I just got my boy neutered and after reading glidercentral's neutering FAQ it said i could put him back with my girl as long as I monitored it and I made sure she didn't try to pick at his wound.

Well I watched them until 3:30 AM and she never even took an interest in his wound. My housemate woke me up at 7:30 AM and he said that something was wrong and the girl was like biting the guy. I came out and i see she's covered in blood. I looked underneath him and I see his intestine hanging out.

I called the vet and they asked if blood was gushing. I said no and they said it wasn't anything to worry about then. I said that I saw organs hanging out and they said they used a lot of tissue to suture the wound so it's probably just the tissue hanging out. They told me to come in at 8:30 cause there's a fire here and they took in all these evacuees.

Well I went there and the vet confirmed what I thought. That was his intestine. She said she's not sure if he's gonna make it but she's gonna check to see what parts are usable and do the surgery right now.

Agh it's just not fair. I was monitoring them for 5 hours after they woke up and nothing happens but as soon as I go to sleep, catastrophe.

I am so sorry that your baby is going through this right now. It could be that he even opened up his own stitches, and she just happened to be trying to help him. You never know. My Herc did that a few weeks ago, all on his own. Don't be upset with her! Please keep us posted.

the vet put an e-collar on him the whole time so he couldn't have been the one to open it.

Oh I am so sorry . Please keep us updated. HUGS

Oh - I'm so sorry this happened! She was worried about him and trying to help him out by removing the nasty stitches.

Please let us know. Poor sweeties. I wish they understood!

Oh boy, I'm sorry to hear this. Such things can happen, there really is no telling. I always suggest that people keep their animal isolated overnight. This may have changed the outcome for you.

Good luck with healing him. I hope he recovers. It sure wont be easy now for a bit. Hopefully he was cleaned really well before being closed this time and he will need to be on antibiotics for awhile as he heals. He could easily submit to sepsis and the vet knows this.

I havent heard of such an extreme issue. Odds are that he was the culprit making it worse, but the female may have started the transaction though.

It is a sugar glider instinct to remove things off of the body that dont belong. We all know that they will remove your scab in a second flat before you can even realize what is going on. So common sense suggests that we isolate and collar our surgery animals at least temporarily to get them healing. For neuters, I recommend doing this overnight, feeding very lightly and keeping the animal under a bright light overnight so that all they do is be still and rest. It is miserable for them, but recovery always is and it is better safe than sorry.

Oh my gosh...I'm so, so sorry. Please keep us updated on him.

With all 3 of my guys, I kept them all separate for the first night and one of them I kept separate for 2 nights. Everyone has such different experiences and NORMALLY, there isn't an issue. She was wanting to groom him and help him out :(

I am so sorry. I hope your baby pulls through. Please keep us updated.

Just got an update from my vet, surgery was successful and the wound has been closed. The intestines had a piece that was bitten up and the blood vessels were no longer working there so she has removed that. Now she has to see if he can digest and pass food through the system. That's pretty much the determinant of whether or not he's gonna make it- Whether his intestines are able to function properly or not.

He's being started on liquid foods today and solid foods will be tested later. He is going to be kept overnight. I'm hoping for the best. Please cross your fingers for him.

Definitely sending thoughts and prayers for a speedy, successful recovery!

I am so sorry about your little boy!I can't imagine the stress you are going through. We are praying that he makes a speedy recovery. Give your little girl a kiss. She was just trying to help since he couldn't reach it. Get well soon little guy!

I hope he makes it. I was hoping that you wouldnt put them together since it seems like a lot of gliders try to sm after neutering but still, I'm sorry for your and his pain.

yea i should have listened to you. i was hoping more people would give me some answers but you were the only one who responded to my topic. i just decided to take the advice of the neutering FAQ on glidercentral instead because it provided more info. i also searched through these forums and read a lot of experiences post-neuter and the majority of them had no problems with putting them back in their cage so i thought that it'd be the same way, especially after nothing happened the 5 hours i monitored them.

i really hope that wasn't a critical error.

Well, I'm not saying you should have listened to me, I just wanted to express my concern. that could have been the exact right thing to do and they were the exception. no two gliders are the same so sometimes its hard to know what to do. I know he can make it, I'll send some prayers and cross my fingers.

I have my fingers crossed for your baby I hope he does well.

It is not your fault. Accidents do happen and no one can see the future. Hindsight is 20/20. I pray he makes a full recovery and quickly. I am sorry you have to go through this!

I didn't even see that post for some reason and I usually try to respond to neuter questions if I'm able. I'm so sorry you didn't get more responses. It must have been a busy time and it got buried quickly or something. It's unusual to only have one response. I'm so sorry.

