Spinning, Dazed Squirrel

This story about an Eastern gray squirrel was shared by licensed wildlife rehabilitator Deanna Epps of North Carolina, who forwarded it from Reese McKnight of Animal Rehabilitators of the Carolinas.

On October 8th, a good Samaritan found a dazed and confused juvenile eastern gray squirrel wobbling on the side of a road and brought it in for care. The 240 gram (about 8.5 ounce) female did not present with any external injuries, but seemed woozy and traumatized. Given her condition and the circumstances and location in which she was found, it seemed a safe assumption that she had been hit by a car.

She was given meloxicam, subcutaneous fluids, and placed in a nest basket on a heating pad for the night. The next morning she was still spacey and lethargic. Although she ate a little diluted formula, it wasn’t nearly enough to sustain her. Under the guidance of Deanna Epps, I prepared and fed EmerAid IC Omnivore as directed. The squirrel was much more interested in the EmerAid and finished everything she was offered.

Although she began to rapidly perk up within a few days, it became clear that she was not responding properly to visual or auditory cues. When she crawled out of the nest basket she would spin in vigorous circles to the right. Her behavior reinforced the theory of possible head trauma from a collision with a car.

For the first three days, she sniffed food that was offered to her but would not eat it. She only accepted the EmerAid, which she ate vigorously. I’m convinced it kept her alive for those first few days.

On the third evening she became interested in nibbling again. She still had the spins, which occasionally interrupted her eating, but they were not as intense or frequent as they had been at first. I continued the meloxicam, fluids, and EmerAid as her appetite continued to improve and her spinning decreased.

Within a week she stopped spinning entirely and was eating completely independently. She began exploring the cage cautiously, but spent the majority of her time on her known path between the food and her nest basket.

One morning about a week after intake she suddenly started responding to sounds, but still did not seem to respond to visual cues. She gradually began to explore the cage at a faster pace and could sense and follow my movements around the room.

On the morning of October 22nd — two weeks to the day after she was brought into care — she seemed to follow my finger as I moved it silently around her cage. A trip to the wildlife vet confirmed that she was in good health and had both her sight and hearing.

We made a plan for her release, and a few weeks later she was back out in the world, hopefully having learned to look both ways before crossing the road.