Cleo is restless, running around like crazy and not eating!

[mel_la_fee]

I honestly don't know how serious this is or what's going on with her. I've never seen her do this before... This morning I got up and let her out to run around and she's been going in circles around the bedroom like a little mad woman. She doesn't want me to catch or hold her and she's not interested in eating anything. It's the total opposite of yesterday/last night. Last night itshe seemed lethargic and it took me awhile to get her to eat. She finally did have some almonds, a small apple slice, and most of a Henry's Block. All of a sudden it's like she has TOO MUCH energy.

I note that she was having trouble a few weeks ago and has been losing weight recently... Her diet and that issue can be found here: https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...ight=Twitching

She is a little neuro just over 1 yr old and I've never seen her this frantic. It's like she's on a mission but with no idea where she's going. She gets angry every time I try to stop her. It's been about half an hour now so I'm hoping she slows down and will eat soon. Any ideas? It's really disconcerting :/

[Mel1959]

It could be that her natural instincts are kicking in and she’s frantic to be free. Could she have taken a fall and injured her head again? When you say she’s running in circles, do you mean zooming around the room? She may just have extra energy and needs to burn it off. My neuro girl does this occasionally. In the trees they expend an enormous amount of energy every day. She wouldn’t be able to do that.

As far as eating goes, if good food is available they will eat when they are hungry. No squirrel will starve himself.

[mel_la_fee]

Thank you. That makes me feel a little better... I've just never seen her do this. I guess the best way to describe it is too say she's doing laps around the room. She starts in the closet, climbs out of her basket, runs (more or less, she's not a great runner) to the other side of the room, turns around, goes back to the closet, climbs into her basket, and starts all over again. I don't really see how she could've fallen and hurt herself. The highest point she ever gets to is on the bed and she knows how to get down from there... But I suppose it's not entirely impossible.

What other signs should I be looking for??? I did just get her to drink a cc of water but she usually needs more than that in the morning. This is really starting to freak me out a bit...

[island rehabber]

Neuro or not, this time of year her instincts are telling her to prepare, prepare, prepare for winter! She knows there is something she needs to do in order to survive, but she's not free to do it so she's confused. I know others have had NR's who do this behavior at this same time of year -- stepnstone's Annie, maybe? And they lose weight, as well.

[CritterMom]

Since this is the first time you have seen this, it may be that she either heard something outside, or smelled it - and it has her agitated - either frightened or upset. There is a lot of drama that happens outside that we are totally unaware of that they can sense.

Every once in a while my boy will suddenly do this - race around, run to the highest point and snap that tail around, peer intently at (nothing) on the floor - all in the room that is his favorite place in the world to be. The only thing that eventually seems to make him stop is to grab him and bring him back to his room and his enclosure. Often he will totally switch off as soon as he is in there. And when I bring him back to my room a few hours later he is fine. I am left to conclude that something outside sets him off.

[LR]

Did the vet ever get her teeth trimmed?

Did the congestion she had earlier go completely away?

She weighed 385g if I remember correctly from the first post. This is smallish weight to start with for a one year old squirrel no matter where you live. Can you post a current weight on her?

I know that you posted before about what she will eat but could you give us a list of the foods that she is actually eating lately?

[mel_la_fee]

She did get her teeth trimmed and the congestion seemed to be completely cleared up after a 10 day course of ABs. And she's always been on the small side. Not sure if it has something to do with her past trauma affecting her development or if she would've been small regardless. It seems like the squirrels down here are getting smaller every year. The eye-open babies I had this fall started off weighing as little as 46g... In any event, her current weight is about 370 now. The loss made me a little uncomfortable, but she's been super active, so I was hoping she was just burning off more energy than before.
She's also been super picky about her food recently, though she does still eat her block everyday. I always offer the same rotation of items as listed before, but there are some days when getting her to eat anything but block is nearly impossible. For a couple of days she wouldn't even touch her almonds (which seems just downright crazy), then there was a whole day where she wouldn't eat any fruit or vegetables EXCEPT for pineapple. The next day it was only sweet potato... It was a strange development, but it's only been going on for the last 2 weeks or so, so I wasn't specifically worried. She was otherwise alert, active, etc. I tried to make up for her pickiness by letting her eat as many blocks as she wants in a day. In general, I figured I would just keep offering stuff and see if she would come around again in another week or so. She'll be due for another vet check-up this month, so my thought was I could just bring it up then if the situation hadn't improved.

