Douglas Campbell, a veterinary pathologist at the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre at the University of Guelph, agreed with my assessment, saying “ Baylisascaris procyonis is by far the most common cause of neurological disease that we see in grey squirrels.” But a variety of other small mammals, including squirrels, groundhogs and rabbits, can be fatally infected.ĭr. Raccoons, the main host of this nematode worm, are not killed by the adult worms, which live in the coons’ small intestines. It’s likely our sad grey squirrel was afflicted with raccoon roundworm, a nasty disease caused by the parasite Baylisascaris procyonis. Something neurological, I suggested to Em, before running to the Internet - and a few wildlife experts - for information. There was something seriously wrong with this animal. After picking himself up, he staggered away. He missed his landing, falling a metre through the foliage. Once there, he rolled and pitched drunkenly across the cedar planks, then made a leap for our cedar hedge. He was unable to sit upright on the railing and clumsily struggled to get down to the deck. It looked kind of cute, and we both laughed. “He’s sausaging,” she said, describing the squirrel’s curious sunbathing posture. “Look at that,” I said to my daughter, Em, as she came into our kitchen. He was lying prone, completely flattened out on the railing around my deck. Gazing out my kitchen window on a recent warm spring morning, I happened to notice a grey squirrel behaving in a most unsquirrel-like way.
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