Okay, so on Sunday, I posted that one of my girls, Soleil, had diahrrea, and I also spoke with a couple members on chat about it. I wasn't entirely sure whether I needed to go to the vet or not. Monday morning I called the vet and asked about it, and they said I should come in, which is also what people on here said I should probably do.

So Monday afternoon at the vet, both girls have an exam and get their poops tested. Other than the diahrrea, there is no sign that anyone feels bad at all. They were super active Sunday night, and they were sweet to Dr. Bob and Aaron, the technician (who is truthfully one of the big reasons we go to our vet). A little while after the exam both of them come back in the room and inform me that they found what look to be roundworm eggs in Soleil's poop. I bring up that I feed OHPW, which contains bee pollen (I've heard it can look like eggs). They say they saw the small pollen granules in Soleil AND Luna's poo, but that there is something larger and different in Soleil's poop.

Both girls are currently on something (the name of which I can't pronounce) for worms. I know Luna doesn't currently have them, but I figured better safe than sorry, because they live together, and I feel she could easily pick this up from Soleil. The vet gave them an oral dose yesterday, and both girls were complete angels about it. No struggling, no biting, and no crabbing, and they ate it all. My boyfriend helped me dose them again a little while ago. Soleil struggled a bit for me, but both girls did eat it all again. And we have a dose for tomorrow. Then we'll go back in like three weeks to have their poop looked at again.

I'm really proud of my girls for behaving so spectacularly at the vet, but I'm also really freaked out this happened. I saw the diahrrea, but if I hadn't, I don't know if I ever would have known something was wrong. Soleil wasn't acting ANY differently AT ALL! I've heard people say that when you see a symptom of something being wrong, it's time to immediately go to the vet, because gliders hide illness well. Now I fully understand how true that is, and how scary it is to find out something is wrong with your furball. And to top it all off, I paid half of what I expected I'd half to pay for all of this. It was barely more expensive than regular checkups and fecals.

Good job!

Thanks. I'm glad we got this taken care of, and I really am proud of how well my girls behaved at the vet. I swear they understood me when I told them what was going on and that I really hoped they'd be nice to Dr. Bob and Aaron. :]

thats great! just wondering, how much did the vet visit cost?

I'm so glad it turned out well for you and your babies. Did the vet have any ideas about how they might have contacted the roundworms? Is that one of the ones that live in the soil? At least the anti-parasitic seems to be a short course of treatment--better than antibiotics.

Good Luck

Before you go to the vet for the recheck, you might prepare the HPW without the bee pollen and feed that to them for a few days before the vet visit.

My vet suggested this. While she can tell the difference between the pollen and the cysts of round worms (which is probably what your vet saw) but she said it is MUCH easier to make sure that any cysts that are there are not missed because she has to look around all the pollen. (think needle in a hay stack) This will help make sure any cysts that are present, since there most likely will be fewer or none after treatment, are not missed on the re-exam.

You can mix the usual batch of HPW without the bee pollen, take out enough for 3 or 4 days feedings, then put the bee pollen in and blend the rest of the batch real well again before pouring into your ice cube trays for freezing.

When we got our first two, four months ago, the vet did not do a fecal test. We just got three more sickly ones, they go to the vet Thursday for a check and fecal (at my request). Now, because of this, I am taking a sample of Jack and Babys in just to be sure. Thank you. It would kill me is anything happened to my babies.

the medicine is probably Metronidazole. It might be a good idea to feed Activia yogurt with it to help the beneficial bacteria in the gut. That medicine wil kill off the parasites and the good bacteria. Did your vet tell you how to clean during treatment? Sterilize everything everyday.

thelimas, it cost me $98 for everything, although checkups and fecals for both girls usually run me about $90 total.

alohaglider, the technician said he thinks it might be the mealies I was feeding. I was getting them at a large, chain petstore. I'm going to have to find a new place to get them. I have no idea what kind of roundworms it is? I didn't even know there were different types?

Candy, great advice! Thank you so much. I will make sure to keep bee pollen out of their diet for a while before going back to re-check. I'm so glad you brought that up--I wouldn't have thought of that myself.

G-ma, it's actually something that starts with a "p"? His handwriting is so hard to read... The technician (he's one of the big reasons why we go to this vet) said to make sure to get some yogurt in them this week, which I've been doing. No one told me anything about how to clean during all this?? What do you mean by everything? Clean pouches each day, clean toys, clean the drop pan, the wheel, the bottom grate, and then all the other cage bits too? I clean with vinegar and water, but you said sterilize? Should I be cleaning with something else? Help, please?

I don't think there is more than one kind of roundworm, what I meant was "do roundworms live in the soil?" I know that hookworms do.

If they came from the meal worms that is really scary because I am still buying mine too. My mom is not keen on a meal worm farm. She is convinced that it will smell (I once raised crickets for my tree frog and that was a little wiffy).

Thanks for the update