Hello,

Not sure whether this is life-threatening or not.My girlfriend and I have an Eastern Grey, 6 years old, who she has raised successfully since its birth. Until two weeks ago, he's never had any health or behavioral issues. Last week he was squeaking a lot and not eating or drinking, and being extremely lethargic and putting his little head down, do we took him to the vet. They did x-rays and did not see anything to write home about -- no injuries, no trouble spots. They believed it to be respiratory issue and gave us antibiotics to give him. We had to deliver these by force, through a syringe, for the first three nights. After that he rested a lot but seemed to be getting better and better. About 3 days in, he was acting mostly normal again, and eating almost as much as always before. So she started syringing the medicine into a grape which he has been eating every morning and night since. He started eating his daily Henry's blocks and regular nutritious food (daily lettuce, carrots, mushroom). Occasionally we gave him a little slice of (cleaned) apple or a few grains of oatmeal, but nothing junky or bad for him. Yesterday he was making growling noises at us and anyone who would listen but he was still eating. This morning, he refused to eat the grape, he refused to eat the block, and when I tried to feed him a little banana, he squeaked as if in pain while he was nibbling at it, before seeming to just give up. He ran back into his nest and I let him rest. A few hours later, I tried to give him a walnut, and he accepted it, jumped up on his perch where he usually eats, and nibbled at it, squeaking the whole time as if in pain. Eventually, he gave up on that, too and dropped it and went back into his nest. We're going to try to force feed him with the syringe again tonight to make sure he is getting the antibiotics, and probably go to the vet again.

There is no MBD because he's been eating Henry's blocks daily for his entire life. Is it possible he's just super reactive to apples, which he doesn't eat as often? Is he constipated or experiencing digestion distress? Is it that the grape, even when infused with antibiotics (which he has always eaten completely) isn't being as effective and he's relapsed back to whatever respiratory issues he's having?

I've looked everywhere online, even on this very amazing and helpful site, and I don't see anything about a squirrel making those squeals while accepting or trying to eat food. It's truly awful seeing him suffer and not knowing how to help him or what even is wrong. He's always been the friendliest, sweetest natured little guy. I don't know why he seems to be in so much pain.

Please, if anyone has seen this kind of behavior, let me know your experience. We are just completely lost and anything you could share would give us hope, comfort, or the ability to brace ourselves -- all of the above.

Thank you all in advance for your kindness.