Rocky is one of two gliders we obtained a week ago. The guy who sold us the gliders told use they were fine and that nothing was wrong with them. We requested pics and he said he couldn't get it working. My husband went to pick them up and was very difficult to see what condition they were in. When we got them home male and female. I was completely disgusted. As soon as we put them in the cage I noticed two things right away. The female was fat and her tail had almost no fur on it. The male had a huge lump under his left eye. Finding a vet was extremely difficult. I'm in Mid-Michigan and found one who knows about them and owned them. He let me take Rocky to see him and at this point he was opening his eye a little more than half way and his eye looked fine. Vet gave me a bunch of siringes to mix his antibiotic and have to give him .05cc twive daily. He said if it is an infection it should start to go down in 24-28 hours. This was last friday. On monday morning I noticed his eye was wet and the top part of his eye lid was bald from scratching. As I held him in hand and gave him his med i notices crap coming out his eye, like a mucus yellowish green. I called vet because we noticed the lump was gone and he poped it. I only called the vet because when we opened his eye and cleaned it the best we could I couldn't see nor find his eye and it was swollen around the eye. Doc said it good that lump gone, could just be hard to see eye with the crap comming out and if no improvement bring him in. tuesday no improvement. Made appointment and got him in today thursday. Vet put painkiller drop on eye to relax it, still Rocky wouldn't let us touch it. We gassed him and vet concluded what we thought to be right, he lost his eye. Now this is where I need all the help I can find. The vet does know his suger griders but haven't dealt with anything quite like this. He also noticed his teeth were croocked and looked a little long. He said he will do extemsive research and find what can be done with his teeth and what he could do for me with his eye. I asked how it normaly work with larger animal. He tells me with larger animal is easier because he can keep there nose in the tube for the gas while he removed what left of eye. But being the only way to knock him out is to stick his entire bode in that thing, he would have to put a tube down his throat and him being such a small animal it would be difficult. He also said or if we just let mothernature take course two things could happen. One eventually the oozing will stop and the swelling will go away and heal on its own. Two, it will continue to ooze and he might not make it. He has been a very reasonable vet to only charge me 80 in total for two visits and to knock him out. He said this in a way for me to understand that he needs to research to find what he can do and the chances of surgry. Also being that he hasn't dealt with this that there could be that 50/50 chance if he performs it. Wich i understand completely, and he not just tring to get money out of me. If anyone can help me find an experienced vet to perform this surgry if my vet is uncomfortable with doing it. I will go as far a detroit area to have this done. To my surprise for being new to us and for what he is going through, he is in great spirits and has never bittin me nor barked at us. He is eating well and drinks plently of water. The way he acts, it is as if nothing is wrong with him. I hope he makes it. The person we got them from is pissed that his son treated them this way and has SAID he will reimburse us for the 80 so far. So far we are fortunate so far. We love you Rocky

I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this. Your vet could speak with one of these vets. You can print the list and give it to him. Keep us posted!

The following Vets are willing to consult with other vets who have questions regarding sugar glider care and emergencies.

Please put these numbers in your Emergency Kit.

We are NOT to call these vets ourselves - they will only consult with another Vet!!!


Dr.Tim Tristan
OSO Creek Animal Hospital
361-994-1145

Dr. Bradley Walsh
Village Vet Animal Clinic/All Creatures Veterinary Hospital
918-258-0040

Dr. Andrew Grzanowski
Canton Center Animal Hospital
734-459-1400

Dr. Kate Zimmerman
TriCounty Animal Hospital
(has 24hr emergency contact info on her office answering machine)
423-391-0303


Dr. Teresa Bradley
Belton Animal Clinic
816-331-3120

Dr. Kristen West
Mandel Veterinary Hospital
216-321-6040

I will be sure to give this list to my vet tomarrow and will not call these numbers myself. It would be great if I could find a vet that has had to put a sugie under with a tube and performed eye surgry, but i know thats unlikely I will be making many calls tomarrow.

Thank You

Oh...and don't let him trim his teeth! They are supposed to be long as they are sapsuckers! I meant to mention that the first time. Their teeth do not grow like rodents.

