus, too. Poor baby!

[supersquirrelgirl]

How is Ms. Sassy doing now ??

[Potassy]

How is Ms. Sassy doing now ??

Thanks for checking in, Supersquirrelgirl. Was waiting for a little more definitive status to update but things have changed again. Sassy had a run of a good couple days (Thursday and Friday), with lots of energy and appetite (still being super stubborn about drinking, argh). Poops are darker, well formed and pretty regular, albeit still with varying amounts of mucus. We gave her kao on Tuesday and Wednesday and she’s been getting Benebac every other day on a piece of pecan. However, last night we noticed her urine smelling really bad again and today, other than perking up during our trip outside in the afternoon, Sassy had low energy/small appetite. We were just getting half of a 500mg tablet of Cipro ground up and diluted in 11ccs of water and we were going to look into dosage. Just in case she was suffering from digestive upset (in addition to feeling bad due to UTI?) we gave her the low-end dose of kao a little bit ago. Frustrating that the UTI is back so soon (this is similar to the situation we dealt with when we first got her and didn’t have an effective routine in place for bladder expression—UTIs every few weeks). I’m sure her low-grade dehydration has not helped matters. Also, with Sassy’s wintertime sleep schedule we’re still trying to figure out the frequency and best times to express her bladder overnight.
Adding a photos of her from Wednesday when she was feeling better: getting a brief visit from the most senior Fox squirrel in our forest and likely Sassy’s aunt? grandma? at a safe distance.

[supersquirrelgirl]

Sounds like a roller coaster ride for the last month.

Lots of fox squirrels on the West Coast. I'm in Northern California (Bay Area) and foxers everywhere here.

I know you are under CritterMom's care but if you need dosing for Cipro, give me latest weight and I'll PM the dose amount.

Just be aware that Cipro taste very yukky so plan on masking it good for Ms. Sassy.

Please confirm the Cipro pill being used has a 1/2 pill cut line ??

Mr.SSG

[Potassy]

Sounds like a roller coaster ride for the last month.

Lots of fox squirrels on the West Coast. I'm in Northern California (Bay Area) and foxers everywhere here.

I know you are under CritterMom's care but if you need dosing for Cipro, give me latest weight and I'll PM the dose amount.

Just be aware that Cipro taste very yukky so plan on masking it good for Ms. Sassy.

Please confirm the Cipro pill being used has a 1/2 pill cut line ??

Mr.SSG

Thanks so much, Mr. SSG!! I will gladly take you up on dosage help. Sassy’s last weight was 560g but we’ll update with current weight asap. Cipro pill didn’t have a cut line but I used a pill cutter to halve it.

[supersquirrelgirl]

I'm always nervous when cutting a pill that has no cut line. I feel assuming the pill is uniform across 500mg and thinking 1/2 is 250mg. Sometimes thats no true as the pill manufacture expects the total pill to be swallowed whole.

If you are not short on pill supply, I suggest you use total pill (500mg) and double water amount (22mls).

I'll wait for the updated weight, then PM the dosing.

[Potassy]

I'm always nervous when cutting a pill that has no cut line. I feel assuming the pill is uniform across 500mg and thinking 1/2 is 250mg. Sometimes thats no true as the pill manufacture expects the total pill to be swallowed whole.

If you are not short on pill supply, I suggest you use total pill (500mg) and double water amount (22mls).

I'll wait for the updated weight, then PM the dosing.

Ah. That makes sense. Ok, will dilute whole pill.

[supersquirrelgirl]

Yes do the whole pill.

PM sent for dosing.

Follow the same num ber of dose days and if you want to give the loaded dose as before, feel free.

Give probiotics 2 hrs after dosing.

Just remember, Cipro taste very bad!

[supersquirrelgirl]

Additional comment......

UTI is one thing but seeing blood in poop is concerning. Maintain hydration with water, apple juice, Sassy favorite.

Keep eye on it and report back in day or two. Cipro will not clear intestinal parasites.

[Potassy]

Just for record-keeping on the thread, Sassy was down to 535g last night when we weighed her, less than she weighed in July when she was much younger. Ach!

[Potassy]

Fingers crossed Sassy has finally turned a corner. Cipro started working almost immediately on the UTI and her poops are nearly normal with very minimal mucus.
Biggest news is that she’s finally drinking from her water bottle again. I swear I hadn’t seen her touch it in weeks—we were replacing the water nevertheless. Hopefully we can move away from syringing fluids into her mouth (what a chore and battle of wills )
Sassy’s appetite and energy are good again too. We’ll get a weight on her soon and update here.

[CritterMom]

[supersquirrelgirl]

Good to hear. Cipro is broad-spectrum AB and fast-acting. Glad you found a way to dose that yukky stuff.

[supersquirrelgirl]

Been a week on AB so curious how Ms. Sassy is doing ??

[Potassy]

Hi! Sorry for delayed reply and thank you so much for following up. Was intending to give an update and then stuff went a little sideways in the last 3 days.
We finished Cipro on Saturday evening and urine has been normal.
After a pretty good sequence of days with no digestive issues, Sassy started having mucusy, soft stools again three nights ago. We gave her kaopectate and she continued to eat and drink normally during the day. Two nights ago more soft, mucusy stool plus traces of blood (I know now how to distinguish watermelon in stool from blood and this was blood—we haven’t fed her any watermelon in over a week). More kaopectate given. Still eating and drinking. Yesterday afternoon, Sassy vomited twice. First time was after getting her benebac on a pecan piece, second time was after taking in about half a dose of kaopectate. No more vomiting overnight (that we could tell) but she woke up every few hours and huddled in the bottom of her cage before we’d put her back to bed (and gave her a couple of doses of kaopectate overnight about 7 or 8 hours apart). Lots of soft stools overnight. Still wouldn’t characterize as diarrhea exactly, but they are voluminous, wetter than normal, and smelly. And Sassy clearly isn’t feeling well.
Anyhow, we could increase dose of kao, but obviously we’re concerned about the persistence of the problem.
Attached a pic of the vomit. Will attach others in a new response shortly,

[Potassy]

Pictures:
Poop from this morning, poop overnight, eating a block in bed after Sassy slept in this morning, feeling not good yesterday

[supersquirrelgirl]

To confirm, access to Vet is possible or no way ??

[Potassy]

Sadly, no.

[Potassy]

I would. It made her feel better the last time. You might give a bit more - I gave you a really small dose of it.

Do you have a way to get your hands on antibiotics? There is a drug called Metronidazole that covers a bunch of things stomach related including some parasites. It has become sort of a "try it if nothing else works" med. It is available from some of the fish med sites: https://www.calvetsupply.com/fish-zo...onidazole.html and I am sure there or many other sites - but you have to buy a whole bottle so $$$.

Does the poop smell really awful or fairly normal?

Considering getting the metronidazole just so we have it on hand but not sure if there’s a preference on 500mg or 250mg tablets.