Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 7-8 week old male squirrel who is eating Esbilac formula 6:1 water/formula ratio. He began to diarreah this last Monday. I treated him using Pedialite for two feedings, skipped a feeding to clear his system, then fed him again on the formula. It helped for about one feeding then I had to resort to using baby food banana in the hopes it would bind him up a bit. That worked for about a day. Now he is back to runny poo and his rectum is becoming puffed out which makes me worry about him getting an inverted anus. My mentor has given me Prozyme which is an ezyme designed to help him out. That is all I know about it. My mentor is rather busy with a daycare/squirrels so it makes it difficult to get straight answers. I will begin this enzyme stuff. Do any of you have any other suggestions?

I use Esbilac in a 1 part esbilac, 2 parts water ratio, and have had no problems. Are you offering other foods as well? I find that by this age, they start to play with other foods (nuts, grapes, monkey chow), and being offering it as soon as they are interested. I also have given Kaopectate for one that had very bad loose stools (urine consistency), and that did help, just a bit in a dropper 1x a day, no specific measurements, sorry. Of course, any solution would be temporary if there is an underlying problem. Ask your mentor about changing your mix ration on the esbilac, and if they approve of the kaopectate (our local emergency clinic who some of mine came from, has 75 or so squirrels right now, and have used it prior to myself.) Also, lactated ringers could be used to supplement lost fluids, not sure about the pedialyte, as it is so high in sodium.
Joker

Is that an issue you've found? The excess sodium in pedialyte? Sodium can cause you to dehydrate right like sodas? That doesn't make much sense rehydrating kids with salt water? haha. It must have a puprose for the kids but will it cause problems with the squirrels? What is a lactate ringer? This is my very first time rehabbing anything aside from the stray cats and dogs as a kid This is really great getting more information from this board. Thanks for the help.

Pedialyte is high in eloctrolytes, which essentially are sodium. My thought process is that sodium does dehydrate, thus in an animal with loose stools, it isn't helping as much as one would think. However, if it is the ONLY thing you can get it to take, it is better than nothing. When kids are sick, they perspire (fever), sweating out both fluid and sodium, pedialyte replaces both, by including sodium in the mix. (If you think about when you are working hard, upper lip sometimes perspires, tastes salty!) So, being truly dehydrated by those standards, means having lost salt and water mass, not one or the other. Of course, my train of thought could be way off base, but that is my thinking.
As for lactated ringers, those are those bags of fluid you see in hospitals that have an iv drip going, they are used in animals as well, given subcutaneously to replace lost fluids. Clearly, in a relatively active pet, an IV drip is nearly impossible, but you can also draw it into a syringe and inject XX amount directly under the skin. Some (many) people aren't comfortable with needles, but it is the first thing I turn to with sick wildlife, and is often just the thing needed to help perk them back up. It has helped a couple of my squirrels, and saved one of my raccoons from death. Ask your mentor about it, if it is something you are comfortable with. It is a quick way to replace lost fluids, and while they feel a "bug bite" when the needle is sticking them, it seems to work quite well in my experience. Sorry the two posts are so long, some days I don't have much to say, other days you can't shut me up!
Joker
PS. Squirrel-rehab.org seems to recommend pedialyte, so going to check out what they have to say, could be I am wrong in my thinking? Link below!

Squirrel Rehab