Trichomonas, also known as tritrich and tri-trichomonas.
First, I want to vent that as a new glider owner it is very frustrating when you trust an experienced person from the community to get a glider and then you go through everything I have. I have spent hours with vets, meds and don't get me started on the money. Then to find out that your glider has something like tri-trich. Especially when the breeder touts on about how his wife is one of the top vets in the nation and his gliders get the best care. It is irresponsible to sell sick, contagious gliders to unsuspecting people.
After I quit crying I started to do some research-
My understanding is this is a relatively newly looked at disease in the Glider community, however it seems that it isn't new to the world. One strain is actually a very common sexually transmitted disease in people. Who knew?
Another strain was causing cattle to have infertility, abortions and other reproductive issues, until in-vitro saved the day. In birds it can cause lesions in the throat and/or diarrhea and cats (mainly kittens) it causes diarrhea. It has been warned that cats can transmit the parasite to humans through their fecal matter increasing the importance of washing immediately if you are scratched or bitten and seeking medical help if an infection appears.
In gliders it seems not many have been tested. It has been concluded in gliders that have been tested that adults don't normally show signs except to pass it through to their babies or among a colony. As joeys they typically display illness. Possibly related to Ick (my little boy had Ick but I was told it was a yeast infection), since the joeys would be in moms pouch therefore causing pouch infections? I have reached out to a few people and vets to see if trying the bird drugs would be appropriate on a Sugar Glider because the cat drugs are more toxic and cause liver damage in cats and seizures ect. I'm not willing to risk damaging his liver or impacting their health just to avoid occasional diarrhea if stressed.
Otherwise it seems that at this time it isn't a death warrant for my little guy (and his currently negative girlfriend) but more of an annoyance. Now if I had intended to breed that would be a different issue, since in both cattle and humans it causes infertility and other issues related to pregnancy, but since that was never my intent they should be fine together.
If anyone here has any experience with Tri-trich that I could pass on to my vet it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!