Squirrels die every day, however, the reasons behind some squirrel deaths are a mystery to us humans.
If you stumble on a squirrel with a bloody mouth, or if your squirrel suddenly dies, and you realize that it has a bloody mouth, you’d be right to be concerned.
This article explores why this would happen.
Table of Contents
Dead squirrel with a bloody mouth:
Squirrels are quite active animals. If you find a dead squirrel while out and about, and it has a bloody mouth, then the animal was likely injured and died from its injuries.
Squirrels can become injured if they are struck by a car, if they fall off a telephone pole, or if they fall out of a tree. Some squirrels will survive the fall and leave unscathed, but other squirrels won’t be so lucky.
If your squirrel were to fall and become injured, the injury may seem minor if it’s bleeding from its mouth, but squirrels can suffer major internal injuries as a result of falling from trees, like blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
The animal’s spleen, kidney, or liver may have been injured during the fall. If this happens, these organs may fail and start to leak blood, this can cause the squirrel to become anemic.
The squirrel may die of hypovolemic shock because it is leaking so much blood, the animal can die because of this.
What do you do with a dead squirrel?
If you’ve found a dead squirrel in your garden then you’d need to quickly get rid of it. Dead squirrels can carry a variety of diseases and parasites that can harm you or your family.
This is how to get rid of a dead squirrel:
- Wear plastic gloves before you do anything
- Pick the animal up using a long-handed shovel and place the squirrel in a plastic bag
- Close the bag by tying a tight knot
- Place the first plastic bag into a second plastic bag and tie a knot
- Dispose of the bags in a trash can away from your home
- Seal your trash can, this prevents predators from getting into your trash can looking for the squirrels carcass
What to do if a squirrels mouth is bleeding and its not dead:
If you find a squirrel that’s mouth is bleeding, and it is too weak to run away from you, then taking care of the animal may help.
Before you try to pick the squirrel up you need to protect yourself first. Squirrels are wild animals and see you as a predator. If the squirrel is injured, and sees you reaching for it, it will likely try to bite or scratch you.
Squirrel bites will not only expose you to the squirrel’s saliva but they will also expose you to the squirrel’s blood, both may carry diseases that can infect humans.
For this reason, protecting yourself by wearing thick gloves and holding the squirrel in a towel will be safer than holding the animal with your bare hands.
You can either take the squirrel to a wildlife rehabilitation center, take the squirrel to a vet (an exotic vet would be best) or, if you can’t get to any of these facilities, you can take the squirrel home and treat it yourself.
The professionals:
The professionals at the rehabilitation center, or at the vet’s offices, will secure the animal in a pillowcase and make an opening at the corner to gain access to the squirrel’s mouth.
They will then check the mouth for any broken teeth and offer pain medications to calm the squirrel down. Subcutaneous fluids will also be given to the squirrel.
It is common for squirrels to make full recoveries after suffering from these types of injuries, the squirrel will be released once it has recovered and is ready to go out on its own again.
You:
If you cannot get the squirrel to a vet or to a wildlife rehabilitation center, and it seems stunned (read more about stunned/shocked squirrel symptoms here) then you can take the animal home with you and keep it in a container till it recovers a bit and becomes active again.
Line the container with old t-shirts to make it more comfortable for the squirrel.
Place a heating pad under half of the container and set it to low. Leaving a heating pad under half of the container will allow the squirrel to move to the other side of the container if it gets too hot.
Release the squirrel once it becomes active.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other squirrel related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Squirrel Pneumonia Treatment, Baby Squirrel Has Diarrhea, Baby Squirrel Breathing Through Its Mouth, Why Does My Baby Squirrel Have Diarrhea?