You can also go here and get help:

http://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/index.htm?sid=ca629db3ec990fdbb2733c458aa0eb9a

I noticed that as well I have had one female for about 9 months now and in comparison they look the same length, nut wou;d you know what causes they teeth to go crooked. I think that might have been why he wants to research it fisrt to be sure. He eats fruits abd vegies fine but he has hard time with hard food he goes for smaller softer pieces.

You should have seen the cage they had them in it was completely cover in feeses. there was no pouch for them but a index card holder with a whole in it. I have never seen a cage so disgusting in my life. The smell was unberable. To top it off ther was a bunch of styrofoam in there house. Some people have no resept for there animals and I am happy that we rescuded them. No comfort what so ever, so that is what me and the vet think it was badly infected. I'm checking linc now.

He's very lucky you found him :)

So sorry to hear about Rocky. We too have had similar experiences and it is just gut-wrenching.

Our USDA / Rescue vet is Christine Kolmstetter of Cheyenne West Animal Hospital in Las Vegas. She has extensive experience with sugar gliders. She performed an eye enucleation on one of our rescues Makudo about a year ago and he pulled through just fine.

She also did an UNDERWATER eye surgery on a fish years ago when we were searching for a top notch exotic vet.

She has done dozens upon dozens of neuters for us and many life-saving surgical proceedures.

A few things to consider based on our experience with this:

It is important to clean out the socket entirely for fear of infection that can easily reach the brain

he will be on antibiotics for weeks

He will probably have his eyelids sewn shut to keep out debris. That will form permanent tissue after a while

He will probably need a special eye wash to be administered daily or twice daily. Even though there is no eye there, they still get a special wash

You can maybe get your vet to contact Dr. Kolmstetter for peer advice:

702-395-1800

The female with the fur missing....

There are several possible reasons for that. one is just stress related. Gliders has a tendency towards SM (self mutilation) when they are stressed. but probably the most likely is nutrition related. When they are starved for proper food, they will often over-groom and hurt themselves. Check out the LGRS Suggie Soup diet for them:

http://www.sugarglider.com/glidergossip/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25960


Just this past week, we had two gliders with eye / cheek abscess problems. Commonly thought to be a result of tooth decay, facial abscesses can happen for many reasons. For example, they can happen if a glider mistakenly scratches his eyelid or skin just below the eye and it gets infected (what we think happened with rescue DOC last week who is now on twice-daily oral anitbiotics and an eyedrop triple antibiotic --- or as with BUNNY last week who had a small bite on her nose which developed an infection that quickly turned into a cheek abscess.

In the case of Bunny, the abscess needs to be expressed BEFORE it pops on its own. This is done by the vet lancing the abscess and clearing out the pus. Although swelling often occurs after this little surgery, it is much preferable to just allowing it to ooze and fester. If it is allowed to pop on its own, the rupture spreads the infection and can also force it into other areas. I guess what I am saying is if you see even a HINT of swelling, get a vet to assess whether or not the area needs to be lanced and cleaned out or whether -- if it is really small -- antibiotics and time will take care of it.

Good luck with all of them especially Rocky

Oh my goodness, this story just breaks my heart. I would actually consider contacting your local SPCA or Humane Society if they have any more animals. No animal deserves to be treated with this level of neglect. I will pray for your babies and you are literally a life saver for both of them. Start them on a really good diet and hopefully this will give them the energy and health they need to pull through this!

So far he is still going strong. I had no luck yesterday with talking to a vet but will hopefully recieve calls monday. Gave the list to my vet and hopefully will hear from him as well. Even though he is in good spirits, he has worn off all the hair around the eye. Hopefully its from him rubbung it and not scratching it. I don't see any scratch marks. He is with his mate and now i wonder if he can infect her or maybe she is grooming the eye as well. Would it be better to seperate them so he won't infect her or to prevent her from attacking him. She is extremely crabby and will lunge at us. The guy thought she might be pregnant. Maybe that why she crabby. But also if i seperate them he might get lonely and who knows what will happen. Im still adding to my list to call monday. Every day i get so worried that one of these mornings i will wake to check there cages and he will not be moving. I have a saline or sterilized water used for suringes and mixing his meds, should i use that and have someone help me open the eye to flush it out since it obvously hasn't stop oozing yet. I really hope this stops on its own. Thank you for you concerns and help, it has eased my worrieys.

