just below her eye on her upper jaw. It pushing on her eye a bit, I can actually see the white part of her eye. We're going to the vet tomorrow, but in the mean time any ideas what might be going on?

AHHHHH. I have no idea...that looks terrible

That looks like an abcess meaning she'll need to go to a vet and get it drained. THEYLANDER recently had that happen to his gliders. ITs relatively common as far as glider illnesses go to be honest.

http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14972&whichpage=1#96100

Here you can see what his vet said a photo and see how quick and easy of a procedure it was. I'm not going to tell you not to worry because I know that won't help but do know you aren't the only one who has had this happen. Sometimes seeing it having happen to another person helps.

In a negative note another user had a glider with this she got from a rescue. The infection spread and the eye had to be amputated. I know you've already said you are going to the vet but I'm writing this to make sure that anyone who sees this knows how serious it is.

All I can say is VET - as soon as possible. An abcess can spread to other places very quickly.

Please come back and tell us what the vet says and how she is doing.

Oh poor baby. I hope she's better soon.

Any idea how long Scrat had the infection before his eye had to be amputated? That looks almost exactly like her problem. We're going to the vet tomorrow, I just hope that's not too long......

Scrat battled the infection for quite some time before his eye had to be removed. I dont think Mrs King was his owner when the problem started, so it was never certain when the infection set in - or if the previous owner got vet care.

Im glad to hear she is going tomorrow to the vet. This can be bad very quickly..

If you would, please tell us what the vet says tomorrow and keep us posted about how things progress. We can learn a lot from your poor baby's misfortune, and hopefully, it will help others. Plus ... we worry a lot when we don't hear back ...

I will definitely let ya'll know. Thank you for the info. I just noticed it tonight, so hopefully no permanent damage is done. I will let you know what I find out tomorrow. Thanks again for the info and support!

GOOD LUCK TOMORROW!!! Please do report back!

I don't have any experience on this... But maybe this could help a little? I was looking on suz' site and saw that maybe it could be a severe sinus infection.
Thought I'd try to help... I hope everything is ok.

Ko had a Sugar Glider (Charlie) that had an infection in the eye. Unfortunatly Charlie also had to have the eye removed which cleared up the infection.

We just went through this here with one of our rescues. A vet is the only one who can treat it, please let us know how she is doing.

wow.. that looks pretty erious.. good to hear that its going to a vet..

Ok, we just got back from the vet. He says it looks like an abcessed tooth. We're going to try giving her amoxicillin for 3 weeks before we go the more drastic route of putting her under and pulling the tooth. He said he likes amoxicillin because it concentrates in the pus better and so gets to the site better. He said it may rupture which would actually be a good thing cause it would relieve the pain and pressure, it would also make it easier for the antibiotic to get to the site of infection. Anyway, I gave her the first dose as soon as we got home, it's gonna be a long 3 weeks shoving that syringe in her mouth. She actually crabbed at me! Imagine that....lol! She hasn't crabbed at me in probably 9 months. Anyway, I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the support!

Keep a close watch on her for this time period. And abcess can go bad really quickly.

Glad to hear she is on the mend!!!

Good news!!!

Thats wonderful news!!!!!!

I'm so glad that you got her into the vet quickly. These situations can be really bad.

Good luck with the recovery.

I had to administer some meds via syringe and it was horrible. I thought I was going to poke an eye out. I mixed the meds with a tiny bit of yogurt on a spoon and my girls couldn't wait to get their medicine. They just licked it right off the spoon. Maybe you could give this a try. I am not sure if the flavored yogurt would hide the flavor of your meds or if your baby likes yogurt.

good news! =]

Everyone needs to have a syringe .01cc - and use it at least once a week to give yummy things like apple juice. They get used to drinking out of the syringe and associate it with good tasting treats.

Then if you ever have to use one for meds - it wont be a problem.

Huh, never thought of that. Great tip!

that's a really good Idea. I'm starting that right now.

Good idea! Good way to bond also.

Any update on this baby and how it's going with the meds?

Im surprised the vet didnt lance it, lancing it and also meds would clear it up much quicker

quote:

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Originally posted by streetdoc

Ok, we just got back from the vet. He says it looks like an abcessed tooth. We're going to try giving her amoxicillin for 3 weeks before we go the more drastic route of putting her under and pulling the tooth. He said he likes amoxicillin because it concentrates in the pus better and so gets to the site better. He said it may rupture which would actually be a good thing cause it would relieve the pain and pressure, it would also make it easier for the antibiotic to get to the site of infection. Anyway, I gave her the first dose as soon as we got home, it's gonna be a long 3 weeks shoving that syringe in her mouth. She actually crabbed at me! Imagine that....lol! She hasn't crabbed at me in probably 9 months. Anyway, I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the support!

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I'm surprised the vet didn't put her under anyway, so give her a more thorough exam and to get a sample for a C & S to see if the antibiotic is the right one to do the trick! In my case, my glider went to the vet within 30 minutes of discovering her abcess. The vet did a number of things including putting her under, checking her teeth and eye etc, draining the infection and taking samples for c & s etc. She was put on an antibiotic right away.

Now the thing is, her C & S results came back and the only antibiotic that the infection was resistant to, turned out to be the one she was on, so the first few days on antibiotics has been useless but thankfully the C & S test was done to tell us this, so she could be switched.


The other thing with facial abcesses is the face has high bone density with little blood flow, so you need an antibiotic than can penetrate deep as infections can come up in small pockets which some antibiotics aren't able to reach.

My vet also preferred injectable antibiotics for a number of reasons. They worked much more efficiently and they are less likely to upset the glider's digestive system and natural gut florae which is see as a big issue here with possums (and gliders).


In my case, it was a long haul and too long to describe here but briefly, though she responded slightly to the antibiotics, the infection had seated in so deep, it had actually eaten through the optical nerve, so they removed her eye and the moment that eye was gone, the infection totally disappeared, never to return!

My advice, is chat to your vet about a C & S to make sure she is on the right antibiotic for the job. It is very important to get rid of this infection ASAP. If there is no improvment, don't wait for the whole three week course of antibiotics to take her back to the vet. Every day of right treatment is very important to rid her of the infection! Best of luck with her.