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INFORMATION concerning sugar glider health and husbandry matters
 
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 Lan's Story

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Usha77
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PostSubject: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeWed Jan 04, 2012 10:11 pm

I wasn't sure where to post this, but thought since the one thing I know for sure is that he has recently lost 2 teeth, I thought I'd post here. Feel free to move if necessary.

Lan is approximately 8 years old and 1 of my first 2 gliders. He has had his share of health and medical problems in the past. He had his tail amputated after an injury and self mutilating less than a week after he came into my life on 02/18/07. He self mutilated again after his neuter in July of that year and had to live in an e-collar for almost a month. For nearly 4 1/2 years, Lan had been perfectly healthy and happy, until now.

Monday (01/02/12) evening, around 5pm, I went in to the glider room and did my usual check of everyone as they were waking up. Lan's left eye was swollen shut and had a whitish/clear discharge. I tried wiping his eye with warm water and it still wouldn't open. I wasn't positive if his cheek was swollen or if he just looked strange because of the eye being shut, but thought it could be an abscess. I fed the other gliders and gave Lan some food, as well and then called the emergency vet at 6pm when they opened to let them know that we were coming in. I took some pictures before going in and his eye did open a bit before we left for the vet.

The emergency vet couldn't do much for him as they were not as well equipped for x-rays as my regular vet, but she did believe an abscess was likely. They gave us baytril and metacam to bring home. As they were giving me the medicine to take home, I looked down at Lan who was looking up at me and I noticed that his "cute little nerd teeth" was now just one tooth on his right side. I then thought it was possibly a dental issue.

This afternoon (01/04/12), we had our appointment at my regular vet clinic. As Dr. Plantz was looking Lan over, I let her know that I wanted x-rays and that if it was an abscess or infection to get cultures done. She was thinking the same thing and appreciated that I asked for them right away. She took Lan back for x-rays and after quite a while, she came up and asked us to go in the back with her as she had the x-rays up on the computer and saw some things that concerned her she wanted to show us. The left side of Lan's face shows very swollen soft tissue and a lack of bone density. The vet stated that it could be from infection, but could also be caused by cancer. Lan had not just lost one tooth, he was missing 2 of them. The front tooth had come out cleanly with no infection, but a tooth on the back left side of his mouth had fallen out and there was pus coming out of the socket where it had been. She stated that she collected the pus and is sending it off for cultures. She also drained the infection a bit from his cheek. She is not sure what to do and wants Dr. Baillie (my usual vet and a wonderful one at that) to look at the x-rays in the morning and then they will call me to discuss things further. In the meantime, we are keeping with the baytril and metacam. If the culture comes back showing something that a different antibiotic should be used to treat, we will change at that time.

Dr. Plantz said it was hard to know if his teeth fell out because of an infection or if the infection came because of the teeth or if it was cancer that caused the infection and the teeth to fall out. I am basically on pins and needles until we learn more. I am hoping it is a simple infection that the baytril will cure. Lan is obviously in some pain and he is only chewing on his right side, but he is eating and acting fairly normal.

Here are some pictures of Lan from Monday and Tuesday (I will attempt to get more pictures tonight, but he doesn't always cooperate):

01/02/12

Lan's Story  01610

Lan's Story  02010


01/03/12

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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeWed Jan 04, 2012 10:57 pm

Brenda

This sounds SO MUCH like what recently happened to Jackie Chan. He was very swollen near his eye. By the time we got to Tulsa, one whole side of his face was swollen.

His x-ray showed poor bone density in his cheek. He had osteomyelitis and it had destroyed a portion of his cheek bone. It could be that the bone density changes that your vet saw were due to osteomyelitis.

Lan's Story  JackieChan5days
Jackie required a very strong antibiotic treatment. He did not look much better for the first 6 days of treatment. None at all, IMO. The only real difference was he could open his eye (but not much and the third eyelid was always covering more than 1/2 the eye) I took pictures every day and compared them to the day before. The above picture is after 5 days of treatment. I was getting very worried. But, then on day 8, he looked better. On day 10, a little better. By day 12, he looked GREAT!

