*Serious* Possible Head Trauma Adult Female Eastern Grey Squirrel

[paigemaddi]

Hi Everyone,

A little background info for context:
My husband and I do animal rescue pretty often but we seem to always discover the animals that are too injured or sick. When we've brought them to the rescue we work with, they have all needed to be euthanized.

The reason for this post:
There are many squirrels in the park near our house that we see on a daily basis and feed. There is one squirrel (adult female Eastern Grey) we've known for approximately a year now - named her Tipsy. She has always had a head tilt to the left but never had trouble walking, running, climbing, eating, etc. However, recently (within the last week) she's been unable to sit properly as she slowly starts to fall either sideways (to the left) or backwards. She's now also kind of run-hopping slightly sideways. I am pretty sure it's head trauma but she's been living with it fine for almost a year and had only shown a slight head tilt this whole time. I'm thinking she's either injured herself again, or something is possibly causing swelling in her brain and it's subsequently causing her balance to diminish. Today she was slightly better though, she was able to sit without falling over, albeit leaning over to keep upright. She's the only squirrel we've encountered with a head tilt that has symptoms that periodically get worse, then improve, then get worse again.

What I'd like help with:
If at all possible, I'd like to try and treat possible inflammation before we attempt to trap her because I'm almost certain she'll be euthanized (just based on my prior experience). I read that infant Ibuprofen is safe and commonly used for inflammation in squirrels. Does anyone here agree or disagree with that? Additionally, if it IS safe, could I get some assistance with dosing? The average weight of a female Eastern Grey is in and around 500 grams so that's what I would be using for her weight. As a side note, I've also read that Tumeric, which has anti-inflammatory properties, is also safe for squirrels to ingest in small amounts.

I've attached a few pictures of her sitting/leaning sideways.

Thank you in advance for reading and any assistance you could provide.