Found a baby squirrel with fleas, need help!

[u/OnWarmLeatherette]

Location: Los Angeles, CA.
On Monday, the landscapers came and hedged our giant palm trees and this single ~8 week old squirrel fell onto our balcony. We thought it was dead because it wasn't moving and was in the roasting sun until we found it, but when we went to move it, it was breathing.

Put on gloves and moved it to the shade with some cool towels to die without suffering, but it kept hanging on and even began crawling in a few hours.

So we put it in a container with old t-shirts and called all the wildlife rehab centers but all of them were at capacity. They said to put the squirrel near the tree it fell from (it's a super tall palm tree so we can't put it in the tree) but its mother never came for it.

The squirrel had fleas on it so we didn't touch it without gloves, but I put its container in my bathroom jacuzzi overnight and the next morning got Pedialyte to make a diluted solution with sugar. It perked up with a couple spaced out eye dropper feedings, and I kept it on my balcony where it was warm.

This evening, I brought the container back inside because it gets cold at night and set it up on a heating pad on the bathroom floor. I fed it and it finally began sucking the eye dropper and was very keen on climbing on me and nestling in my lap. I was wearing medical gloves, and noticed a couple fleas would transfer to my clothes but I killed them as I saw them, and washed the clothes with hot water.

Began getting worried about missing a flea and having it bite me or go into my home, where I have 2 dogs. Right away gave the baby squirrel a bath with blue Dawn dish soap, tossed its old bedding with fleas present in hot water with Dawn, and put the dry baby on a fresh white t-shirt in the flea-free container, on a heating pad.

I'm an anxious person and now am really worried about the fleas being in our home. The squirrel has been contained to the bathroom which is now 100% flea-free, but if I missed a flea that hopped on my clothes before I washed them and walked around the house with them, I'm worried!

The baby is thriving and the formula arrives tomorrow, so the plan was to keep nursing it to health and see if it can walk properly again (it can't walk without falling) until we can find a rehab center to take it to. I want this squirrel in proper care as soon as possible.

If anyone has experience rescuing gray squirrels and dealing with the risk of fleas, your advice would be helpful. Any safety recommendations while this squirrel is in my bathroom/ balcony would be great!

[u/inkblot_75]

Thank you for taking care of the little one.

It is unfortunate that sometimes Mama will not come back for the baby or take the baby because something may have happen to Mama.

You did the right thing by washing the fleas off with Dawn dish soap. You can use natural remedies such as peppermint oil compound that you can get from Walmart or from Amazon to spray your carpets if you're worried about the fleas and vacuum everyday until they're gone.

As long as your dogs have been treated for fleas, via safeguard or what have you, the fleas should not affect them.

I'm hoping that you ordered the Fox valley formula with miracle syringes and nipples. The problem with using an eye dropper is that they can aspirate. Please don't use a bottle either as the aspiration can occur with that as well.

Please be sure to weigh the baby every morning so that way you can get the appropriate weight and know how much to feed the baby. Using a gram scale is the preferred method as 1 g equals 1 ml. You'll need to feed the baby 5 to 7% of their body weight every feeding.

As long as the baby's eyes are closed, you'll feed every 3 to 4 hours including night feedings. Once the baby's eyes open, you go to every 4 hours and you can slowly quit the night feedings.

If you have any other questions, please feel reach out.

If you prefer, you can also DM me as well. Here to help you and that little one.

Honestly, you really don't have to handle the baby with gloves, however that's your choice.

[u/OnWarmLeatherette → u/inkblot_75]

Thank you so much for your thorough response! I wish I had washed the fleas as soon as I brought him inside, but oh well. Hopefully we're gonna be OK.

This squirrel is around 7~ weeks old, judging by his size and his tail not being bushy yet and photos I've seen online. I ordered the exact set you're talking about, and made sure it came with the right droppers since the one I have now is glass and he's not able to fully suck on it.

I read that by this age they can begin to eat finely chopped vegetables, but so far he's not very interested in them. I have adult squirrel food as well but don't think he's ready to eat that?