Poor little Paganini crossed the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon. He got very ill, and began urinating blood on Thursday night. We took him to the ER vet immediately, at 9:00 P.M.. She felt that he might have a UTI, even though I never witnessed any other signs of one, and put him on Baytril. We agreed to give the meds a full 24 hours, and keep him in the small hospital cage to see if there was any improvement in the blood in the urine. We did that, and there wasn't any improvement. I took him, as well as all of his colony mates in to our vet this morning. I just wanted to be on the safe side! All of the other gliders were fine, but I had to make the awful decision to have Paganini euthanized. He was very sick by this morning. The blood was far darker and he was far weaker. He had a heart murmur this morning that the vet did not hear the other night. He would only eat a few mealworms and nothing else. He had actually lost a lot of weight in the past 36 hours.

My vet is going to complete a necropsy on him for me this afternoon. She feels strongly that he had a cancer festering that we didn't know about until the past few days. Paganini has only been with our home for about six weeks now. He hasn't looked very healthy, as far as brownish coloring and beauty of coat goes, but we chalked that up to inadequate protein intake (was getting a diet of only about 25% protein prior to coming to us). We had expected that, like almost every other glider we've taken in, he would begin to look prettier and healthier by now. He did improve a bit, but not a lot. Poor little guy. I will miss him, but I know that we made the right choice. He's not hurting anymore. He's able to eat all those yummy mealworms and pieces of corn he jones'd after so much without anyone telling him no.

Im so sorry. It's never easy to lose them.

Rest In Peace, little Paganini.

So sorry to hear that :( <hugs>

I found out from my vet this afternoon that she found a huge, hard tumor on Paganini's bladder, with a blood clot, too. She told me that it took up most of his abdomenal cavity. He weighed only a little more than Ella, the little joey, when he passed away. All of his calorie intake was going pretty much to feeding that big tumor. :-( Poor baby. I am sorry he had to suffer at all.

There was no way for you to know and you gave him a wonderful life.

i'm so sorry to hear that. i am sure he is enjoying a HUGE bowl of mealies, maybe he is up there with scout and they are both having a blast.
atleast he had a good home for his last 6 weeks and knew you loved him and did the best you could.

Boy, I thought I was doing just fine after losing Paganini. I mean, I was sad, and really sad about him potentially having pain for some time before it became apparent to me, but I didn't really realize how much I was missing him until this afternoon. I was getting ready to go to an eye doc appointment, and I looked over at a little bin of toys I had had for him in the small hospital cage he was in the last couple of days of his life. It really hit me, how much I missed him at that point!

I am so sorry to hear about little Paganini. Such a precious little soul. Rest easy knowing that you were able to do everything that you could and that he didn't have to suffer very long. I know that doesn't ease the pain, or the missing him. Extra hugs for the little ones who will be missing the musical part, that he played so well with them.

R.I.P Paganini