Hi! I have a 6.5 year old Southern Flying Squirrel that we rescued named Spartacus. He is the sweetest joy in our lives!

Two nights ago, we noticed that Sparty was a bit “off”… lethargic, loss of appetite, shaking, and his normally gorgeous coat looked like a cat’s when it gets old, if that makes sense. We did some research and concluded it probably is MBD due to his symptoms and how not so great his diet has been lately (our fault).

We did everything right, moved him to his smaller cage, put a space heater on low for him, ordered Squirrel-Cal for him right away. We read that we should get calcium without Vit D in his system immediately and the only thing we had on hand were Antacid chewable tablets, so we’ve been crushing that up, mixing with water, and feeding him with a syringe. I’ve been doing 50 mg of this every four hours after his initial dose, even setting my alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night haha. Anything for Sparty. Thankfully no paralysis and he seems to be getting slowly better.

All that to say: the first time we had to force-feed the calcium to him, he wasn’t happy and some ended up on his cheeks/neck. We tried to wipe it off but it’s dried there and become crusty/caked on, and I think it’s pretty uncomfortable for him because he keeps trying to scrape his lil face on things to get it off.

What is the best way to clean him? I’m wary of using baby wipes bc of chemicals, but my online research tells me to be careful about getting him wet since he could get cold and sick… but I want to get it off ASAP so it doesn’t irritate his fur or skin (the tablets are peppermint flavored… at first he didn’t like it at all but now he drinks it up happily!)