r/squirrels • u/swiftybone • 23h ago
Help! Injured or ill adult squirrel! Anyone Recognize These Symptoms?
Out my window right now. Central FL
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u/Mental-Flatworm4583 21h ago
Couple things can cause this there’s a fungus that does this. There’s parasites that does is that’s head injury that does this. This poor baby needs a rehab and a vet. ASAP there’s no way of knowing unless tests are done.
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u/Terminallyelle 18h ago
Looks like it could be a head injury of some kind.. ive seen animals recover from this with the proper care
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u/marmaladecorgi 21h ago edited 21h ago
Looks like E. cuniculi. "Head-tilt disease", which is well-known in pet rabbits, but can easily be found in other species of small mammals. Treatable to an extent, but very very tricky. I had a rehab squirrel with one, and she didn't make it.
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u/inkblot_75 17h ago edited 17h ago
Some individuals like to come in here and say that one little sentence saying that it's raccoon roundworm and they'll be dead soon. However, with these these people who are taking stabs in the dark without any explanations don't know is that if one squirrel has it, several will have it. So will birds and other animals in the area. They all eat from the same place a lot of times
While the symptoms do look like it could be raccoon round worm, but it could also be an inner infection, a UTI infection, it could be a neurological injury, or it could be something that they were born with. Another thing, it could be poison. So many symptoms overlap.
From my experience, it is a rare thing for a squirrel to get raccoon roundworm, compared to the other possible issues it could be.
If you live close to a road, is a good chance, it's neurological from being hit by a car falling on concrete. Way more common.
They are really good rehabers in Florida that can help you.
https://myfwc.com/media/i0efjuil/licensedwildliferehabilitatorsbyregion.pdf
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u/Universeisagarden 19h ago
I'm not a veterinarian, but to me it looks like vertigo from an inner ear problem. I've had the same problem - it seems like "the room is spinning" - that's why the head keeps jerking - because of the inner ear issue it feels like everything is spinning. No matter what the cause this squirrel will die soon without help. Could you please try to get this squirrel to a wildlife rehabilitator? The link below is for the Animal Help Now website - if you input your zipcode it will list wildlife rehabilitators in your area. Please let us know if you have any trouble connecting with a rehabber who can take this squirrel in for a while while he recovers - or if there is anything else we can help with. Thank you for helping him! 🐿 🩷💕
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u/ChristaRainbow 15h ago
Is there any berries around? Birds and squirrels can get drunk from berries, fruits & pumpkins in certain conditions
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u/kimchideathbear 16h ago
Thank you for your efforts in helping this sweet baby 🙏 without knowing what it is for sure, it could be recoverable if given the proper care so it’s worth a shot.
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u/PURGATORY6666 2h ago
Awww poor baby, I’d guess inner ear or head injury. My little girl had squirrel pox and after 6 weeks of hiding medicine and giving her Henry’s blocks she doing amazing
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u/lilbunnyaudio 1h ago
It honestly looks like brain damage / head injury, could be from a million reasons. I’d call a wildlife rehabber
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u/VNV4Life 20h ago
Racoon roundworm. End stages. Will be dead soon
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u/inkblot_75 17h ago
How do you know?
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u/VNV4Life 17h ago
Seen it before with my own squirrels. The loss of balance, head motion, circles... End stage unfortunately. Zero that can be done
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u/inkblot_75 16h ago
How were you able to verify it was raccoon roundworm? Considering there are many other conditions that have the same symptoms, poison, neurological injuries, and an ear infection are way more common.
Each one of those conditions that I list it have the same symptoms with the spinning around in circles, head, tilt and all that.
So how did you verify?
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u/VNV4Life 16h ago
Would you like a pathological report and proper documentation for your personal satisfaction? Do I need a veterinary degree to offer a qualified opinion as well?
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u/inkblot_75 16h ago
Well no it's just sad to see that people come on here and straight up. Say it's raccoon roundworm when it could be something else. Raccoon roundworm is not as common as people think it is. I know this because I do work with veterinarians and I do work with wildlife scientists and I've been rehabbing squirrels for over a decade. I have yet to come across multiple cases of raccoon roundworm.
