A few days ago I posted about my sugar glider biting his tail & the vet putting an ecollar on him. Well tonight I decided to take it off because his tail looked a lot better & when I took it off his neck was all bloody from the ecollar!!! So the vet made this situation ten times worse than it started with. He's still acting alright & eating but now he started right back up with his tail!! I am so stressed out because I spent so much money at the vet & nothing seems to be getting better. Why does he keep biting his tail? I'm going to the vet first thing in the morning to yell at them for thee collar making his neck all bloody.

It is definitely an issue that the collar did that, they should not have made an ecollar that made his neck bleed. Is it possible he scratched at his neck where the collar was? Keep in mind the vet is only trying to help. Did they give you any pain medicine for him? I would give him some if you ever find wounds on him. If not, get some to use for emergencies like this. Our glider went at his tail because he was a single glider and was lonely and depressed. Does yours have a cage mate? Was his tail tested for mites that may cause itching? Chewing at the tail is a sign of stress. Something is stressing him out. Have you recently moved? Is there a cat in the same room? Does he have a big enough cage to run around in? Is he mentally stimulated? Make sure you have a wheel in there and at least a few toys, then switch the toys around every few days or less. Are you playing with him every night? Check for anything that may be stressing him out and get rid of it. The main thing is if he is alone he needs a cage mate. And that you need to play with him every night. But soooo many things could be stressing him out.

Edit: I went back and read your original post. The cause of his tail biting is most likely being alone, and you need to fix that as soon as possibly because gliders have been known to chew their tails off. You also said he has a bacterial infection, which could absolutely cause itching and biting at the tail. Gliders often CHEW at places that hurt in any way. You also mentioned you had a wodent wheel. Those are very bad for gliders and that may have caused the injury in the first place, then because he is a sugar glider he began chewing at the wound. Continue the antibiotics and pain medicine (assuming that is what you received). I am assuming you got rid of the wodent wheel already. Play with him as much as possible, he may be very depressed without a sugar glider friend. It is possible this was caused by the wodent wheel and/or bacterial infection as well. He must stop chewing or he may hurt himself very badly.

Thank you for all of that info. Do you think if I get him a cage mate he will stop biting his tail? I'm just trying to find somewhere in tampa that sells them for decent price. But I'm definitely going to get him a friend. I'm still giving him the pain medication & antibiotics even though it's really hard to give it to him. He hates it :P I was just worried about his neck because it looked really bad, but he seems more concerned with his tail than anything.

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The cause of his tail biting is most likely being alone,

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Chewing on his tail is most likely due to an injury to his tail - not from being a single glider.

Please do take him back to the vet as soon as you can. The vet may need to x-ray the tail to see if it is broken.

The e-collar should have had moleskin padding around the neck area - and you should have been instructed to check the condition of his skin around the neck area frequently.

If he is chewing his tail again, you can use a large milk-shake type straw cut down one side so you can open it and put it around his tail. You can secure it with some tape after you slip it over the tail. This will keep him away from chewing his tail temporarily - but you will need to keep a close eye on him until you get back to the vet - ASAP

I hope you can get to the vet early tomorrow and that your glider begins to heal quickly.

It's very likely that he had an injury to his tail. However, my vet sees gliders all the time that are self mutilating due to loneliness. She always encourages everyone to have at least 2 for that very reason. She said tails and limbs are the main targets.

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Originally posted by Taymills22

Thank you for all of that info. Do you think if I get him a cage mate he will stop biting his tail? I'm just trying to find somewhere in tampa that sells them for decent price. But I'm definitely going to get him a friend. I'm still giving him the pain medication & antibiotics even though it's really hard to give it to him. He hates it :P I was just worried about his neck because it looked really bad, but he seems more concerned with his tail than anything.

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If his tail got wounded because he was overgrooming which led to biting because he was so lonely, then yes it should help. It is also possible that the only reason he began chewing is because his tail got injured, such as by the wheel. Our boy stopped overgrooming his tail as soon as we got him a friend. We can't be sure WHY he's biting it in the first place though. Really it's best to just do everything you can that might make it better.