Questions Regarding A Recent Squirrels' Death
Hello everyone,
Let me start off by apologizing for the long message.
I have been regularly feeding grey squirrels from my backyard window for about 4 years now and on Saturday around 8pm, a younger squirrel (close to adult size but still on the young side) showed up to my window seemingly looking for food. I had water, hazelnuts, pecans and walnuts (all unshelled) ready for him but as he started to eat a hazelnut and I looked closer, I noticed he was injured pretty badly.
He had missing fur going from the top of his head down to his neck and was bleeding from those areas. It was getting dark but as I looked closer, I noticed he also had a handful of maggots on both his neck and the top of his head (mainly his left side), leading me to believe those were where he was wounded. I then noticed him limping on his left arm (the same side where most of his fur was missing) but he was still able to walk, climb and jump at the time. He stayed for a few minutes and only ate about 3 hazelnuts and 1/4 of a walnut before he left. He stayed still for a couple minutes before leaving. I initially thought he may have fallen from his nest and that's why he was limping, but after further thought, I believe he was most likely attacked by something or someone (my suspicion is maybe a cat as there are quite a few around the neighborhood).
After I noticed he was injured, and most importantly, after I noticed the maggots, I immediately began searching online that night for any advice on how to help him heal his injuries and get rid of those infestations to get better. I live in Montreal and unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of rehabbers that I could call for urgent help in the area. The one I found mainly operate through Facebook messenger for any squirrel emergencies, which I did, but their chat was closed due to the high amounts of urgent requests (understandably so) and they only had an automated response.
The main answer I found online for situations like this was to capture/trap the squirrel and bring him to a rehabber or animal rescue place as quickly as possible, especially considering the maggot infestation. Unfortunately, catching or trapping him is not a viable option for me due to the fact that I live at the top of an apartment building and even if I was able to, a lot of people were saying that the act of capturing him could deal him more stress and cause even more harm to him. Therefore, I called an animal rescue group but they were unfortunately closed at that time so I then called the main animal control center in our area to ask for advice and they also advised me that he would need to be captured so they could see how bad the injuries and maggots infestation was. I would likely not have him picked up by animal control either way because I presume they would most likely end up euthanizing him.
Desperate for other options, I found some recommendations online for an oral flea treatment called "Capstar" that is mainly for fleas in cats and dogs but that supposedly was successful in also killing maggots in squirrels, based on a couple of squirrel rehabbers that claimed it worked for their squirrels (about 1/4 of a pill crushed and mixed with water or food).
Hence, I ordered Capstar that night from Amazon with the fastest shipping and it would be delivered the next day (Sunday) around 5pm. The next morning around 7am or 8am, that squirrel showed up again but he was laying still on a tree branch near my window and I immediately noticed the wound on his left side had gotten larger and there was 1 maggot on it, although I imagine the rest were already inside of him. The Capstar was not due to be delivered until later that evening, so I was unable to prepare it for him other than the usual food and water I had laying out. He left about 30 seconds after I saw him and went up a nearby tree and layed on a different branch for about 10 minutes, I could tell he looked very tired. He left again after that and this time I went outside and tried following him as I was contemplating maybe trying to capture him with a box if I was able to find where he mainly resides. Unfortunately, he had went down into someone's backyard with a high fence and I was unable to follow him further. I went back out later that day and looked around the neighborhood for almost an hour for any signs of him but I was unsuccessful.
The Capstar got delivered on time later that day and I immediately prepared the recommended dosage and had it crushed in a bit of water and also had some mixed on nuts in case he chose not to drink any water again. I waited all day and night for his return but he unfortunately never showed up again.
I woke up around 5 AM this morning and waited until noon to see if he would come back but he never did. Fast forward to a few hours ago today when I went outside to try my luck at looking for him again, that's when I saw him.
He had unfortunately passed away sometime this morning. I found him laying on the edge of a nearby road next to the sidewalk. I am unclear as to if he was hit by a car or succumbed to his wounds, as he is laying right where the right side wheels of a parked vehicle would be, but I believe it happened sometime this morning before I went out because I passed by the same street yesterday afternoon when I went searching for him and there was nothing there. He was laying on his left side and there were multiple flies on the top of his head and neck where the wounds were so that's how I knew it was more than likely him.
I am devastated as I am an animal-lover and squirrel feeding has brought me a great deal of joy the last few years. I also just lost my most regular girl a couple months ago (she was hit by a car), so this has been taking a great toll on me and I can't help but feel like I could have changed the course of actions and saved his life somehow even though my options were pretty limited.
Can anyone tell me the rough chances of a young squirrel's survival once maggots have already started to develop on wounds? I apologize as I was unable to get any pictures or videos of this so I know it's nearly impossible to tell without seeing it but I just need to know if it would have changed his faith had I been in a position to be able to capture him and have him looked at by a rehabber or animal rescue. Assuming he passed away today from his condition, that would mean he was already in the later stages of the infestation when he came by on Saturday night and I assume he passed sometime earlier this morning (Monday), leaving only one day in between to take action (Sunday). From what I read, the best case scenario would have been to catch him and have a rehabber look at him to remove the maggots and clean the injuries. Would he have had a chance at survival if I had been able to provide him Capstar with his food on Sunday, or would it still have been a death sentence unless he was checked out by someone and had the maggots removed?
Thank you very much for reading, any insight would be appreciated as I still feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness and guilt over this. The poor boy didn't deserve to live or die like this but I am trying to find a bit of solace with the fact that he is atleast no longer living in pain.
David
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Originally Posted by David.
