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Deadly Skin Disease in Palm Squirrels

2/13/2016

5 Comments

 
Picture
In late July of 2015 a delightful young lady from Sri Lanka contacted me about a skin disease that she was treating on a female Palm Squirrel named Tishi. She was able to send pictures which revealed some kind of flesh eating disease that had engulfed the squirrel's entire tail, and was advancing onto the lower body. The squirrel was quite ill, and had started chewing the tail off segment by segment.
I had no idea as to what was causing this disease, but was willing to try to help her. After learning what she was treating it with, I made a few suggestions and agreed to send her an Immune system boosting herb to try. Time was not on our side, as it took over 3 weeks for my package to arrive. She was able to start giving the drops, and for a while, the squirrels seemed to be rallying. She said that it's appetite came back, but that there was very little change in the appearance of the disease.

Unfortunately, the treatment was too little, too late, because when the squirrel tried chewing off some of the last segments of the tail, it must have opened the artery and the squirrel lost a considerable amount of blood and died of probable hypovolemic shock secondary to sepsis.

Needless to say, we were both devastated that we were not able to help Tishi! A few days later I received another e-mail from this young lady. She had another Palm Squirrel named Timmy that developed a red, raw lesion on one of it's rear legs. She informed me that this was exactly how Tishi's condition had started, and wanted to know what to do. Since she had the herb drops from Tishi, I told her to start giving it to Timmy in the same amount. She sent me an initial picture of the leg.

About one week later, she sent a second picture. In this picture I saw a considerable amount of induration surrounding the lesion, something that the young lady described as “brewing up.” It somewhat had the appearance of getting worse, but within a few day she wrote and said that the lesion appeared to be going away. And indeed it did completely heal and go away.

Since that time, I have receive numerous inquiries, mainly from India, from people who had other Palm Squirrels with similar skin conditions. Each time I received these inquiries I would have them take pictures of the lesions, then I would forward them to the young lady in Sri Lanka to get her opinion on them. Since she still had a considerable amount of the herb left, she was willing to send some to these people to get their squirrel started on the treatment, so that I would have the time to mail more to replace what she had given.

Unfortunately, these people had waited too long to seek help, and their squirrels were already in an advanced stage of the disease. Every time we tried to make arrangements to send the herb, the squirrel would die before arrangements were made.

Over the past few months I've been doing research on flesh eating diseases that are endemic to that area of the world, and believe that I may have found what is causing this devastating disease in Palm Squirrels. I believe it is a condition called “Cutaneous Leishmaniasis,” a flesh eating parasite that is spread by the bite of sand flies.

I also found that the substance that I used as a diluent, preservative and carrier of the herb that I sent, was an effective treatment for this disease. So, it appears that the combination of these substances are effective in the treatment and cure of this disease.

The problem still remained about the time required to get this to people on time to treat their squirrels before it killed them! I believe that we just may have come up with a solution to this problem!

This same young lady, that initially contacted me about her squirrels, has agreed to join me as an associate and representative in her area of the world. We are in the process of getting her set up to compound and distribute this product to the people of India and Sri Lanka, plus any other area that it may be needed. Instead of a 3 week window, we are now going to be able to cut that time to a week or less!

I'm really excited to welcome this young lady, who's name is Shanaz, as she shares our same love and passion for squirrels! But, also the fact that she shares the same values and care for the people who love these little creatures, and will be helping us fulfill our company motto of, “Loving people, one squirrel at a time!”

If you, or anyone you know has a Palm Squirrel with a skin condition that resembles this, or is not responding to treatment, we have set up a Web page with information, pictures and a contact form that will enable us to get this treatment to you.

Please click HERE to access this page!







5 Comments
Sofia
6/22/2016 04:50:48 am

Could you maybe go over a different type of squirrel each week? I'm very curious in learning what you know about each type from a very reputable squirrel source. I think this would be a fun way to keep your blog active.

Also, I'm curious about squirrels and their colors. I am from Delaware on the east coast of the United States. We have a ton of grey squirrels... but just recently in my neighborhood I've seen a squirrel with sandy blonde fur. S/he's quite the looker and stands out! Kind of counter-intuitive to camoflauge one would think. Also what is the 'black squirrel invasion'?

