URGENT ASPIRATION PNEUMONIA

[zensquirrel]

We have a one-eyed squirrel we care for and she has come down with aspiration pneumonia. She is struggling to breathe and we hear a low clicking squeak with each breath. She'd gone to the vet for a routine checkup for her eye on Friday (2 days ago) but that morning, before her appt, she didn't eat her food and wasn't acting like herself. We did xrays, and blood work with nothing showing as off. She didn't want to drink much yesterday, and I gave her 2 small syringes of water today which she drank but she's aspirating and wobbly. She's on 0.5 SMZ's as a precaution from the vet but I'm sure I need to get her on Cipro (which I have) ASAP and I'm wondering if anyone here would know the dose. Her current weight is .78kg
PLEASE and THANK YOU in advance. She means the world to us. <3

[zensquirrel]

OK, so we followed a conversion from another thread and started by giving her a hair over .3cc's and I will follow up with an antibiotic. Also, earlier today we gave her subcu fluids and will do that again tomorrow just to keep her hydrated. Please pray for our girl. She is a little champ and we feel she has years of TLC ahead of her. <3 All tips would be appreciated.

This is truly a bizarre turn and even our squirrel vet is perplexed.

[redwuff]

Please let me check your dosing. You say your sweetheart is 78 g. Or is she 780g? I will also need the strength of the med, cipro. What antibiotic did you give .3 of? Was that the cipro or smz? Both of those meds are antibiotics. Both will treat AP but smz is slower than cipro.

We would love to help you in any other way we can. The most important thing is having her on a good diet. What formula are you feeding? We would love to see a picture of your precious sweet baby. Is she a fox squirrel? How old is your girl?

[redwuff]

Ok, I have to assume your girl is a grown squirrel cos a dose of smz at a strength of 50mg/ml (which I don't know the strength of your SMZ), 0.5 is for a 1000 gram squirrel.

Hope to hear back from you. Welcome to TSB.

[redwuff]

Duh.... .78kg is 780 grams. Sorry, still feeding through the night.

[zensquirrel]

Thank you for your reply, having given her the dose last night, I knew I could grab a little sleep, so I did. Yes, she is grown and I gave her the cipro vs her SMZ’s last night bc I felt the cipro would be faster-acting. I slept lightly by her habitat so I could hear how she was breathing. Her breath this morning is not as labored but I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Her diet is a mix of Henry’s blocks, some parrot pellets, monkey/primate biscuits, vegetables, like broccoli, zucchini, snap peas, etc (sage veggies) and sometimes some sweet treats like millet/honey balls. She gets ample twigs and branches to chew on/play with and her habitat is very clean and by a window where she can get sunlight (Vitamin D)

She gets 4 feedings a day: first thing am: primate biscuits; mid am: blocks; mid day: pellets, veggies; evening/bedtime: blocks

If we see her getting big we reduce the qty of blocks and pellets and she does perfectly with that routine.

She started to lose a little weight about two weeks ago and started to get more picky about her food, only wanting her blocks, losing interest in her monkey biscuits but sometimes they go thru phases where they’re more interested in stashing those items vs immediately eating them all so we just kept an eye on her and then Friday, she didn’t want to eat her blocks and that’s never happened. She had a vet appt that day thank goodness and our vet is perplexed, too bc all her lab work and xrays look great.

She is 4 years old and a total sweetheart. She doesn’t even complain when we give her subcu.

[zensquirrel]

And thank you for your welcome! 🥰

[zensquirrel]

This is her healthy, being a flirt:

[CritterMom]

Thank you for your reply, having given her the dose last night, I knew I could grab a little sleep, so I did. Yes, she is grown and I gave her the cipro vs her SMZ’s last night bc I felt the cipro would be faster-acting. I slept lightly by her habitat so I could hear how she was breathing. Her breath this morning is not as labored but I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Her diet is a mix of Henry’s blocks, some parrot pellets, monkey/primate biscuits, vegetables, like broccoli, zucchini, snap peas, etc (sage veggies) and sometimes some sweet treats like millet/honey balls. She gets ample twigs and branches to chew on/play with and her habitat is very clean and by a window where she can get sunlight (Vitamin D)

She gets 4 feedings a day: first thing am: primate biscuits; mid am: blocks; mid day: pellets, veggies; evening/bedtime: blocks

If we see her getting big we reduce the qty of blocks and pellets and she does perfectly with that routine.

She started to lose a little weight about two weeks ago and started to get more picky about her food, only wanting her blocks, losing interest in her monkey biscuits but sometimes they go thru phases where they’re more interested in stashing those items vs immediately eating them all so we just kept an eye on her and then Friday, she didn’t want to eat her blocks and that’s never happened. She had a vet appt that day thank goodness and our vet is perplexed, too bc all her lab work and xrays look great.

She is 4 years old and a total sweetheart. She doesn’t even complain when we give her subcu.

Has someone calculated the dose of the cipro fr you? Normally we recommend a loading (doubled) dose for the first dose of the meds (doctors do the same for humans with this drug, BTW), and then the regular dose after that - i.e,, Day 1 first dose doubled, second dose normal, and then the normal dose 2x per day after that. Given that, if you have NOT done that, you might want to sandwich in an additional dose today.

[zensquirrel]

I did not do the double dose last night but can easily do that this morning as it’s her exact time for her meds right now. Thank You. :-)

[zensquirrel]

Just checking in to thank you both for your replies and support. She is still hanging in there with much less labored breathing and no clicking/squeaking.

I am still quite concerned though as she seems to have a neurologic deficit with her forearms. Meaning, she will use them if she's trying to get away from shots, etc (she can climb and hang upside down) but is not volunteering to use them. I'd say I'm worried about some kind of falling injury but her xrays came back perfectly fine. If there is something else anyone can think of that I'm missing I'd be glad to learn about it. <3 Thank You, again, in advance and for the support.