My persephone is in a bad way. Here is the info until now...
Persephone has had nice healthy babies always taking breaks. Both she and hades are very fluffy gliders. Hades at 180 and persephone at 150. Both have what we like to call man boobs. I may not be able to take each glider out daily but i see and interact with each one daily. I do a nightly cage check, water check and head check(all come out for treats). I clip nails and do weight every 2 weeks most of the time. I handle my gliders often just not eveyone everyday. I have to rotate as I have 12 gliders.
Dec 13th- Persephone was fine. Hubby was feeding glider treats and of course Hades and Persephone are always the first ones to plaster themselfs to the cage waiting with there hands out. She was alert and norm.
Dec 14th- Hubby had a boil lanced on the 13th and by the 14th had developed a high fever and I was very worried about him and trying to get him to go to the ER. I was very tired and worried so by the time I fed I had skipped treat time. I fed and did my norm cage and water bottle check. Did not see Persephone up. Did not worry sometimes she does not come out this early(it was around 9)
Dec 15th- I came home from work(was my 8 hr day). I sat down at the computer to cruise LGG and GC. At about 3 I saw her stumble out of her pouch and stager around. I jumped up and got her out of the cage. she was very weak and shaking. Eyes glazed. Very lethargic. This is what i found. Keep in mind she was fine 2 days before.
Here is the fullsize link
https://2img.net/h/i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn58/ssdreamsicles4/DSC_0081-1.jpgShe had developed an abcess and it ruptured or one of them chewed it open. Ther are 4 holes in all. Her glider membrane on the left side just hang there limp. The whole wet looking area is very very thin skin that has become necrotic. She does have full use of her arm and leg it just seems to be the membrain that is affected by this. Sadly if she makes it she will need surgery to remove all the dead tissue and close it up as it is too large of an area to heal in its own. The abcess pocket goes all the way down to her pouch. The vet did not feel any masses at all. She is on Sub Q fluids, shot of convinia, baytril, pain meds and quick derm. After she is out of the woods and the vet feels she is healthy enough she will have surgery to remove what dead tissue has not sluffed off by then and close the wound. Sadly she my loose her patagium on the left side as it is also affected.
It was touch and go the first night. I feared I would loose her. She has now started to fight the sub-q and meds and crab some. She is more steady on her feet. I have seen some pretty bad abcesses in my life but never in a glider. Just about the entire left side was one big abcess. The vet thinks it could be due to a spider bite or a bite from somthing else. Sage says she saw a mouse a few days before this happend. Hades is now neutered but pretty much backs off now when she is in heat. There is every chance they got into a tuffle and he scratched her or bite her but its in a odd place. I wish Iknew for sure what happend. I just cant get passed how 2 days before she looked just fine. Mabey if she was not so fluffy I would have seen it? I'm not going to beat myself up much as I know I take good care of my gliders, but you can't help but doubt yourself sometimes when you dont see this. I'm going to keep a running update on this with pics and timelines as much as I can in hopes it will help others. Please keep her in your thoughts.
I have an e-kit, but it is missing a few things I should have had on hand. A warmer pouch was one of them. As soon as I can afford it I will definitely be buying one. I thought my e-kit was pretty complete until a real emgergency happend. Please go through your kits and make sure you have everything you might need. I can't kick myself enough for not having a warmer pouch. I mean heck I had a heat matt for the temporary hospital cage! But you can not travel with that. I will definitely be going through my kit to do more of a update on it. It just sits there unused and you just forget.
Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:58 pm