PLEASE have your vet call Dr. Walsh. And please call me so that I can tell you how we treated this. It was not easy, but I had options with Jackie Chan that some people might not have. I was able to give him IM injections (in the muscle) twice daily for 7 days and then once daily for 5 days. I gave them in his back hip where he could not feel it. We tried a new antibiotic on him, so I don't know yet if there will be long standing side effects. Jackie just completed his shots yesterday and is still getting oral antibiotics.

Here he was on day 10
Lan's Story  JackieChanday92

I have had osteomyelitis here in two gliders now, and it is difficult to treat, but not impossible. The worst part is that you don't see improvement soon.

I am encouraged that you had a place of pus/infection. With both of my osteomyelitis cases, there was no abscess - nothing to drain. So, maybe that is not what you have going on. But, please do call me. It would be worth it to have the info to share with your vet.
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Usha77
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 7:54 am

Thank you, Val. I will give my vet Dr. Walsh's number. I will also keep you updated with what they find. I'm so glad Jackie Chan is doing better!
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 9:01 am

I had posted more info on osteomyelitis a week or so ago. If you are interested in more reading:
https://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/t1666-osteomyelitis?highlight=osteomyelitis

As an aside, I normally hate to see that people are using Baytril to treat their glider, for a variety of reasons. I just hate Baytril. However, it IS one of the antibiotics that can be successful with bone infection, so that is good.

I'm praying for little Lan. I'm believing that there is no cancer, but that there might be a significant infection. At least we can treat the infection. :)
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 9:43 am

Thank you, Val. I am hoping and praying, too. The vet's office opened 42 minutes ago and I still haven't heard from them. Can you tell I'm a bit anxious? Even sneaking on here at work.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 11:30 am

Thanks Val and Brenda for sharing. I'm waiting to see what I may be dealing with MissKitty. Vet is pretty sure a tooth but that is assumption without xrays. This is also a new vet for me so a little nervous! She will be having them this morning and should hear something soon. We are on baytril and metacam two and after 3 days of treatment no change at all.
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Usha77
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 12:02 pm

Good luck, Melinda! I hope it’s easily taken care of and Miss Kitty gets better fast.

Lan Update: I talked to Dr. Plantz this morning. She stated that Dr. Baillie was leaning more towards abscess/infection than cancer. It appears to be an infection of the soft tissue around the bone, so it could be osteomyelitis (bone infection). He wants us to keep up with the meds for a few days and then on Monday, he’ll clean the infected area out more. At that time, we’ll hopefully have some preliminary results back from the culture so we know what type of infection it is and if we are on the right antibiotic, etc. I was told to drop him off between 8 and 9 am on Monday and then pick him up before 6pm.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 5:38 pm

Goodness, I'm pulling for you both.
Just know that if you have osteomyelitis, time is not on your side. Not that it will be fatal or anything, so I'm not being all doom and gloom, but it is very difficult to treat and will require stronger antibiotics than baytril to put a dent in it. I had to treat Triscuit for 2 months with two different antibiotics to rid him of his osteomyelitis.

PLEASE let us know how it goes (both of ya). I'm really pullin for your babies. AND, I have a shoulder to lean on if you need it.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeThu Jan 05, 2012 5:51 pm

I did mention osteomyelitis yesterday and then today again on the phone and Dr. Plantz said that was possible. I also told them what you said about needing an aggressive antibiotic regimen for it. Sounds like they want to see if the Baytril will do the trick in the meantime, so we shall see what they say on Monday and hopefully, I can get them to call Dr. Walsh to discuss treatment if they do diagnose osteomyelitis.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSun Jan 08, 2012 10:26 am

I was just wondering how Lan is doing. I have been sending many prayers for him. Hope things are improving.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSun Jan 08, 2012 11:46 am

I feel like he's looking better sometimes and then other times, I'm not so sure. I took a few pictures the other day, but he is very uncooperative. I'll try to get some more today and get them posted. Originally, the plan was to drop him off at the vet tomorrow morning and pick him up after work. However, I lost my job, so I'm going to see if I can hang out there or something while he's being seen since I do not want to have to drive to and from twice - 45 miles each way - for a total of 180 miles...

