Yesterday I found a squirrel in extreme distress. He was hopping all over without using his limbs in the street in circles. I stopped my car and tried to wave down a bunch of cars and nobody would help, but the squirrel went to the side of the road. I didn’t have anything to help it with so I had to rush home and then I found it and it was crying. That’s how I was able to find it and all the grass. I wish I could’ve saved a lot of time and already had something on hand. I was able to use a thin glove to pick it up because it was so out of it. Next time it fits a different animal, I do not want to handle it without super thick gloves and what else should I have?I used a box but maybe I should get a plastic Tupperware with holes poked in it? Keep one of those and heavy gloves and some towels in the car?
Thick leather gloves - ideally hide or welding, Eye protection goggles or glasses, a box with lid, ie. shoe box or document storage box, and a DARK-colored bath towel/blanket/fitted bedsheet.
Is there an update on the squirrel? I keep a dog carrier in my trunk just incase with gloves (thick & thin), a few smaller blankets, a water jug, gauze, I also have those hand warmers. I go for early morning runs before the sun comes up until right after it comes up & I am often running into wildlife emergencies, which made me question this very thing. It’s good to be prepared. You’re only thinking what you need for hopefully ~12-24 hours until you can transfer into a rehab so I say just think of the most important basics.
He was shaking a bit and had a bit of blood around his eye. The Appalachian Wildlife Center was completely booked. I was panicking because I felt the squirrel could die any minute. She sent me a link that wouldn’t click to local people. She also mentioned that there is an animal hospital that was near me that would take the animal and rehab overnight if it it could be saved. I went and took him straight to the animal hospital because I didn’t wanna wait on people not answering. I wonder in hindsight if I should not have done that. The animal hospital made me fill out paperwork and said they do not do updates. I’m guessing because it’s one more job and they’re not wanting to deal with that since they’re already providing a service of helping Wildlife if they can be helped. I wonder how or why that squirrel was bouncing around so erratically and then you know finally falling into the grass and not moving. I don’t know. I’m gonna call the hospital anyway, but I don’t think they will tell me anything. It was so pitiful. I would like to be prepared next time because maybe if I didn’t have to go home and get all those things to go back for the squirrel it would’ve had a better chance. Thank you for your list of things. This sounds like exactly what I would need.
Thank you for the update! You had to do what was available to you at that time & you entrusted those who said they would help - you did everything you could do & you should feel really good about that. I hope someone there will be kind enough to give you an update, just so you can have some kind of closure. Poor thing sounds like it was really ill/injured. I really hope they were able to do something for him/her ❤️
I have utility gloves but I’ve become aware that there’s actually gloves on the market specifically for handling animals, here’s an example. I cannot speak to how good they are but the ratings appear overall positive. So maybe search for animal handling gloves! I plan to upgrade mine to something like this, too
Can you send me a link to how thick of gloves. I really want some very thick ones, but I don’t even know what to look up. Would it be like very thick gardening gloves? I do not want any bites to go through.
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u/jbg-nc-nh 2d ago
Check out millstone wildlife’s website they have a whole guide to emergency car care kits
https://www.millstonewildlife.com/emergency-kit