What should you do with an orphaned baby grey squirrel?

[Graphic][1] Aneesa Malik qualified as a veterinary nurse from Warwickshire College in 2008. Her main interests include veterinary ethics and welfare, emergency and critical care patients, end of life care and exotics. #### The dilemma Your veterinary practice has been presented with an orphaned grey squirrel that was found by a member of the public. On examination, you estimate the squirrel to be four weeks old – it weighs 60 g and its eyes are not yet open. It has no visible injuries and is well hydrated. The squirrel has a good chance of being successfully hand-reared to adulthood and could subsequently be released back into the wild. The wildlife rescue centre that you have taken squirrels to in the past is experienced in hand-rearing grey squirrels and has an almost 100 per cent success rate with squirrels of this age surviving until they are old enough to be released. However, they recently had their licence to release grey squirrels revoked, in accordance with the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order (2019). What should you do next? Grey squirrels can be syringe-fed a kitten milk replacement every two hours, toileted, and kept warm until their weaning age – between 10 to 12 weeks – before then being gradually introduced to a natural diet. Juveniles can be transitioned gradually to … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif