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Sugar Gliders
Abscess and food agression advice
Abscess and food agression advice
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May 08 2020
12:14:41 PM
Hello.
I have a female glider named Peanut aka nutterbutter who has a recurring abscess in her face. Its on the lower side of her jaw on the left part of her face. I guess im grateful its not closer to her eye. She has been to the vet 3x. The first time for just a physical exam, the vet and i both thought it was a tooth at that point.I was sent home w antibiotics and scheduled another appoimtment for the following week. The second time she was put under to see if there were any obvious signs of a tooth problem, there were not so the abscess was lanced, cleaned, and I was sent home w an additional antibiotic. After the 10 days of antibiotics her swelling had gone back up, so I called friday to make an appointment for Monday (which was this past Monday.) She was put out again, xrayed-teeth looked fine "strong and healthy" she said. The pus was cultured and sent to a lab. I was sent home w different antibiotics, bc the thought is that this strain of bacteria is resistant to the antiobiotics we have been giving. Today I called my vet to see what the results of the labwork said bc I was never called to be tokd either way---there was no bacteria found in the pus....but her face is already continuing to swell again. I'm currently waiting on a call back from my vet, who is at home today.
Now let me say I have put a lot of time and energy into worrying about this, inadvertently bc who likes to worry-it doesn't help. I have had peanut separated in a temporary cage for a week now bc I don't want my other gliders to bother her face...but we hate it. I feel like she's sad being in a smaller cage and not in w her friends. I notice she seems to be eating a little less probably bc she's being housed alone. Her wheel doesn't fit in the temp cage. I have them all on me now and they're fine. Honestly its only when they eat that I notice they get snippy w each other. My other two gliders (also both female) are the more aggressive ones about food but my nutterbutter is the one who get the abscess! Peaches will straight take the food from another instead of getting her own, even when i am giving treats I need to give hers first ti avoid that issue. I have made sure to give them extra food so that i know they have enough. They each have their own dish, one goes on an upper level and two down below with a pirate ship toy (sometimes a barn) divider. Apart from switch their diet or separating them during food time (and generally I leave their food out all night) I don't know what else to do. I feed TPG, in the past we were on bml but we switched bc this offers more variety.
I'm running out of money to throw at my vet for an issue that's not going away. I want to find something topical to put on it to help but I know thats ill advised no matter what it is. I just want some help/advice....I reach out to my vet for help and the issue isn't going away (I know she's doing her best but it's still frustrating), I reach out to facebook for help and instead i get people dodging the issues to validate the competency of my vet. The abscess and the food aggression are the big things i need to touch base on here, and any advice would be great.
Stay safe everyone.
Laur
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May 11 2020
03:11:39 AM
FolkLaur Joey Visit FolkLaur's Photo Album 34 Posts
For the sake of educating anyone else in this situation: I scheduled another appointment to fully remove the abscess which means cutting a hole in her cheek. They would culture and biopsy it. My vet had me pull antibiotics so that hopefully in a couple days enough bacteria would grow to culture and biopsy. As soon as I pulled the antibiotics her swelling started to go down. In a 24 hour period of not receiving antibiotics its almost gone. Ill be calling my vet tomorrow to consult, and hopefully postponing surgery in the hopes that if swelling is going down the abscess will go away without such an invasive method of removal (especially after 3 trips already, I would happily spare us the 4th visit). My thoughts are that maybe some of the bacteria became antibiotic resistant and it was somehow perpetuating growth to continue antibiotics, or that the general stress of giving her antibiotics twice a day was contributing to growth. She really was not a fan, neither was I. Needless to say I'm not really sure why, but taking her off antibiotics helped a lot.
Abscess and food agression advice

GliderGossip GliderGossip
Sugar Gliders
Abscess and food agression advice