Open wound on tail

[craig2l]

Don't know if this is life threatening but it sure looks reasonably serious to our eyes. It appears to be a bite wound half way down the tail. This male is friendly with us, we feed him and are able to pet him some as well. A couple of days ago it appeared that the wound had started to scab over but today it is raw-looking. Should we do nothing and hope his immune system will work to prevent an infection or do something more active such as apply a local antibiotic or a systemic antibiotic? The providing of an antibiotic either way might be challenging but I'm happy to try. Would need advice here however: type of antibiotic, where to access (always a big deal if a prescription is needed), dosing, frequency, means of application, etc. I appreciate any guidance. We are VERY reluctant to try to capture him as the level of stress imposed can be huge and there are MANY challenges trying to get a squirrel into a cage, especially when you have another 12-15 visiting daily.

Thank you!
Craig

[CritterMom]

He may have done that himself - healing wounds itch, and all they have is teeth.

The least invasive thing you can do is to get something on it daily to keep the bacterial and fungal issues at bay. Go to the drug store or Walmart and buy a bottle of 10% povidone iodine. Betadyne is the name brand but get a store brand and save a $ - it is all the same stuff. It is in with the wound care stuff and looks like a bottle full of blood.

While you are out, stop at a place like Dollar Tree - they sell teeny little spray bottles for makeup and stuff that are small enough to hide in your hand.

Mix 1/2 teaspoon of the povidone iodine with 1/4 cup water. To dose him, warm it up - put the sprayer with the liquid in a glass of warm water. The closer it is to his own body temp the less he is going to notice it when you palm that thing and spritz his tail. It doesn't burn or sting. Just saturate the area and done. If you could get some on there a couple times a day it would be great. It is anti-bacterial/viral/fungal, so anything that gets on the open wound will get wiped out before it can stir up trouble.

I use this stuff myself and got into something in my yard a couple weeks ago - the inside of my forearm looked like I had been hit with a whip and I would have remembered that. It itched like crazy. I dumped some povidone iodine on it and within 5 minutes ALL of the itching was gone, in an hour, the red welt was too. I didn't know it had anti-itch properties but it sure did for me.

Does he still have any control of the lower half of the tail?

[craig2l]

Thank you so much! Regarding tail control, not sure, but he does not appear to be dragging the end of it. So perhaps he still does have control. He IS a wild squirrel and visits I believe only once a day and perhaps not even on a daily basis. But we will be extra vigilant for his presence and follow your directions.

[imasquirrel]

sounds like you're doing the right thing by keeping an eye on the wound. definitely try the iodine solution CritterMom suggested. Should help prevent infection without stressing him out too much. keep us updated on how it goes!