Need Help with this little girl

[RevFrank]

We woke up to this little lady lying on the ground and her partner trying to get her to keep playing. It looks like they fell about 40 ~ 50ft and landed in mulch. Her partner is fine, but she cannot move her back legs at all, and minimal use of her front paws. She has eaten peanuts and part of an apple as well as drops of water from a straw.

She is not aggressive and has allowed us to rub her thru the towel with no sign of injury and no pain or flinching when we rub her. She loves being rubbed on the head and neck with a stick and when we pull on the tail she pulls back strongly, again with no complaint.

Problem is we live in Los Angeles and squirrels are just rodents. Vets wont treat and the county will just euthanize.

We are going to keep her for a couple of days to see if she recovers. If not, as much as I hate to, I cannot see her just lying in a cage.

Is the fact she can still pull on her tail a good sign it may just be trauma from the fall?

Rev Frank

[CritterMom]

It is hard to tell - can we see the whole squirrel?

Pulling back with the tail is a HUGE deal. My dream would be to get some prednisone into her. Is that something you have access to? It can be a total game changer in some accidents like this.

If not, EVERYONE has access to infant ibuprophen. And a 1ml syringe without the needle. If you ask at the pharmacy and tell them a little lie - trying to nurse a rejected baby guinea pig - they will probably sell or even give you one. If this is an option, please take a full body pic with something like a coke can in the photo so we can guess a weight and age with a size comparison.

Sometimes the "paralysis" is actually caused by swelling from trauma pressing on a nerve somewhere that it isn't supposed to press, and if you can give a strong anti-inflammatory to bring the swelling down fast, the nerves may either be undamaged or the damage of a sort that will regenerate with a little time.

I always jot down the names of vet clinics where I have seen people here who are not rehabbers who have taken squirrels to for help who have actually treated them without what you describe, and Westminster Vet Group was mentioned. If it is not terribly far, they *might* be an option. I am concerned because she is a fox squirrel which are invasive in SoCal...