It wasn't till she wouldn't even eat her bock or stop doing laps this morning, that I started to wonder if something more serious was going on. :/

[muggsy'sgm]

Muggsy, a 5+ month old grey, will sometimes pick the spot on his floor with the least linear clearance, and RUN-PACE. He stays next to the wall, and goes back-and-forth...over and over again. The path he takes is maybe 6 feet each way. Muggsy doesn't look agitated when doing it, and it isn't near the window (where he may see something). Unlike Cleo, though, I can interrupt him and redirect if I'm in his room. He has neuro issues as well, though they have improved lately.

Maybe as someone said above, it's because part of them is trying to prepare for the winter...and is almost frantic.

However, Muggsy's appetite is weird lately, too...just like Cleo's. Have you tried hand-feeding her stuff? Muggsy won't touch his snap peas anymore...unless I peel them and hand him each individual morsel. Same thing with block. I had to make Boo Balls out of HHB!!!

I wonder if this is the time of year where their bodies start to slow down their metabolism a bit? It seems counterintuitive, but maybe before pseudo-hibernation they start to prepare for consuming fewer calories? Sleeping more? Maybe someone else will chime in...I'm just guessing.

It's odd that you brought it up, though...because we are experiencing a bit of the same.

[mel_la_fee]

...because we are experiencing a bit of the same.

Well, at least we're not the only ones! I was wondering if her eating habits had something to do with the season as well. Like, maybe they are naturally inclined to eat less because their instinct is to conserve resources for several months? Makes her sudden excitability seem even stranger though.

I just texted my partner at home and he says she's being very rambunctious and refusing to drink water right now Just before I left for work she finally showed interest in eating an almond at least, but now I'm worried about her becoming dehydrated. Hopefully thing's will have settled down by the time I get home tonight.

[muggsy'sgm]

How's Cleo?

[SquirrelLady2]

Do you think it's time for the breeding season? My three-year-old little girl is being super lovey dovey but restless. With a bit of discharge. Hmmm. Went to vet just for a checkup last week and they said she was in good health and normal. So I'm wondering if that could be an issue?

[mel_la_fee]

So, even though it seemed she had gotten over her respiratory infection, it came back and/or was not fully cleared as we thought after a 10 day course of baytril. Cleo stopped wanting to eat anything so I had to resort to feeding her formula again as a way to make sure she didn't lose any more weight or lack for calories (though it's so less than ideal I worry that's still a problem) :/

We went to the vet today and they did a culture on her infection as well as x-ray's. Thankfully her lungs are actually clear, but she was still blowing green bubbles of snot this morning before the appointment, so something is def wrong. At this point we have to figure out if it's just a chronic infection in her nasal cavity or if it might be her teeth/malocclusion that is causing the nasal issues.

They're sending the x-rays off to an exotic specialist for a more thorough evaluation and we'll get the culture results in about 4 days. In the meantime, they put her on a different AB in case her problem was due to baytril no longer working: Smz-Tmp: a dual combo. Any one who has experience with this, I'd appreciate any advice.

If it turns out it's her teeth causing the illness/congestion due to blockage, we'll have a whole other issue on our hands. She's only about 1yr and 3 months old. I feel terrible that she's had to feel bad so many times in such a short period of time, but when she's well she's such a joy and so clearly not aware of her own limitations. She's also so much smarter than anyone would think. She knows the treats are kept in a cabinet in the bathroom closet and she knows the block and pineapple is kept in the kitchen. When she was eating normally she'd walk to the edge of the room and look back and forth longingly between me and the fridge and it was so difficult to deny her an extra chunk of fruit...

It's been very troubling that she feels so unwell she's regressed to only eating formula. She doesn't even want her block now. 😭 Also, I still have babies I'm wintering over and while I give them the necessities, there's no doubt I pay less attention to them than I would otherwise because I'm so invested in a non-releasable atm. Thankfully they keep each other company. Any word from more experienced rehabbers would be appreciated! And if anyone wants to send some henry blocks my way we could use them. 😉

Here she is finally sleeping this evening (she still goes manic at odd times).

[stosh2010]

mel_la_fee

We went to the vet today and they did a culture on her infection as well as x-ray's. Thankfully her lungs are actually clear, but she was still blowing green bubbles of snot this morning before the appointment,

Hope you had a Merry Christmas..
PLEASE post a CLEO update...
I've been thinking about her a lot. I have two N.R.s-at home with odontoma and they regularly get mucus and snotty noses. The green is a separate issue. Need a culture of that for proper diagnosis.

>>>a PHOTO would be wonderful





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[island rehabber]

Bravo187, you have started a thread in someone else's thread (I know, this place can be confusing!) so I am moving your posts to your own, new thread in the Help Needed Non Life-Threatening Forum....here's the new link:

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...and-Not-Eating