DJ Squirrel

Unfortunately DJ was unable to make it passing away late yesterday evening. He was amazingly active right to near the very end. We gave some fluid which he took and then tucked him in bed. About an hour later I checked on him to find he had died. This picture shows how poorly he looked and was one of the last taken shortly before he died.

It's suprising how attached you can become to something so small but that's what happened with us. On reflection would we do it again and put the children through the sadness of losing the little fella? Yes we would. It was a pleasure to have had the experience and privilage of tending to an animal so reliant upon us. You could argue that it an act of nature for DJ to have fallen from the nest or even been rejected by his family and maybe thats true but just standing by and watching a creature die when perhaps there is something you could do to assist can't be right either.

We had DJ for 11 days and during that time he was able to live quite happily. I strongly believe that had we the right advice to start with he would have made it. It's such a shame that we came across Lindsey's website too late. Whilst the vet we took him to was willing to see him when probably most wouldn't even bother, he wasn't used to such animals and was inexperienced in hand rearing squirrels.

The intention with DJ was to rear him to the point where we could release him back into the garden from where he came. If he decided to pay us a visit  once released that would have been great but the joy would have been knowing that he was fit and well and living the life as a wild animal and that we had given him the chance.

We buried little DJ in the garden, the children were upset but they are robust enough to move on. Part of living is dealing with death and they have had their fare share. The lesson is that you should do your best for all of those things around you and respect all living things. We may not particularly like them but turning your back on someone or something that is sufferring in any walk of life or religion isn't right. perhaps there's a lesson here.

Every contact with any living thing, human or otherwise will have an affect on your life, positive or negative and you will have an effect on theirs. Make it a positive one!

Today we saw three young squirrels in the garden. DJs brothers or sisters? Probably. They passed by his spot to say hello...................do you think? 

If you find a squirrel in distress and need advice give Lindsey a call and check out his website WWW.SQUIRRELS.INFO . Don't be afraid to try and help, there is a chance.  
 
 
     
    

DJ is still not so good. His stomach is so swollen now that it's translucent and you can see the milk inside him. The rest of him is skeletal and I have to say I'm very concerned now. I'm not convinced the vets advice is wholly right as we just seem to be filling him and filling him until he is about to burst.

He is still very active though and obviously still hungry. His age is still confusing but It would appear he is maybe younger than we first suspected and probably around three to three and half weeks old.

I rang up and spoke to a very helpful chap by the name of Lindsey (hope I spelt it right!) from Hampshire. His site is WWW.SQUIRRELS.INFO . He is more than willing to take calls and offer advice. Having spoken to him we need to change DJ's feed from lactol to something more compatable using a special formula he has devised. He has been helping squirrels for a number of years and is experienced. Also it's a UK site and therefore used to dealing with the UK variety of squirrel!!

We're going to try and just feed hydration fluid for the next couple of feeds until we can get the ingredients for  the new formula in the morning.

Hang in there DJ.     

Today we took DJ to the vet. His diarrhoea wasn't getting any better and he's looking like a bag of bones although he's still extremely lively.

The practice nurse had been there for 8 years and DJ was the first squirrel they had seen!  He was booked in as Donald Squirrel and when we arrived they admitted that they thought it was a prank! The vet was obviously too embarrassed to say "Donald Squirrel" so called us through by our Surname.

The vet explained that DJ had already had plenty of bacteria inside him from his mother's milk and the fact they are also known to eat their mother's faeces! GROSSSSSSSS  . He was still getting used to a change in diet and that all animals tend to have this problem. He also said that hand rearing any animal is difficult and the chances of being successful are small although if they make it through 14 days they are likely to be fine. DJ has been reared for 10 days so far!  

His advice was that this was normal but that he needed to be fed as much as possible and to dramatically increase his food. This is completely contradictory to the advice given on the net!! We are now feeding him every three hours instead of four and also giving him as much as he can take, so fingers crossed.

Having just come home to see him it is incredible how lively he is. He is standing on all four legs and even trying to jump! I've noticed that he now has grey hair on his tail which has appeared overnight!

He's responding to our voices and contact and loves the emotional bond when touched. My daughters hair and face are a great hit with him!
 

The other noticable thing is that DJ now likes to stand when going for a pee! A true big boy!!

Litte DJ hasn't been very well.  He's had the squits for the last 24 hrs and lost quite a considerable amount of weight. This was quite a suprise since he has been with us for a week and two days. Having checked the websites there is so much conflicting info about how much he should be fed and how much he should weigh it's extremely confusing.

Even the advice regarding what to do about his diarrhoea is conflicting. Some sites say stop feeding and use re-hydration only, whilst others say under no circumstances stop feeding. We tried hydration only for a while but he is getting so thin we have returned to feeding although it is going straight through him.