I'm so sorry you and Rocky are going thru this. How awful for both of you. Is Rocky on pain meds? If not, you might want to consider getting him some. That has to be painful for him.

I highly doubt his eye will get well on it's own. Prayers being sent that you will find a vet who can help him very soon.

<<hugs>>

Observe their behavior together for a few hours. If she is not picking on his eye, you can leave them together. If he is missing a little fur around the area, that could be due to trauma and rubbing. At this point, keeping them together is probably a good idea especially if she is pregnant - so long as neither of them is picking on the eye.

Yes when you administer his meds, you should flush his eye with sterile saline and dab it dry with sterile gauze. You can use the sterile gauze to wipe away any debris while you flush they eye.

Also ask your vet for a triple-antibiotic eye drop. After you flush the eye with saline, you can put a drop or two of the triple-antibiotic eye drop in his eye which will kill surface bacteria. That coupled with the oral meds is a good idea.

You may wish to consider making an e-collar for him if it looks like he is picking on the area. You can keep them together when he has an ecollar on and take it off to feed him or syringe feed him. Here is a YouTube video on how to make one:

Ahaa me and my husband were wondering about that cone, we didn't think it work because how limber they are lol. We will make one today because he wore the hair off and we also noticed a small wound from scratching. we clipped nails short as they go. I will call the vet tomarrow plus many others to get him the eye drop pain killer he used to look at his eye. Thanks for the vid

She doesn't bother him much, but very crabby towards us. I can't even handel her with a shirt to find if she pregnant, the only time i can touch her if she is eating. Even then I can't touch her belly she bite me like a pit bull growling.

I will post some pics tonight just to show how bad this is and he still never barks bites, anything, he is very active and still eating very well besides the hard food. I break it in half for him.

I have found a vet who specializes in sugar gliders. She is actually closer to me than the one in standish. Im in Midland MI. This vet is in saginaw on 3431 Tittabawassee Rd. She is not in today but will be in tomarrow. It is an animal hospital. The visit will cost me $34 and she will explain the surgry, his chances, and the cost. His appointment is at 9am and I have class at 1pm. Let me know tje highest cost for a suggie surgry, so i can tell if im getting ripped off or if it is even worth it. Will update after his appointment.

If in fact he needs surgery and the eye is "dead" an enucleation can cost anywheres from $400 to $600 including all of the meds and the procedure itself. It is a very delicate and dangerous procedure, so it's costly. If you have found a glider specialist, it will only take a moment for her to understand if the eye has to be taken out. The biggest danger of course is infection in the eye and behind it because it is so close to the brain, etc. We will stay tuned. We are praying for him and you.

You are absolutly right. She did have to do that for him. At first she thought it was an abseesed tooth, when in fact it was the eye. She opened the wounds he had inside the eye lid and had to leave a wound open on the top of the top eye lid. Normal price was 530. Since he ended up being a rescue she gave me half off. He looks worse now than before. Poor guy. They stiched the eye shut and a wound on the bottom as well. He went in at 9 this morning, they performed surgry a 1pm he was uder for an hour, longer than she hoped, but all went great. And he is feeling good on his pain meds. They will call in the morning to see how he is doing. I am very lucky to have found this vet.

thank goodness you got him to the right vet and in time! We will be praying for the little boy. So happy also that you got a big discount!

There's nothing better than a good vet, especially in a life-threatening situation like this one. It sounds like she's really an expert. And giving you a huge discount -- she really loves animals more than $$$. Prayers for Rocky, and hugs for you. Please keep us updated.

i'm fairly new here,so i am going thru past pages,to catch up(will take 4/ever!rite now i am only on page 8)& i was wondering how things were going now?
josefine

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by BstrBuny</i>
<br />I noticed that as well I have had one female for about 9 months now and in comparison they look the same length, nut wou;d you know what causes they teeth to go crooked.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I noticed that nobody answered the question regarding what causes their teeth to go crooked and was rather interested in this question myself. Does anybody know?

i can't believe there was no update on what happened with Rocky!!! :(

Yay! Congrats on finding a great vet!

Please keep us updated on poor Rocky!

From what I know females to get protective when their pregnat...the one I've been around though is very sweet & just doesn't like being held (def. understandable, lol). But I doubt she was given the care & attention she needed at their orriginal home.