Update on Twiggy

Twiggy is the adult squirrel I took in yesterday just as she had begun having babies.

It's just disaster all around.

This morning I finally lifted Twiggy out of her box and had a look to see what was going on.

The first thing to report is, there are no babies. Which means the poor mother was so distressed she ate them all. No wonder she hasn't eaten anything else.

The next thing is, she is wounded. Probably not by a cat, or she'd have died long since, cat saliva being highly toxic to small mammals (and birds). She has a large but superificial wound on her back. She has a worse wound on her belly. There's an area the size of a quarter where there is no skin at all and the fat layer is exposed. Best guess: a dog did this.

I've washed her wounds with disinfectant, made her drink some antibiotic syrup, and force fed her some water. But even if that wound can heal, which I doubt, it's no good; her back legs no longer work.

Now I have to persuade Ed, her human friend, to let me euthanize her. He is distraught.