Dusty's looking good!

Although he is still scrawny as hell, Dusty is gaining weight and his gut has finally gotten used to eating like a normal baby raccoon.....we finally have normal, solid poops too! He has bounced back from the starvation aspect of his recovery.

On to phase 2, the mange! He did get his first dose of selamectin after he was stable, but I held off on the antibiotics so as not to send his gut into a tailspin! Now that I'm getting normal poops from him, I'll start the antibiotics tonight. But before that, bath time with a nice seborrhea shampoo to soothe his skin and clear up the scaly, oily skin! Look at all the dirty crap that came off of him! Yuck!

Luckily he seemed to enjoy his bath. Nice warm water and lots of scrubbing in all the itchy places...what's not to like!

Ten minutes later, a nice rinse and dry, raccoon burrito style....

.....and voila!!!! Our drowned rat looks more like a cute, fluffy, less stinky baby coon!

His skin is still a little patchy, but much better than when he came in.

His little hands were bare from the wrist down a couple weeks ago, and already the hair is growing back in.

He's looking and smelling like new! His first round of vaccines, another meal of nice warm formula, and he's settled back into a nice big cage, feeling like a million bucks!

Squirrel update!

The older 9 squirrels have moved outside at last! They are loving all the room and trees. No luck getting a picture of them enjoying it though, they all scurry into the nest boxes and hide.

Meanwhile, the younger gang is adorable and always willing to pose for a picture! There are 7 of the little munchkins now and it's looking like they may be spending the winter, barring the invention of miracle grow for squirrels!

They really love their gooseberries from Auntie JoAnn! :)

 

Little Dusty is doing well! He's eating formula and putting on weight and just as cute as ever!! Once the mange is cleared up he'll be as good as new!

The new kid, Dusty!

Here is a little unexpected surprise for this time of year....a baby raccoon! He's about 5 weeks old and just a bag of bones, poor little fella. He's also got mange, but not terribly advanced. Right now the biggest concern is the emaciation. The Needham ACO got him to me on Monday, and has ever so slowly been hydrated and worked up to eating small amounts of formula.

  He's adorable for sure! The pictures don't show it well, but he kind of looks like a powder bottle exploded and coated him...like he's covered in dust.

 

So far he is doing well, and barring any other problems like parvo or distemper, I am optimistic for sure!

The groundhog and the cooper's hawk.

I was sitting at my kitchen table when a flash of feathers zipped by the window, then to my delight, took a sharp turn and landed on the back lawn! One of my elusive Cooper's Hawks.....Awesome, a chance to get my camera!! I was hoping to get a quick picture but what I got was a little more entertaining than that!

Turns out young little Cooper here thought it saw a chance for a meal. Look closely on the far left...

 He landed on the lawn to size things up....

 .....while his prospective prey sized him up! Yup, that's my favorite resident digger there!

 Young Mr. Cooper continued to fly in circles around my furry friend...landing in various bushes and trees close by, trying to come up with a game plan.

 Lucky for me again, landing in a bush right outside my window! I'm afraid the screen didn't make for the greatest of pictures, but it was a great opportunity to watch him up close!

 You may ask....why the heck wasn't I running out there to save my furry little buddy...the horror!?

Well, we both realized digger here was much too big a target for our young, inexperienced, predator. It was actually quite amusing watching just how relaxed digger was, as he casually observed Mr. Cooper flying circles around him in between mouthfuls of dandelions.

Lesson learned, our young Cooper's finally flew off in search of easier prey, and digger,well he just continued to munch down his dinner!



Odie update!

Odie is still with us and doing great! He has come a long way from the scrawny, very stunted baby he was!

He is starting to look like a real raccoon now! His teeth finally developed and he went from a formula/yogurt/omnivore diet gruel to finally eating solid food! As a result, he finally started putting on some weight and filled in. He still has a long way to go though....he is still very small and his coat is not filling in like a coons coat should. It's very soft with no guard hairs yet and no undercoat for warmth. I am optimistic he may actually do well and be releasable! All he needs is the time to develop properly. So obviously, he will be overwintering, and we shall see what the winter holds for our little runty man!

 

Eggs, acorns and fun!

Life goes on for Scritch's gang in the big pen. They are doing great and the time for release is drawing near! So far it seems all are on track to be big enough for release. The Dighton 4, the Little Rascals, Mason, Cinder, Bossy, Fluff, Millie and Champ...a good sized group that can hopefully all go together at one release site.

Dinner this evening consists of mice, eggs and acorns mixed in with some dog chow.

The eggs are still somewhat of a puzzle to some of them!

 .....but the acorns are no problem for this crew! They love them!