Reply
William link
6/22/2016 09:28:06 pm

Hi Sofia!

Thanks for writing! Over time, I will probably share what I know about different squirrel species. But, I must warn you that I am an "outside the box" thinker and researcher about squirrels. There is so much confusing information about squirrels on the Internet, from misinformation to outright lies. I spent almost 50 years in healthcare, and you may consider that odd, since I am only 68 years old, but the Vietnam war sucked me in to the Navy Hospital Corps as a Navy Corpsman,( or as our illustrious Commander in Chief calls us, "Corpse"men.) I was hooked on healthcare and continued in the field as a Surgical Tech, EMT, Registered Nurse, trained as a Physicians Assistant, Surgical Assistant, Surgery Supervisor and finished up my last 22 years as a Charge Nurse in my first love, Emergency Room.

In 2008, Lucky, my first squirrel literally "fell" into my life. We found her frozen in a snow drift in my backyard when I happened by chance to observe a female squirrel, bravely trying to fight off 3 crows that were bent on eating her babies.

If I had not participate in several successful cold water resuscitations in my career, I would have taken her and buried her. But, I had my wife warm a rice bag to thaw her out, and started doing CPR on the tiniest patient I had ever cared for. When Lucky took her first breath, I was totally hooked. In my whole career, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I got choked up or teary eyed over working on a human tragedy, (usually a
child. )

You just cannot function as a healthcare professional in war, or high stress places like an Emergency Room if what you are dealing with reduces you to pile of tears, and I guess that is one of the reasons people always seemed to say what an outstanding nurse I was, because I always worked best when the situation was the worst.

Many today would say that it is impossible for any human to witness that much tragedy and not have a major issue with PTSD, but even when we would have deescalation meetings and counseling after going through disasters, I was always cleared to return to work with no major signs of stress disorder.

I say all that to contrast what happened when I said I was "hooked" when Lucky took her first breath. It was such an emotional moment! For the first time, since being scolded or corrected as a child, or when my father and I were involved in a major vehicle crash involving a semi truck loaded with pigs, did tears flow out of me uncontrollably.

Lucky was my therapy animal sent from God to relieve me of all the stress that had built up and suppressed over the previous 50 years. God knew it was time for a new chapter in my life, but it took me from 2008 to 2014 for God to get it through my thick head that he wanted me to walk away from a $5000.00 per month paycheck to live on my small pension plus my wife's Social Security check, ( I've suspended my Social Security until age 70) And, guess what!? Over the past two years I've been the happiest, most stress free and happy person you ever met. And best of all, all the bills are paid, and we've been able to give away 15 to 20% of all we take in every month, more than we were ever able to afford when I was working full time as a nurse.

So, this is a very long winded way of telling you that I will be sharing more knowledge about squirrels as it is revealed to me, for as long as God gives me breath and a clear mind to observe and reveal what I learn!

Thanks again for writing!

Bill

Reply
patricia thompson
9/30/2019 11:42:32 am

Thank you for your testimony. I pray Rocky pulls through healthy. I also feel he has been placed with me to take care of and help heal over 40 years of an abusive situation. It may sound ridiculous but God knows what we need and when we need it. Do you have anyone in Texas that sells your products? I am not sure where you are located. Thank you.

William link
6/22/2016 09:37:11 pm

Sorry Sofia!

I forgot to answer your question about the squirrel with the sandy blonde fur. I would have to see a picture to identify as to whether you are seeing a young Fox squirrel, or a Gray Squirrel with a genetic mutation from in breeding. If you are in a housing development that is on the edge of a city, it very well could be a Fox squirrel, because they are country dwellers, and grays tend to be city dwellers.

When housing pushes out into the country, very often Fox and Grays cohabit, but they don't inner breed. If you got a picture and sent it to SquirrelNutrition@yahoo.com, I could identify it for you!

Bill

Reply
Hafeez
12/20/2019 12:58:50 am

I had a Indian Palm squirrel (female) it has loose motion for past two days is it any problem and give some solution for it

Reply



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    Author

    William Sells is a Registered Nurse turned Squirrel Rehabber and Nutritionist. His passion is raising healthy, disease free squirrels through feeding them the right way and the treatment of common squirrel diseases. He's always open to questions and comments regarding Squirrels and their care and feeding.

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