I'm hoping the vet can clean it up and that we get some results from the culture they sent out last week and maybe some improvement on the x-rays and find it's a simple infection and the Baytril is doing the trick.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSun Jan 08, 2012 3:28 pm

Here's some pics from the other day:

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Lan's Story  00811

Lan's Story  01110


Here's a few from today:

Lan's Story  02210

Lan's Story  02310

Lan's Story  02510

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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSun Jan 08, 2012 3:34 pm

He does look better Bren! Yay! I'm praying for him!
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeTue Jan 10, 2012 9:29 pm

Can't believe I forgot to post here yesterday! Lan is doing great! Vet didn't even have anything to clean out - no sign of infection or cancer or even bone problems. The culture showed staph infection that is resistant to Baytril and one other type of antibiotic, so the vet gave me a different antibiotic just to be sure we kick the infection. Vet said we wouldn't need a recheck unless something else comes up. Here's some more recent pics:

Lan's Story  00911

Lan's Story  01410
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeWed Jan 11, 2012 7:09 pm

He looks great!
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Jan 14, 2012 8:41 pm

I'm happy for you! He looks much better and seems to be back on track. Sorry to hear about the job loss though.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Jan 14, 2012 10:39 pm

Thank you. Lan is doing wonderful, but he knows when it's time for medicine and he hates it.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeFri Feb 17, 2012 7:46 pm

The swelling is back. I just noticed this evening and it is not nearly as bad as it was before, but we'll be going to the vet as soon as possible.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeFri Feb 17, 2012 8:22 pm

Oh no, Brenda. :( Please keep us posted.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Feb 18, 2012 1:14 pm

Went to the vet this morning. She put him on a 3 week course of antibiotics. Hoping he just wasn't on them long enough last time. We'll recheck in 3 weeks and can do another 3 week course if needed. She said to bring him in if it doesn't get better or gets worse in the next few days. He's lost so much weight. He's down to 102 grams and was down to 112 last time, so he's still losing. I'll be making sure he gets extra food and treats.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Feb 18, 2012 2:08 pm

We have found that often with facial abscesses, as with UTI's, a longer course of antibiotics is necessary.

Keep us updated and know that Lan is in my thoughts/prayers.
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSun Feb 19, 2012 7:55 pm

Thank you, Val!
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeMon Feb 20, 2012 7:58 am

Get better Lan.

Val do you think they metabolize things too fast so they do not absorb as much as they need or is there another reason for a longer course of meds needed most of the time?
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Feb 25, 2012 10:53 am

Awww he looks much better than the original post!

I went through the recurring abscesses with Fuzzy. My vet found staph in his fluid, and we ended up doing a round of SMZ-TMP for the second flare up, which took it away for quite a long time. The unfortunate part about abscesses is that they do come back, so I do agree, that a longer than normal med regiment is needed.

As for keeping weight on, I give lots of ensure and avocado to my weight losers, which keeps them up where they are now, or puts a little back on. Maybe give it a go?

Now, give him lots of kisses! Lan's Story  947565
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PostSubject: Re: Lan's Story    Lan's Story  Icon_minitimeSat Feb 25, 2012 8:19 pm

Thank you, Ashley. He gets tons of kisses & I'll give him some extra from you. I haven't taken any new pictures this round, but he's looking great. He was only swollen for a few days and in the last few days, we've only needed the dreaded cotton ball to open his eye once, so I think we're on the right track here. 1 week of Sulfatrim down, at least 2 more to go. He's definitely eating better, but I haven't weighed him lately. Will do that soon. I'll try to remember to pick up some ensure and avocado when I do my fruit and veggie run at the grocery store tomorrow.
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