The only positive point is that he still seems very active and hydrated. He now weighs 28 grams but has maintained this from yesterday.

Another thing we noticed was that he seemed to struggle sucking on the syringe. Where as before he would accept it with no problem he now appeared to be obstructing it. It took us several attempts to realise that it was because he now had new top teeth!!! 

Maybe the squits are down to teething!!!!

A week on and the little fella is doing great. He is eating well and growing. He has started to develop fur on his body and his teeth are growing. Small brown patches are appearing around his eyes and nose. The kids were away at my sister's when we found DJ and, having returned, fell in love with the squirrel taking in turns to hold him while he was fed!

Suprisingly little DJ made it through the night. Something that was rather unexpected, not because he appeared ill or weak, in fact he was quite the opposite, but because he just looked so vulnerable that we thought there is no way we would keep him alive. He would either not feed, have some internal injury or would just die of shock. Well, he did none of it. He actually began to feed really well and appeared to be getting stronger. He settled into the routine and having checked with the internet I was able to tell he was ok by looking at his poo!

You may be interested to know that at DJs age he has to be stimulated to go to the toilet!! In the wild the mother licks the babies parts to stimulate them to go to the toilet. Whilst being prepared to be a surrogate mother, licking a baby squirrels parts to encourage them to go to the toilet go was a step too far!! Warm damp cotton buds did the trick though and soon I was able to tell that he was hydrated and had no internal bleeding. Amazing what poo and pee can tell you!! 

It was during two weeks "holiday" from work whilst putting up a new fence in the garden. I was on about the twentieth post hole digging in the hard rocky clay having tried a manual auger, petrol driven auger and resorted to just digging with a chisel type bar! Between my neighbour and I are several Leylandii and three huge Poplar trees and it was at this point I was digging the post hole and spotted a small bald moving object on the ground under the tree.
At first I thought it was a mouse or rat. It was about 2 1/2 inches in length, pink hairless body, long tail, two large eyes that were shut tightly and two small ears that hadn't formed properly and appeared stuck to the side of his head! His face was squarer than a mouse and he had obvious whiskers and small square nose.
 
On closer inspection I realised it can only be a baby squirrel who must have fallen from his nest. He had no apparent injuries but was very cold. I took him into the house to my wife who at first sight reluctantly took him from me not entirely convinced it was a squirrel. This was mainly due to the rather demonic appearance he presented!

My wife kept him warm whilst I attempted to find the nest with the intention of attempting to return the unfortunate animal to his undoubtedly concerned parents. I climbed up one of the Leylandii to what I thought may be a nest. It was about 20 ft from the ground but once there realised that whilst made of twigs was nothing more than a small platform and nothing like a nest. I eventually managed to climb back down, a feat much more difficult than the ascent, and returned to find out how the little fellow was.

Having been unable to locate the nest the delemma was what to do with him! I could take him back and leave him where I found him but no doubt the neighbour's cats would soon discover the afternoon appetizer. He was also cold and if the cats didn't get him I doubted that he would survive too much longer being left alone. This only left the unenviable option of attempting to hand rear him.

So it was to the internet that we sought advice. Sure enough, a quick google search on "baby squirrel" found a plethora of websites brimming with information on hand rearing baby squirrels. So, armed with all the information of I went to buy puppy lactol, a syringe and Pedialyte. I didn't really know what  Pedialyte was other than it was for dehydration and discovered that I couldn't find it in the pet shop. After re-reading the website I realised it was for human babies but still couldn't find it in the Isle at Tescos! I settled for Dioralyte but unfortunately could only find blackcurrent flavour. He didn't like Blackcurrent flavour!

I later found a pro biotic from the pet shop that would suffice. From the website I calculated the baby to be about 4 weeks old and armed with the information set about making feeds and preparing to start a four hourly feeding regime! It was a long time since I did night time feeds with both my kids being much older!!

Now we had embarked on this adventure it was time to give our adopted  son a name. Oh yes, he was a boy. The internet tells you how to sex baby squirrels but to tell you the truth it was blatently obvious!

My wife chose the name Donald James (DJ) after her dad who passed away several years ago. It just so happened that we found DJ on her dads birthday. The other coincidence was that her dad had a serious fall from height himself earlier in life which unfortunately left him with a broken back. Little DJ was rather more lucky and seemed to have no injuries. 

I later found the nest he had fallen from. It was over 60 ft from the ground in the Poplar. There was no possible way of getting to it to return him.  The only reason that we could think of for his lack of injury was that in falling he landed on the branches of the Leylandii, wandered on it then dropped to the next branch and so on until eventually landing at the spot where he was found.