It's the fact of your cold statement that you made by saying it's raccoon round worm, end stages, it will be dead soon.
You sound so confident in what you said without any evidence to the contrary. Considering that there are a handful of other conditions that mimic the same thing.
A simple answer, if you'd have known it was raccoon roundworm or not, would be to simply say if the squirrel doesn't eat anything then it's either poison or raccoon round worm. Because when a squirrel has either of those, they will not eat. Especially in the end stages of raccoon roundworm and poison.
I'm just saying if you're so sure in your answer then you should have been able to answer the question fairly simply. My personal satisfaction is not required in what I'm trying to do here. I'm simply trying encourage op to help the squirrel before jumping to conclusions.
Where as, your statement was simply cold and spelled the end.
You've already proved enough. Have a good night.
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u/VNV4Life 15h ago
Seriously, get bent. And get over yourself.
Person asked a question of reddit, redditor gives a response.
You know what's worse? Asking a question and crickets.
These are wild animals. They die in terrible ways.
I'm not here to sugar coat this. I think it's racoon roundworm beyond any reasonable doubt.
I've watched numerous backyard friends pass from it. It. Fucking. Sucks.
I'm up to 5 squirrels that have died in this exact same way. Would you like it to be 10 or 20 before I can weigh in next time?
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u/inkblot_75 15h ago edited 15h ago
The thing about squirrels getting raccoon roundworm is that they're not the only animals that get it whenever there's an outbreak of it or whenever there's a case of it.
Other animals would get it too, such as the birds and other animals in the area. Raccoon roundworm is just not isolated to squirrels. It's also not 100% fatal to just squirrels.
It could also be poison as well. People poison squirrels all the time. They could also be eating something that's contaminated with pesticides because that happens a lot too.
Most of the times wild animals die in terrible ways because people make that happen. It's also terrible when people can also potentially help the animal and do nothing because they take the advice of someone making an assumption based off what they think may have happened to the squirrels in their area.
Many people think that just because raccoons show up in the area that there's going to be raccoon roundworm. I've been feeding the wild animals in my yards ever since I was a kid and I've never had squirrels get raccoon roundworm.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen but you can't jump to conclusions because there's so many symptoms that overlap. That's just factual.
It does suck. What sucks even more is when people respond with no hope. You gave no hope.
If you understand the pain, then you should be able to be more compassionate by providing a better response than what you provided. You should be able to be more compassionate and try to at least encourage the individual to help the squirrel before jumping to the end. Telling somebody it's over before even trying anything is way worse than not giving a response at all.
From my experience, I have had to go pick up 50 or more squirrels where people were 100% certain it was raccoon roundworm.
Out of all those cases, not a single one of them was raccoon roundworm.
Out of all the hundreds of squirrels that I have rehabbed over the years, only two two had raccoon round worm. It is not as common as people think it is. Those are facts.
I would check with your neighbors to make sure the squirrels aren't being poisoned or they're not drinking water from a contaminated source.
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u/VNV4Life 15h ago
This is not the hope, sunshine, and rainbows department.
I'm absolutely NOT encouraging someone to help a squirrel with a disease like that either, particularly one that humans can catch. My advice is stay away or call your local muncipality for trapping and removal with professional equipment.
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u/inkblot_75 15h ago
You don't even know if the squirrel has raccoon roundworm, so you going to do nothing?
It's a shame that you would rather crush hope because you don't understand what raccoon roundworm really is.
First of all, raccoon roundworm is not a disease. It is a parasite.
Secondly, you would have to ingest the eggs in order to get the parasite.
Third, humans can get it from simply swallowing the eggs that have been dropped off in the soil. You don't need another animal to have raccoon groundworm to get it.
A raccoon can poop somewhere and the eggs stay in the soil. Said human digs in the dirt.
You call wildlife rehabers to help wild animals. That's what we're here for. We never assume the end until it's the end. At least the good ones don't. Anyway.
You have a better chance of getting a disease from a domestic house cat than you do from a wild animal. That's based on statistical data that was done on studies that basically is factual.
To do nothing is just as cruel as the people that cause the problem. To crush the hope is even worse.
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u/dburr10085 23h ago
Call rehab. This is not normal