New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
“This flying squirrel was transferred to our Cape Hospital from our friends over at Wild Care Cape Cod for help with this difficult case. When we first saw a picture of this poor flying squirrel we couldn’t even make out what was going on.
Unfortunately, this little guy was living inside of a wall that got spray foam insulated and as a consequence got covered in it! This substance can potentially be toxic both to skin and also if resulting emissions are inhaled. Our immediate concern was if he had inhaled or ingested any, since there was quite a bit stuck around his nose and mouth.
New England Wildlife Center photo.
Our priority was to get this foam that had hardened into a thick shell off of him, especially from around his eyes and mouth. Both his front hands were also covered it in and we could see in a desperate attempt to remove it he was trying to groom it off himself.
Our veterinary team placed him under anesthesia as we knew removing the foam would be too stressful to do it awake. Little by little we used q-tips soaked in nail polish remover to dissolve the foam and remove it from the fur and skin. Acetone is known to remove the spray foam when it is still wet but we didn’t know if it would work on foam that was already hardened. We worked diligently to make sure no acetone got in his eyes or mouth and tried to preserve as much of his fur as possible.
New England Wildlife Center photo.
It took us about twenty minutes but we were able to remove most of the spray foam! He did loose a little fur around his head where the largest clump of foam was but that should grow back just fine. Before waking him up we washed his fur and skin to remove any residual acetone.
We will keep a close eye on him in the next few days to monitor his skin for any reactions and his over all behavior to look for any signs of toxicity incase he did inhale or ingest any.
When he woke up he was a little groggy, but already feeling so much better! We are so happy we could lend a helping hand and get this squirrel out of a very hard (literally) situation!”-New England Wildlife Center.
New England Wildlife Center photo.
