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Sugar Gliders
There is something wrong with my sugar glider
There is something wrong with my sugar glider
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May 27 2018
09:38:39 PM
Last night I noticed that my sugar glider was unusually quiet around the time I feed her. She woke up at her usual time and I heard her jumping around, but then she was quiet for longer than usual. When I went to get her, she didn't come to the cage door like usual and she stayed in her pouch. I ended up pushing the bottom of the pouch up and she was all curled up. I reached in and grabbed her and she felt colder than normal. I noticed that her movements were slow and she seemed a bit off balance. I noticed that her tail was lifted up and when I looked at it there was fur missing from part of it. I didn't notice this the night before. I also noticed that her nose was more of a purple color than pink. I cut up some cantaloupe for her (it's one of her favorites) and she didn't have enough energy to grab the food so I had to hand her a tiny piece of fruit. She was really slow when she was eating it like she didn't have a lot of energy. After a couple more pieces she was a little more active, but not as hyper as she usually is at night. After a while, I put her back in her cage. I slept downstairs and kept the doors to her room open so I could hear if anything happened, but she wasn't super active and only jumped around a couple of times. I checked up on her around 11 AM today and she ate her food, but when I pet her she felt cold again. I took her out so I could warm her up a bit and she was really slow and weak. She tried to climb up my arm and she had a really hard time doing so. I checked her tail and the overgrooming didn't stop, but there was a little blood on top of the missing hair. I gave her a mealworm and she ate it very slowly and seemed to struggle. I kept her in her pouch for a bit and when I felt some movement I checked up on her and she was grooming her tail again. I pet her and she whipped around like she was going to bite me, and she's never aggressive. She ended up coming out of her pouch and was crawling around, and at one point she pooped and her stool was a really dark brown and when I went to pick it up it was super runny. I put her back into her cage so she could go back to sleep and when I checked on her a couple min. later, there was movement in her pouch and she was grooming her tail again. When I unlocked the door to her cage she came out to me so I let her wander around her room until she climbed back into her pouch and went to bed. She is usually jumping around by now but I haven't heard anything, but she was up for a bit during the day so maybe she's still tired. I have a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon, but most places are closed today and tomorrow so even though this vet said they have experience with gliders, I'm not sure exactly how familiar he is with them. Can anyone give me any advice? I've never had a sick sugar glider before...
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May 28 2018
12:20:41 PM
Leela Goofy Gorillatoes Gliderpedia Editor Visit Leela's Photo Album Leela's Journal 2919 Posts
sounds like she might be dehydrated and have an injured tail. I'd ask the vet to check hydration and if dehydrated sub q her, and def check her tail possibly xray if they can.

If her tail is injured and being that there was blood present it probably is, she will need an e collar to prevent any more damage. http://gliderhealth.com/slfmutl/ecollar.html

Keep her warm until you get her to the vet and try to pump fluids into her, a cold glider won't eat or drink much.

After her vet appointment, go over her cage and anything it that could have caused the injury and remove it to prevent any more issues. Look for fur and or blood

Does she have a cage mate? if so separate the injured glider to a hospital cage pronto.

If she does need an e collar ( sounds like she does ) she will need "after care" while she has the e collar on. She will need a water source she can access with the e collar on as well as accessibility to food, we usually use bird silo's for their staple food, and water. She will need a pouch she can easily get in and out of with the collar on preferably low in the cage as climbing will be difficult with the collar on. You will need to clean the inside of the cone as needed and clean her from the neck back as she won't be able to self groom.

Edited by - Leela on May 28 2018 12:36:57 PM
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Jun 07 2018
04:04:30 AM
SGlider101 Starting Member 6 Posts
Just an update: The vet office that we had an appointment with called us and canceled a couple hours after I wrote the original post. Luckily, I was able to find an exotic vet 8 min. from my house that had a lot of experience and sees gliders often. The main vet has a very impressive resume when it comes to all sorts of exotics so I was pretty stoked because I live in California and there are very few vets that are as knowledgeable as him and the vet that I saw. My glider had gained all of her energy back by then and was starting to act more like herself. The vet checked her tail and said there was nothing wrong with it and the overgrooming is from being stressed. She said the blood I saw on the tail was just from the hair follicle so she wasn't self-mutilating. The vet also said that because I'm really stressed right now (I'm graduating next week), my glider could be getting stressed because of my energy. I'm looking into getting healing stones to keep in my glider room that will help keep my negative energy out. I burn sage around the house when it's needed, but I keep it far away from the room my glider is in. I'm hesitant to burn it in her room (with the cage in another spot while I'm doing it of course), but I'm gonna do some research and see what people say.
There is something wrong with my sugar glider

GliderGossip GliderGossip
Sugar Gliders
There is something wrong with my sugar glider