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Posted by: kazkoPhil has been nippy lately and we all know that I love a good handling challenge. I was working with him today while wearing gloves. I figure that the more I handle him the more he will get used to it and become tame. At some point I took him outside and while I was holding him I swear that he looked up at the treetops above and began to cry. It was probably just the cool dry wind causing it, but for a moment it really seemed that he remembered trees and freedom and shed tears over it.

After this event, he got fussy and/or something startled him and he bit me. Not expecting this, my default reaction was to yank my hand away from his mouth. In doing so, I ended up hurting him pretty bad. Apparently his k9 tooth was caught in the glove and when I yanked away, it came along for the ride. The end result was a gory snap, a very bloody mouth with a k9 pointing horizontal, a big mess and a very mean possum that I now had to deal with. I rushed him to the vet and it is good that I did. His tooth did not come out, it was still firmly embedded in his jaw. My fear was that I broke his jaw and it turned out that one side was fractured enough that it turned the tooth and the jaw sideways.

The vet was able to reset the bone and said that it was a good thing that it was only a fracture and not a complete break. Because of this we were able to avoid having the jaw wired and the tooth should survive the healing intact.

Vet told me to add calcium to the diet because it appears as if he has brittle bones. So because of this, I have decided to lessen up on taming Phil and just get everyone healthy so we can try to mate. If it comes to be, I will work hard to tame the offspring and not worry so much about the parents.

I feel really bad about what happened with Phil and I guess all I can do is keep it as a lesson learned in going forward. Not all exotics are destined to be kept as pets.

My goal is to learn as much as possible about the South American Four Eyed Philander Possum and to determine if it is capable and worthy of being kept as an exotic pet.

Posted by: kazkoWhen I was given the Sugar Shack colony, two females were pregnant. The offspring were two females and two males. Here it is four months later and we finally got the last two baby boys neutered yesterday. I now have no intact males.

This makes 8 of my neuterings that were done by the folks at Animal Clinic of Farmers Branch, 14021 Denton Dr, Dallas, TX 75234, 972-247-2221. The neuters were $55 each, and as usual, they left the testicle sack intact which I very much like as it is easy to tell who is a male and the recovery seems simple and easy.

I kept each boy separate and left them in their collars until late in the evening. Once out of their collars they immediately go to messing with their surgery area by pulling, biting and such, but in the end, it turns into simple grooming and then they tire and fall asleep. I left the overhead light on all night again to keep them docile and sleeping and this morning I put them back in with the colony and all seems well.

Posted by: SandmanMy animals are the only ones who understand me sometimes...Amy likes it wen I hold her and Asland is warming up to me. I sometimes wonder if they feel my feelings. I wonder if they can tell that a little kindness is needed. At the end of the day i'm glad they are awake with me at night, they hear me as I hear them...sometimes it's good just to be heard.

Posted by: Pugz2 weeks into gliders
I think Miyagi & Yoda (who use to be Gizzy) are dyslexic. they are up most of the day and night and they love fruit but not so keen on veggies.
They are biting less often and not as hard. they will walk across my hand and slowly up my forearm. I can even hold them for about 3 seconds. were getting there.

Posted by: kazkoRobin spent today at the vet again to get her final surgery. The surgery site was closed tight and looks so much better than it did a few days ago. The scar will go across all of her chest. The infection is gone, no puss or smell and she is as perky as a possum. I'll be keeping her on antibiotics for a week and we will try to get some better foods into her in this time.

She came to me weighing 2.2 lbs and three weeks later she now weighs 1.6 lbs. I still believe that she can lose a little more weight so we'll be designing her diet to that effect once she is healed and active; 1.6 could be a steady weight for her though. We do need to burn a little more fat from the tail and see how that changes things.

Her pouch is under my thumb in the photos.






The boy's tail is rather chapped due to this dry cold spell we are having here. I have read that below 40% humidity causes this problem and can lead to open sores on the tail. I have begun to apply petroleum jelly and may consider using a humidifier around my animals in the future. My guess is that a sealed nestbox will be a good compromise to help this issue as their own body heat and moisture will keep the nestbox rather humid while sleeping.

Posted by: RitaOur furnace went out last night. It was 7 degrees outside with very high winds. It got down to 52 in our house. I gave the suggies extra fleece blankets in their sleeping pouches and they kept toasty warm. I dont think they came out to play much, tho - their cage felt icy cold. I also heated their food and got them up to eat while it was warm.

