Unknown parasite led to overgrooming?

I have never used this forum before, so I hope I put this in the right place. Willow is 12 oop and is recovering from what we were told was probably a migratory parasite. I have only seen one other case of something similar and her joey looked just like Willow. She had very dirty looking, brown, matted and sticky or wet-seeming fur that would not get clean. I unforntunately do not have pictures from when she was still like this. She was also lethargic and very small for her age.

We took her to the vet, who had never seen anything like it, but prescribed Amoxicillin and Panacur, and she started to make big improvements. She is much more active and gaining plenty of weight. Her fur is finally starting to get fluffy again on her back and she's slowly returning to a normal color. However, now she seems to be overgrooming bad. She is not touching her back at all, but she is missing a lot of fur on her belly, face, and arms. I put an e-collar on her, but it is too early to see if it helped. She is not SM'ing at all and has not broken the skin or made the skin raw, but I do not want it to get worse of course.

I am just not sure what else to do to help her. The parasite (if that is what it was) seems to be gone and her fur is no longer sticky or wet or dark brown. and no one in her family was affected by it. She has been seperated for 2 weeks now, so I know she is lonely, but I do not want to put her back with her family until she is fully healed. Any suggestions as to what I can do to keep her from overgrooming or what the problem was in the first place (though it seems to be gone now) would be greatly appreciated. I am just ready for my little girl to be back to her normal healthy self.

Like I said, I have no pictures of her before the treatment, but these are some pictures from after she started to get better, but seems to be overgrooming. (the color is a little off these were taken from a phone)





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Hi and welcome to the sweet spot! Where are you located, maybe we can find you a glider knowledgeable vet that is familiar with this type of thing?

I have never experienced what you are going through so I am not much help. But let us know where you are and maybe we can help that way!

That glider looks very ill in the above pictures.

Can you tell us exactly what tests were run and what the results were, please.

How many vet visits has this glider had?

I know she looks bad, but trust me she is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than before. It is slow but obvious progress. I was a little weary of posting on this forum because it is hard to explain the background of her situation. I am a member on GliderGossip and there is another member there who experienced this same problem, so many people there understand what is going on. Like I said, her parasite is gone, she is just overgrooming now. and while she still looks pretty awful, she is clearly recovering. it is going to take a while for her fur to go back to its full fluffy-ness and color, but she has made some extreme progress.

she has had 2 vet visits and the fecal and blood tests showed nothing. The vet explained that this was because it was a migratory parasite that would, in a normal, adult glider, work its way through and out the body eventually, but since she was so young, she may not have survived it without meds.

I cannot explain without before pictures just how far she has come, and I know she looks ill still, but she is really doing much better, just overgrooming.

Can you please tell us exactly what fecal and blood tests were run?
float?
Smear?
SNAP test?
CBC?
CBC with differential?

Specific tests are what I was asking for.

I'm thrilled that she is doing better. Having seen many, many, many, many sick and injured gliders, I remain concerned. It would help to know exactly which tests (specifically) were run.

Is she a hand fed joey or supplimented joey or has she always just gotten her nutrition from her mother?

As I asked on the other board, did any of the other gliders also have this parasite?

Were they also treated before you separated her from the group? Generally parasites are shared by the entire colony not just one glider - especially if she was born in your home. A new joey would not be the only glider to be exposed to a parasite.

To me it appears to be a skin problem, perhaps an allergy. Her improvement may be the result of the antibiotic taking care of a secondary infection of the irritated skin. If that is the case the cause still needs to be treated.

If she is continuing to over groom, something is irritating her.

Was a skin scraping done to look for a skin parasite?

If the other person on GG is TheHomermomma I don't believe the issues to be the same. Your baby and her baby don't appear to have the same symptoms. I' am curious about the answers to all of the above questions.

I only have minimal experience with parasites (giardia to be exact) so I am not really a person in the know, but this joey looks simular to a lot of joeys in the past (not so much these days) that were pulled to be feed, either by choice or by need. Years ago when there was more handfeeding with improper joey diets, a lot of the joeys lost fur in patches mostly on their belly and around their faces and ears. So I was just wondering if this joey had ever been hand fed.

And I also assumed she was saying 12 days oop, not 12 weeks oop. She just said 12 oop. Now that I read it again I bet she means 12 weeks oop.

Yes I meant 12 weeks oop sorry. And it was definately the same issue as Homermomma had. the joeys were IDENTICAL, but hers got much better and Willow started overgrooming. They had the same problem in the beginning though. Neither of us have any doubt that our gliders suffered the same problem. I may as well have used her glider's before picture as mine, it was so similar. They both had the sticky, wet-looking, dark brown fur that would not come clean no matter what. Willow had a fecal smear and I am not sure of the blood test. both showed no signs of anything. She was not a hand-raised joey and has always gotten her nutrients from her mom until she got this problem and we had to seperate her, but by then she was old enough for a normal diet and has been on BML and fruit and veggies. I am going to take her back to the vet if the e collar does not help and get a skin scraping done. neither Homermomma's nor my glider got one to begin with. Also, her family was not treated and showed no signs of a parasite. The vet told us that the others did not need to be treated. Her skin was not irritated until after she started to get better with the meds, THEN she started to overgroom. before, when she showed the sticky, dirty fur and was lethargic, she was not overgrooming at all.

update: her fur is slowly coming back. its the smallest bit of black velvety fuzz on her arms and face

Quote :

Willow had a fecal smear and I am not sure of the blood test. both showed no signs of anything.

This was the only testing done, correct? Were there ANY other tests?

This is important in helping you determine what is really wrong with your baby.

And, can you please add your name to a signature? It would help us with addressing you.

Lastly, can you share with us where you are located and where you got this glider from?

Thanks!

those were the only tests so far. i was planning on getting a skin scraping if she did not start to get better. I am in texas, and she was born in my home to a pair i got about a year ago. (also, I will add a signature, but in the meantime, my name is Carl)

have you visited our recomended vet threads? i don't recall you saying how familar your vet is with with SGs but maybe there maybe one in your area that is more familar than your current vet?

I have looked at the recommended vets, but our vet is very familiar with gliders (though not on the list) the vet assistant also owns gliders. She is getting sooo much better though. her fur is growing back all over and she is happy and fuzzy. still keeping an eye on her though and if she does not continue to get better she will go back to the vet to get a skin scraping. i also have a list of phone numbers of vets for my vet to consult with if we do have to take her back.

I have had that happen in possums and it was not a parasite...it was a lack of good fats in their formula and to high of a temperature in their environment, the combination of BOTH factors made one of my boys lose most of his hair just like the joey you have pictured....had one that was unable to thermoregulate due to a head injury and so had heating pad on one side of their cage for her, and one of her brothers would not leave her side, thus he was overly warm and predisposed to hair loss because possum formula is so hard to get the fatty part just right for each individual possum when your feeding a litter of 6

okay good deal just had to check