Common Muskrat Sickened By Liver Parasite

The following story about a common muskrat was shared with us by Alberta Institute For Wildlife Conservation in Alberta, Canada.

We received a common muskrat into care after it was found trapped in a cistern at the TELUS Spark Centre in Calgary, Alberta, on November 5th, 2024. The cistern is connected to a local pond in the area, and we believe this is how she ended up trapped, although we don’t know how long she was caught inside.

The muskrat was bright on intake with no external wounds or fractures appreciated. Unfortunately, her temperature was quite low, and she became very dull the next morning. We repeatedly found the patient lying out in the middle of the enclosure on her side with eyes closed and rapid shallow breathing. We put the patient on oxygen and heat support for the day until her temperature increased.

The muskrat was dry docked and offered a small, shallow pool to help encourage defecation. After two days in care, she had not yet self-fed or defecated and was still quite dull, so the risk of GI stasis was concerning. With the help of EmerAid IC Herbivore, we were able to provide supplemental syringe feedings twice a day. The muskrat took well to syringe feeding, licking it off the syringe while holding it with her front feet.

The next morning, we were pleased to see that she had defecated overnight. And after three days of syringe feeding, the patient began self-feeding as well as defecating normally in her pool.

At the 1.5-week mark, the muskrat’s mentation had improved greatly, and she had adjusted well to her full pool setup. After some testing it was found that the muskrat was suffering from a liver parasite that we were luckily able to treat. Given it was the middle of winter, we opted to keep the patient in care until spring, when food is abundant, and habitat is more suitable. In April of 2025, the muskrat was finally sent back out to the wild!