Hi all,

A couple days ago my little escape artist disappeared in the bathroom. She found a small hole, crawled inside, and spent the next 7 hours exploring the inside walls of the house. I was completely devastated and worried, wondering if my baby would come back to me. She finally appeared, looking very dusty but otherwise well. Something told me to take her to the vet for a check up, even though she appeared ok. As it turns out, she tested positive for parasites and multiple types of bacteria, as well as a calcium deficiency. While it's unlikely that her escape caused these issues, it's what prompted me to take her to the vet. The moral of the story (besides keeping a close eye on our gliders and trying to minimize escapes) is to trust our instincts! We do the best we can but things happen and we make decisions that we believe are the right ones with the best of intentions. I've read many posts hear from people blaming themselves for mistakes, as well as replies from others telling them to not be so hard on themselves. So please, take care of your gliders and enjoy them!!

Glad you took her in what meds did they put her on?? calcium deficiency, how did that come to that diagnosis? I know you have said it before but I forget what diet your using?

does she have a cage mate? if so the cage mate needs medicated for parasites as well.

They put her on 2 antibiotics (Metronidazole (also an antiparasitic) and Enrofloxacin), as well as Metacam for inflammation and Calcium Gluconate. They determined that her ionized calcium was significantly below normal. I asked them to check her calcium level because my last glider had low calcium so I was concerned about this. She's been on the HPW diet, along with fruits and veggies. She doesn't have a cage mate at the moment. Thanks for your reply and concern.

Be careful with calcium levels, I think blood levels don't mean much.
I have enpountered few gliders with symptoms of HLP over here but they all had higher than average calcemia, not as we would expect lower ones.

ok make sure to sterilize the syringe before loading up the next dose of the next med so you don't cross contaminate the medicine itself.

if they gave you enough syringes one for each medicine make sure to sterilize all of them before the next dose. You can boil them for about 5 or 10 minutes it won't hurt the integrity of the syringes.

Your also going to want to give her some yogurt with live cultures and no artificial sweeteners while medicating her the antibiotics will kill the good bacteria as well as the bad especially the baytril (Enrofloxacin). You can give a little yogurt an hour before the meds to help coat the stomach and after the meds.

Make sure to complete the course of meds

The exotic nutrition hpw ?

Thank you both! I did have her on EN's HPW but have since switched to Critter Love.