Not digesting!!

[Mommaluvy]

Benebac is good.

I could be wrong but from what I read the pedialyte has lots of stuff in it. And the home made solution is better at this point cause you can control it this is the one I use

½ teaspoon salt + ½ tablespoon of sugar + 2 cups of water – warm slightly to dissolve sugar and salt. Seems like there is only a particular protocol for using pedialyte.

I am concerned your guy has lost so much weight and is lethargic. Do you have a squirrel friendly vet?

Personally .. If I were you I would not dilute his formula much anymore ... What ever formula he was in using - he was not having diarrhea problems .. Keep him on it but feed just below the five percent. One question I have through all this was .. If your squirrel loses weight.. Do you feed 5% of current weight? I can understand a squirrel that weighs 30 grams should be fed only the 5% but.. What if you have a 100 gram squirrel that loses weight and now weighs only 80 grams! Do you take calories away ? I opted to not do that based on another experience . But I did not increase much.

[ALittleNutty]

Drop the pedialyte and use the homemade solution minus the salt. The salt is only added when we intake a dehydrated baby and only for the first 24 hours.

I wouldn't freak out just yet over the blood just yet. It could be that his intestines are irritated. Just keep a close watch to see if it continues.

You might want to rub a little maple syrup or molasses on his gums for the lethargy. Molasses is better if you have it on hand since it contains some vitamins and minerals.

[amyd30]

it sounds like what my squirrel went through at that age and he had giardia. is his poop fowl smelling? it took a month for us to figure out that he had it and he was very underweight until we got it taken care of.

[Pipp Squeak]

I had a feeling about the pedialite so I stopped using it and had gone to a water solution, but I think you're right about the salt, plus the one I had, had waaaay higher water ratio so I don't think it was doing much good. He also has recently been refusing his food, (the combo formula I had him on before that worked perfectly), I even added a smidgen of honey for taste and still no. When I dipped the syringe in the hot water to keep the formula warm while continuing to try though, he sucked that water drop right up, so I just thinned it out a lot more, and he finally ate it. That was last night before bed. Since then his poop is actually getting better. It's still not firming up quite as hard as it should be, but no, it doesn't smell, the color is getting back to normal, and it's starting to come out pebble shaped again. He's still extremely lethargic, but I think the poor baby is still too dehydrated to eat properly, so I will use this new no salt solution all day, and keep trying a little formula now and then. I also ordered some baycox for coccidiosis, cuz that's about the only thing that matches all his symptoms, but I'm also contacting the vet right now to see if I can get some faster than the mail. (And no, there are ZERO vets who know ANYTHING about squirrels here. These rednecks laugh at me for not kicking him over the fence when i found him &#128544. Oh also, he keeps crawling up as high as he can and drops his temp to like 96°. So i turned up the pad and covered the cage a little and monitored it constantly for an hour until he got back to a constant 100°. What do you guys think?? And thank you all so much for your responses!! We're both so grateful for all the help we can get!

[Mommaluvy]

Sounds like he is still dehydrated.

If there is one thing I have learned Dehydration and any diarrhea is a visious cycle. Its counter intuitive. You would think that if your dehydrated you would want water - be thirsty. But that is actually not the case. In fact last year I myself nearly passed out due to dehydration and I was not even sick. It was just hot .. I was not thirsty yet I ended up getting iv fluids.


Turns out the more dehydrated you are.. the less you want to drink. Thus you become more dehydrated.

Anyhow.. keep trying to offer fluids in between feeds. So something .. like hydration at 2 pm.. formula at 4 pm. Mine actually prefers the hot water than the hydration solution.. Maybe I have a weird squirrel .. He tried to drink his bath water too. He gets so covered in feces I am having to bath him ever other day if not ever day .. not to mention cleanings. But the mornings he is always a mess. And he tries to lick it off the fleece so its really ALL OVER HIM.

I have heard baycox is good. As is SMZ-TMP.. and like I said I would be happy to share mine with you. I can mail it out the day it gets here and that should only be in about too days. So you could get it by Saturday /Monday.

Some one else here has baycox they might share. I have heard its hard to dose and if you order it from particular sites it takes forever. BUT.. either way... you may not need these meds if he is firming up on his own.

The albon worked for 3 of mine.. but I may be having to try the SMZ on poor Chrysto. He is about 7 weeks now and only 94 grams. So I do feel your pain, worry and frustration...

About the temp.. I have our cage sitting half on the heat.. half off. They should have the opportunity to get off if they get to hot. My seven weekers decided to sleep in their hammock last night.. and they were off the heat and in the air. But their cage is still half on the heat. And they were not alone and able to keep each other warm.. But.. still if they get to hot they need to be able to move off the heat.

Just babbling mostly now... There seems to be a general disagreement on squirrels body temps. And since he is not a pinky I would not worry if he goes to 96 sometimes. I am not advocating cold squirrels :P This is something important to their life esp if a pinky or 2-3 weeker etc.. or a singleton.. . But when my oldest squirrel had a suspected fever ( Oddly his name is Pipsqueak also ) there was much differing in opinion in what their temp actually is. Some literature suggested it was closer to our body temp. Some said it was 102.

I actually became quite curious and I occasionally take their body temp in their arm pit and mine average 99. So since its an auxiliary temp.. that would make it 100'F ( yes.. I like making work for myself :P ) My Pips got up to possible 104 once when he had silent Pneumonia.
But they do like their forumla to be on the hot side of warm.

So keep up the good work.