Hello
I have been feeding and providing fresh water to squirrels for almost 20 years in our
National Wildlife Foundation Certified Wildlife Habitat.

At no time have we tried to make pets of the squirrels, but when we have found squirrels
with special needs, we have made sure to feed them extra quality diets. For three years
a squirrel with a bad back leg was able to eat and drink here. We now have one whose right
eye is missing. Also, one we called "Vincent" because half of its left ear is missing.

I'm posting for the first time here because of the concern my husband and I have about our
fox squirrels' health. I did a search and your site came up.

For a few years now we've been seeing wounds on more and more of the squirrels who come to our five
feeders in trees around the garden. In our situation, the wounds always are on the hip, and usually
the left hip. Not all of the squirrels have them.

At first we thought a wild animal or neighbor's cat was getting them. They always seem eventually to
heal and the hair returns on the wound. At times the wounds appear very fresh and red.

We have nearly a cat-free neighborhood now, though, and it's still happening.

So I thought I'd attach an old picture, a typical "wound" (although it was nearly healed by the time the pix was taken).
Out of many hundreds of pictures of our squirrels this is the only one I found with a wound,
so maybe I'm being needlessly worried.

Any ideas?
Scwerluvr