I'm the one who asked about ecollars the other day. It turns out that my vet wanted the wound to stay open so that puss will continue to drain.

I've delt with an abcess one other time. The glider came home from the vet with his face a little swollen, and it completely healed within a few days. There was no gash on his face.

This time, we took him to the vet, and he came home with his face still very swollen. We are giving him the baytril twice a day. It just keeps getting worse. His eye is completely swollen shut.

We called the vet and he told us to get the scab off of his face so that the wound can continue to drain.

My question is if any of you have delt with this method before. This open wound thing feels kind of wrong to me. I suppose the vet may not of explained it well enough while I was there. I thought that scabbing was a good thing.

(For the record, I gave him a new bed and disinfected his cage before putting him back in it. He is by himself, so other gliders aren't the cause)

At this point anything helps. Thanks!

It is often best to leave a deep wound open to drain. Some bacteria multiply more quickly in a closed off wound that gets little to no oxygen.

If it is not starting to look any better after 48 hours of the antibiotic you might want to ask your vet to do a culture and sensitivity to make sure the antibiotic is the best one for the specific bacteria causing the infection. Sometimes a different antibiotic will be shown to be more effective when a culture and sensitivity is done.

Thank you.

Ours have gotten something called lumpy jaw a couple times, which presents as a large abscess. If that is what it is your sugar glider will need something that can combat an anaerobic bacterial infection. Penicillin derivatives such as Amoxicillin is what we give our. Ask the vet about moving away from the broad spectrum antibiotics.

Right now he is on baytril. It has been seven days, so I'm thinking I should have him do a culture and switch us to something else.

My baby boy had an abscess about a year an a half ago. The whole side of his face was swollen, and his eye was bulging out of his head. Took him to the vet and they drained it. I had to reopen the cut every night and drain what had accumulated in it. After that, I would put an antibiotic solution on the cut and try to get it into the whole that the abscess made in his face.

My advice is to just keep opening the cut every night and drain it. I think I had to do this at least a week before it stopped filling up. I was then able to stop and it healed up. However, after a month or so, another abscess popped up and I had to do the whole process over again. It is not an easy process, physically and emotionally (for both you and your glider), but it is better than having it fill back up and having to get him cut open again to release the pressure.

Before trying to get the cut open, put a warm washcloth over the cut to soften it. After a few minutes, try to gently pry the cut open. Apply the washcloth again if it is not opening. (Try to do this twice a day. It will be easier to open when it comes time to drain it.) Once you get the cut open, squeeze the abscess and drain it as good as you can.

This was agonizing for me to do to him. I know it hurt, but it needs to be done. Try not to show your feelings, your glider will pick up on them. Also, make sure you take your glider out as often as possible so that he doesn't associate you with the pain. Try to make it a routine. Like in the morning and at night. Give your glider lots of love the rest of the day.

I am not familiar with the medication your glider is on, but ask the vet if he can give you an antibiotic to put in the cut. Like an antibiotic eye drop. That seemed to work well with my glider.

I really hope this helps you and your baby. If you have any questions or concerns, I will do my best to help you:)

Actually, after the first time we got it open it went down quite a bit. He isn't very tame, so doing these things becomes very difficult. Especially if he realizes what we are trying to do. The actual cut seems to be healing really quickly and gets smaller every day. I'm not sure if his infection has actually gotten better or not. I really hope that he is healing well on the inside, too.

Even though the abscess is much smaller, his eye is still shut.His eye is kind of crusted shut from all of the gunk that dried on his eyelid. We moistened it and it opened a little, but he started panicking after a few tries.

Even with his eye this way, he seems so much better. He has eaten every night and happily takes his medicine.

My vet even called to see how he was doing, which really surprised me.