Our 5 dogs got extra blankets and they all cuddled together and kept warm.

We still had electricity, but only one little electric heater - which had to go on our cockatoo, Sammi.

We will be purchasing a couple more small heaters as WE were very cold last night. But all the animals were warm!!!!

Anyway - Im off to bed early as I didnt get much sleep last night and had to go to work today. I took a couple of hours off work - Our furnace has been fixed and the house is toasty warm again. [yawn]

Posted by: PugzI have had Mr. Miyagi and Gizzy for a week now and I am gettin bit less each day. This morning they even walked on my hand.

Posted by: kazkoWell here it is 9 days after her surgery, a few additional visits to the vet, some more injections and oral antibiotics, scheduled forced feedings, ... and today Robin ate something on her own for the first time! I have noticed that she has been getting stronger and more antsy while tube feeding and today we manged to get a few syringe feedings into her when she had enough. I decided to try a quarter of hard boiled egg and SHE ATE IT! HOORAY!

I dont yet know if this means that she will eat more on her own, time will tell.

Her open chest is no longer pussing nor does it smell so I believe that the infection is under control. So perhaps Tuesday we can close her up and let her finally heal correctly.

Robin getting her bath


Robin getting dried off


Robin being force fed



And here's a photo of Phil who is waiting for Robin to get healthy.

Posted by: mom21klcMy aunt recently obtained her own pet sugar glider. She has her alone without the companionship of another of her species, which i read is not healthy. But now I want my own lovable little pet to breed with hers. However I just had a baby 4 months ago and am not sure if I have the time required for these small bundles of fur. I have wanted a pet for quite some time now. However, my apartment is too small for a dog and my husband is allergic to cats and I really dont like hampsters. So I wonder, "Is a sugar glider the pet for me? Or does it require more attention than I am able to give considering the new baby?" I am perplexed by this decision and do not know enough sugar glider owners to ask questions. Therefore I have dug up all i can about these exotic creatures but have still to wrap my mind around the amount of responsability. So I ask: ARE THERE ANY PARENTS THAT WERE ABLE TO CARE FOR THIER INFANT AND THIER SUGAR GLIDER WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE?

Posted by: kazkoThe smell from the rotting tissue has gotten worse so I took her back today to see the vet who did the surgery. All along the scar was infected and covered rather profusely in puss. When there is an infection present, you cannot seal up or remove necrotic tissue, so you have to clear up the infection first. So she got a shot of Baytril and is now on an even stronger oral antibiotic powder called Tylosin. I asked them to clean the puss from her wounds and the smell is much better for now. I am going to try to bathe her once a day in an epsom salt solution myself.

Since she will not eat, we are feeding her by syringe a mixture of items including puppy milk replacer, Nutri-Cal , Carnivore Care, Ensure and anything else that I can get down her throat. She is with energy now, climbing her cage walls and such, so I hope all of this will enable her to heal.

I am using an old canvas purse as her sleeping area/pouch and I am using paper towels to soak up any puss and blood that seeps out.

Posted by: kyro298I'm missing him terribly :( Whenever I take the girls out to play at night, they look for him first still. I'm sure there are lots of areas that smell like him. Poor Skitzi too, she literally looks at me like, "Where is he? I can't find him!" His favorite food is untouched in the mornings..Seems silly sometimes to be so upset over a pet I had for 5 months but there's something extra special about the ones you take in, nurture and grow to love. I've been very fortunate in my life to lose very few pets and the ones I've ever lost before were when I was pretty young. Maybe it's harder now because I'm the one that gives all their care as opposed to my parents or siblings, etc...or maybe I'm just too sensitive! Either way, it's not the same without him and I miss him.

Posted by: kazkoMy four eyed opossum Robin is having a bad week. Since her surgery a week ago, she has eaten nothing. She has been drinking but eating absolutely nothing. I took her back to the vet and it turns out that her surgical site is infected and smells horribly, so we came home with one oral antibiotic; a suspension of SMZ, whatever that is, to be given twice daily. I do not yet have instructions to bathe the smelly wound or anything additional like that. We were able to force feed her some puppy milk replacer before we went to the vet and we gave her some more afterwards along with the antibiotic. I also have some vanilla ensure I am going to try and we are trying to locate something called Nutripet or Nutrigel which is a gel form nutrient and energy supplement that you can force into their mouth and it wont spill out.

 

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