Pandora's story

PANDORA

I received a call from my vet 3 days ago. He had been treating a glider with an ?injury to the arm/hand and the owners were wanting to euthanize her because of the continued costs of her vet care. He asked their permission to release her to me so off I went to pick her up. Pandora is 18-weeks OOP. She has some movement of her left arm, but she cannot use her hand. The outside digit was quite swollen and red and the vet said they had treated the hand for infection/dislocation (culture did not grow anything even though they expressed some pus and xrays were okay) starting 5-weeks ago. She is currently on sulfameth/trimeth and oral calcium supplement.  She is doing fine now, but is unable to grasp anything with her left hand. I am hoping she regains use of her hand.  The vet thinks there is some neurologic damage either from infection or injury that may be permanent.  The outside digit looks like it has been pulled out from the rest of the hand so am wondering if she got it caught in something.  If anyone has had experience with something like this I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

I have not seen anything like that before, but, if it comes down to it, I know that gliders can get along just fine with only one arm/hand. My boy Toffee had his left arm amputated at the shoulder more than 5 years ago and he does not let that stop him from being a perfectly happy and healthy glider.

Thank Brenda, I'm hoping we can save the hand, but I also wonder if amputation might be better in the long term for Pandora. We know they can do well with an amputation, and if she is left with a paralyzed hand then her risk of injury from getting it caught in something are increased...

I just spoke with my vet about this transient swelling. He said that that this is the third digit to present with this swelling. The meds she is on the third attempt to treat the infection. He did lance one of the digits and expressed pus over a month ago. He said there was bacteria present, but the culture did not grow anything so he has been struggling to find the right antibiotic. He did do xrays initially and said that the bones did not appear to be involved. Right now my plan is to continue the sulfameth/trimeth and hope it works. If the swelling/redness extend to the hand/wrist we may try to lance and culture again.
The questions are how long to continue trying to treat this before considering amputation?
Any experience/suggestions of other antibiotics that we might try?
Should I continue keeping her in the hospital cage (an adapted sweater-box)? She is doing backflips in it at night so I was thinking moving her to a larger cage without a wheel might be okay.
Thanks all! Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year!

Having several gliders with paralysis in my home, I can assure you that she likely will not injure it any more than she would if she had full feeling in it.
Are you also doing an anti-inflammatory?

personally, I don't amputate unless the tissue is dead. I promise you, even if there is actual neurological paralysis, those neurons can develop new pathways and over time, some movement can return. So, my advice to you would be don't amputate unless the hand/digits become necrotic.

There is a list of safe antibiotics on the sugarglidervetinfo site. I always, always use convenia unless a culture indicates it would not be helpful.

Thanks Val, I didn't want to put her through continued treatment and confinement if the end result would leave her at risk of injury. I remain hopeful that she will regain some use of that hand. That is one reason I am thinking of moving her into a cage with bars to get her using the hand as much as possible, but just not sure we are at that point yet with this ongoing infection. She was on Metacam, but this was stopped - I assume to avoid risk of liver injury, but I meant to ask him about something for the inflammation when I spoke with him yesterday and forgot. I will give him a call and see what he thinks about trying Covenia and adding an NSAID again.

Thanks!

I wanted to give a final update on Pandora's story. My vet does not keep Covenia in stock, but we did switch to the same class, a cephalosporin, and the infection began to resolve very quickly. Pandora responded very well to the treatment and recovered full use of her hand. One of her fingers may still be weak or paralyzed - it is hard to tell.

The bottom line is that this little girl went from possibly having her hand amputated or being euthanized to a complete recovery! And the best news of all is that she has found a forever home and now has a new sister and a wonderful human all her own!

What a wonderful ending to this story!   

So happy to hear this!!   

Glad to read sheis doing well and you saved her hand. Thank You for updating.