We all use these kinds of things to learn what we can from. Someone please let us all know what we can do to better offer this kind of information here. Perhaps we need some better or more obvious and easy to find articles in the Gliderpedia? Maybe link to some of these historical events to support the reason for keeping your neutered glider in a miserable way overnight, alone and with a collar on. Any ideas are welcome.

I think one mistake that was made here and that we can learn from is putting a glider with a collar on into a cage with others. He was not able to even protect his area from others if he wanted to. The collar prevented that.

Viet, I hope you are able to take notes and collect as much information as you can right now on what is going on with this. Regardless of the outcome, this experience will be valuable to share with others going forward.

I am curious what the vet has done specifically and what meds are being used and so forth. Gliders are tough, but having some intestine being eaten, well, that's going to be a very tough recovery.

We're all watching for updates. Feel free to make use of the Journal for documenting this for yourself. I dont blame you for what has happened and I am sure that you will approach it differently next time around as we all may.

I will be sure to ask her about what she did and what she used once more develops.

I'm sure I will get a breakdown of what meds were used too. For the neutering yesterday they printed a full breakdown for me with the cost and name of each med they used.

Yea I read what Suz posted on glidercentral about how once the organs are out it's usually too late. I'm hoping it's not the case here but I am prepared for it. When I woke up and I picked him up and I saw that I just had a wave of horror come over me.

I remember she also said the main problem they could have besides if he can't pass food anymore is sepsis. The bacteria in the intestines can cause severe infection.

Sending you lots of hugs. I am so sorry you are going through this. Praying for your baby to pull through.

You can not think you done anything wrong. I have had 4 neuters done, very experienced vet, and still 1 went after the site. No rhyme, reason, it just went wrong with that one.
If your baby pulls through this keep in mind that he may have to be seperated until he is completely healed so his mate does not try to help him again. I know Val has had several issues with mates that open wounds even after healed.

Please don't blame your baby girl, she was only trying to help him. It is only natural for them to try & groom away boo-boos.

I'm so sorry! It's good that your vet was able to re-section the bowel, that must be a really difficult surgery. Poor little guy. I'm praying for him, and for you.

Ohhh I am so Sorry!!!! I know what your going through though My glider has been sick and we still dont know if he will make it.
We dont do surgery on our gliders to get them neutered we take them to the vet and they give them a mild sedative and then tie them off.... I know it sounds horrible but its less risky! Ill be praying for your boy and I hope he gets better!!!! Keep us updated!

Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine how awful that'd be to see. I'm keeping you and your glider in my thoughts. I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

This is just awful! I'm sooo sorry.

Just out of curiosity and for general information:

Did your vet remove the scrotal sac or leave it intact?
Did your vet perform laser surgery?
Were you given pain meds to give him post-surgery?

I did a lot of reading before Dizzy's neuter and found that there are very few occurences of complications if the sac is left intact, and even fewer if laser is used. I requested both for Dizzy and he never even looked at the site. Personally I feel it very important to demand (if necessary) take-home pain meds. If the site doesn't hurt, the chances of them self-mutilating are decreased. Of course, this wasn't the case here.

Again - I'm sorry that you and your baby are going through this. Please don't blame the female. She probably thought that she was helping him.

im also sorry!!!
I hope he really makes it :( sometimes things dont go as planned.
Keep us updated!! I will keep him in my prayers.

oh no... good luck! i so hope everything turns out okay! please keep us posted so that we know how he's doing.... poor guy! first he has to get neutered, and then go through that! he's gonna need some real tlc when he gets home...

I don't think it was a laser surgery. The sacs were removed. He was given pain meds before he left the vet but I was not given some to take home.

I just got called by the vet right now. He didn't make it. He got sub-q'd to keep fluids in his body and the vet did all she could. He was up and lively and after his surgery and he trying to get his e-collar off but you know how gliders. They're always acting like everything is normal. A few hours later his respiration system failed and now he's gone.

My vet asked me what I wanted to do with the body. What have you guys when your gliders have died?

I can't mourn right now. My girl is about to have 2 joeys come out of her pouch within a week. I heard her singing for the first time yesterday. I know that the dad is very important in raising the joeys so I'm not even sure whether or not she'll reject the joeys.

And then there's the price. I saved up for a month for the neutering and gonna have to scrap for money to pay for all the intensive care he went through today.

It was only a little over 2 months that I had him but he was a joy to have. I just hope my girl will be able to deal with this.

I am just now reading this post and my heart just sank!! I also didn't see the other thread you talked about...I know this doesn't help but I really feel horrible for you and your little one. I will keep you guys in my thoughs..

Get Well Soon little one!!!


Wow....and I posted too late!!! UGH!!! RIP poor little one....

I am so sorry rip baby boy

I am sorry to hear that he didn't make it. If I was you I would start reading up on rejected joeys if you plan on keeping the joeys. Once again I am so sorry.