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Case ReportsA Mother Opossum: we learned something new! From a Different Perspective: Lucky, The Orphaned Squirrel.
A Mother Opossum: we learned something new!
A nursing mother opossum was attacked by a dog one night, and was brought into the Wildlife Clinic for treatment the next day. Our original plan was to anesthetize her, remove her babies (attached to her nipples inside her pouch), so that we could effectively clean out her wounds. 
Once under anesthesia, we quickly abandoned the plan. Her nipples were long and thin, like fishing lines; pulling her babies off could cause serious damage. Also, we were not sure we could re-attach the babies after the procedure. 
The mother and baies stayed with us while she was on antibiotics. We watched her babies grow while her wounds healed. The entire family was returned to the same location after 14 days of hospitalization.
From a Different Perspective: Lucky, The Orphaned Squirrel.Written by Claire Carlino 
On September 2, 2010, my husband, Vincent, found Lucky nestled near the grill in our backyard, trying so hard to gather warmth for his little body. With the knowledge we obtained from the internet, we were able to save this baby squirrel’s life. Lucky was approximately 4 weeks old when we found him. Lucky’s instincts at such a young age are truly amazing. Left alone to fend for himself in the early stages of his life proved to be a daunting task for him. If he stayed outdoors, the possibility existed that he may have perished from the temperature and/or predators. We decided to take Lucky indoors and give him a chance to survive. I performed Reiki, an alternative healing modality, on him to ascertain if he was injured. Fortunately, it appeared he was not seriously injured. We made a makeshift home for him complete with an abundance of towels and a water bottle to keep him warm. As soon as we put the water bottle in his new home, he gravitated to it, wrapped his little body around it and fell asleep. As babies are fed every few hours, Lucky had to be fed every two hours. We fed him Gatorade through a syringe. He even held the syringe with his paws as he was being fed, in the same manner as human babies, as depicted in the photo above. He then fell back asleep in a round ball near the water bottle until the next feeding. We discovered he needed interaction with other squirrels to survive. We called several facilities to see if they could care for Lucky. We finally contacted the Wildlife Clinic who graciously agreed to care for Lucky. I drove 30 miles in the midst of the effects bestowed upon Rhode Island from Hurricane Earl to ensure Lucky receive the appropriate care. Even though he was with us for a short time, we felt happy and sad to see him go. Happy that we knew he would be cared for appropriately, but sad because he would no longer be with us. I called the Clinic a few hours after I dropped him off to see how he was doing. Kristen validated my findings that Lucky was not seriously injured. As fate would have it, a female squirrel was taken to the Clinic the same day Lucky arrived. They are best friends now! Lucky is strong enough now to be moved to a rehabilitator. It was an insightful experience taking care of a baby squirrel and discovering the similarities/mannerisms of mammals and humans. The area in our backyard where Lucky was found will hold warm memories of a deed well done.
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© Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island Development Team (Bryant University) | |||||
