From DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center
Patient of the Week
Have you ever heard of a rat king? Maybe don't look it up, the photos can be a bit disturbing. It's when a group of rats get their tails intertwined together and become one large mass, unable to pull apart. Sometimes there is material that is making the entanglement worse like hair, garbage, or sticky residues. Now, how about a squirrel king?
I'm not sure what the rescuer of this ball of fur thought, but good for her for managing to contain this understandably agitated group of six juvenile eastern gray squirrels. Thankfully, all the squirrels were alive and in relatively good condition! They were quickly sedated for detangling and assessment. Watch the process in a video in the comments. While they may not look alive in the video and photos, all six are alive and well, just sedated for this delicate procedure.
While unbraiding their tails, some plastic and hay was discovered in the mix. We didn't find any in this case, but squirrels can get sap on their fur that can contribute to this. Unfortunately, their tails were cold and swollen in spots, which will lead to partial amputations for these babies. But a better alternative than staying stuck together!
Two days after intake, the squirrels had surgery to remove the tips of their tails that were permanently damaged from the entanglement. They all lost about half of their tail, but it won't prevent them from eventual release. There are many partial-tailed squirrels doing just fine in the wild (one is a regular visitor in our preserve)!
So far in life, these squirrels have had to do everything together. Den together. Eat together. Go to the hospital together. Even have surgery together! I'm sure as they get older, they will be happy to explore what the natural world has to offer and make their own way.
Plastic, straw, and fur were mixed up in the tangle of tails.
Making progress- halfway there! I can't imagine trying to do this without sedation!
Once they are separated, each gets a shot to reverse the sedation, medications, and fluids before getting set up in the hospital. Surgery in a couple days will be needed to address their damaged tails.
This was found tangled in with their tails.
One early riser, but still out of it. Can't imagine what is going on in that little head.
This group of siblings is five males and one female. They look pretty cute all lined up.
A couple days later, the squirrels had surgery. Two groups of three each at a time makes for a quicker procedure.
The tips of their tails were snipped off where there was permanent damage, then sutured and bandaged.
Post-surgery, these cuties were still feeling sleepy. We will be able to tell this litter from the others!
Their tails should heal quickly, as long as they stay clean and calm. Maybe wishful thinking for a group of juvenile squirrels?
Ah, that's right. Now if only I could think of a relevant Billy Joel joke(!) But yeah, I remember talking to you a bit on my original Fediverse acct on Lemm.ee, before it went down.
Btw, do you have an idea of how often you plan to post here? If you're going to make this much effort, I want to try to post here at least 2x a week, depending on how I arrange my new posting schedule. The PieFed scheduler is immensely helpful for such, altho I'm not sure how it works these days on the Lemmy side.
Oh, also-- you'd mentioned a recent jump in subscribers. One thing I found that sometimes helps is to host the images at Imgur, making a separate post there, and then end with a credit to the relevant community. That also helps get eyes on the FV, as a side-bonus. For example:
https://imgur.com/gallery/small-collection-of-harvest-mice-flowers-living-best-lives-with-notes-r3GmMyV
My goal is one a day (or night is often when I'm sourcing material) as opposed to the 4 I usually do for SO. Just something interesting I find while prepping. I come across so much neat stuff, maybe not as crazy as the deer or the squirrels, but plenty of exotic animals or cute things that I'd share but never had the right space to do so.
Hmm... The imgur thing is kinda interesting. I guess that is getting new people into the Fediverse. I'll have to look at that sometime.
Judas Priest, that's... dang. oO
Again, I can't promise you and/or this C more than 2x per week for now, but when I do post, I try to help share awareness. (just posted the glass-art animals)
Bah. I feel like I'm kind of letting you down on the one hand, but still I'm getting spread pretty-thin at this point as an old, disabled bloke. Hope you can understand.
Nah, don't sweat it. It isn't a contest. It isn't me doing much of anything I'm not already doing.
I found a goshawk that killed a barn owl, but that might be a little gruesome for general audiences, so I'm going to keep looking, but I'm still just hunting for another 1 or 2 owl posts. I try to refill my queue for the number of things I'm going to post the next morning so I always have a steady supply for when I'm sick or traveling like I am this week.
You just do what you want, when you want. We're not getting paid for this, so just do whatever you think is fun. All you nice people keep it fun for me, so I keep posting. That's all there is to it. 😄
Haha, HELL no, I'm a troublesome motherfucker to the core. (well, sort of)
But I do love animals, and those who share info & pics upon all the other animals (i.e. not just us naked apes) have my love. So I'll do my best with all that...
Perhaps we can reconvene in a month-so, and see how things stand; like how much we've helped get the 'message' out, and so forth.
Also interesting in terms of how you seem to approach things from a hands-on experience (naturally, your job, etc), while I seem to approach animal lore from more of a scholarly perspective, or... Attenborough / Jacques Cousteau / Steve Irwin / Goodall.
Perhaps there's some fun to be squeezed from our different approaches upon all this..?
I fall into it myself with the other animal subs in that I feel the active ones are currently almost single perspective. Just educational, or just funny or the like. Many communities still feel more like one person's project and I feel awkward if I come in not matching the energy. I know that's the wrong way to look at it, but it's how my brain defaults at least...
If me and you are each here doing things from a different direction, I feel that should help it feel like a more readily open place for others to participate.
I think we'll do good! Feel free to message me whenever.
Nailed it!
Actually, maybe I could invite my dear friend @nacktmull@lemmy.world upon this project... upon sharing our collective love for animals. Let's see...
I am just happy that the little guys were saved. What exactly is the "project" you are referring to?
Oh, it's just that OP and myself decided to revive this community by making a couple animal posts per week here. So far people seem to be enjoying it. :D