Ok, I found a baby vole (or some other small rodent, I'm not sure what it is) while I was walking the dog, it was laid on the pavement wriggling around. It's got hair but it's eyes aren't open yet.



My question is, what should I do to give it the best chance of surviving?

I know RG is a vet type person so if you have any advice it'd be much appreciated or if anyone has advice for that matter.

Thanks in advance.

Are you sure it's still alive?

Immediately call your local wildlife rescue facility. They should be in the phone book, or call 411. A veterinarian will not be allowed to give it medical care (they're not licensed to treat wildlife). Until the wildlife folks can come get it, make a little house for it out of a box, a towel, and a little dish of water (even though it may not be weaned yet... you never know).

*sigh*

I already called the RSPCA and a couple of other place and they told me to stick it in a hedge and let nature decide what happens, which is probably good advice but I can't bring myself to do it.

They said they can't do anything about small wild animals.

Aparenly only big animals deserve help :(

Fine... be that way...

Get a shoe box and retro fit it with a light bulb, get the incandescent kind, 'cause the little critter is going to need heat to keep warm.

Go to the pet store and get some hamster chips, also you'll need a small cup with water and a syringe so you can feed it when it does open its eyes. Warm milk works best and try to keep it warm as much as possible.

Good luck!

Edit to add: I had rescued and nursed back to health several baby birds that had fallen off their nests through out my youth...

awww izz cute! keep it :X

I dunno, even if I keep it and it makes it, I don't know whether I could release it and it would survive when it's a bit older as it won't have the skillz. I dunno what to do for the best really :(

That sounds contradictory. I mean, they're animal rescuers, yet they say something like - Let nature decide what happens?

You're a bigger man than i am doggy, i probably would have just left it alone. But you picked it up and took it in and now it seems you have some obligation to take care of it.

Know anyone with a pet snake?

Maybe this will help you, good luck



The second link seem most helpful.

seems like you got the best advice from this thread here. i've seen voles, but not a one that's brown. all the voles i've seen were dark grey, or black.

Yeh me, and lizards that would eat it too but lets not go down that road.... :)

Maybe it's not a vole, I just gave it that title as it looked like one to me but I'm no expert

It's a vole.

ohhh, that's adorable!! What big feet.

If you nurse it back to health and all and don't want to keep it, maybe you can give it to a petstore to sell? Are there rules against that?

Please update us, doggie...

I know I'm always the one who comes off sounding like a heartless b*****d in situations like this, but...

It's a rodent. There's lots more where it came from. Odds are good that in the wild, it would have been eaten already anyway. Don't kill yourself.

* Zips up flame-retardant bunny suit. *

No, you're not heartless. I have had to have an exterminator in my house for some rouge mice in my attic. I cannot set out any poison, for fear whatever eats it will die somewhere either in or out of the house and I have dogs who would eat it and THEY could die.

My thoughts are....IF you found a wild animal wiggling around on the pavement, something musta disturbed the nest or got a hold of it already as they don't leave until they can see.

Me thinks your friend is "circling the drain" already.

LOL! Not sure what that means but if it makes you feel any better, when I was at the Outer Banks one year with Polly (the dog) somehow she sniffed out a newborn bunny nest and put one in her mouth(she would never hurt them, but would carry them around, she's done this with kittens at the horse farm). I rushed to the house, and exchanged it for a milkbone, and placed it back in the general area of where I thought the nest was.

I'm thinkin' everything turned out ok.

"Circling the drain" kinda means on it's way to checking out..ya know, once you go down the drain, it's game over...

My childhood friends dog once was carrying around his guinea pig around that got loose. She brought it right to us. The dog didn't kill it, but the look of fear on it's face told us it died from a heart attack.