Cryptosporidiosis

My sugar gliders have Cryptosporidiosis.

Is there any cure for this? Can it ever truly go away? Are all other gliders in my room now effected? I run a breeding program, so this would be devastating.

I hope that, in the future, this will be able to help someone else out. Here is my story and everything I have learned from it.

Cryptospordiosis is very hard to diagnose. Like Giardia, you often see it in animals that are very stressed out and rancid-smelling diarrhea is a main symptom. I also noticed severe weight loss and a cracked looking coat. Additionally, it seems to cause severe dehydration - all my pedialyte feedings seemed to do nothing to help it. After my testing for giardia came back negative, we had no idea what to do to save the life of the little glider that I was hand raising. His fecal was negative because sometimes the eggs of Cryptosporidium aren't shed in every fecal sample. We tried everything we could think of, even Metronidazole (which is VERY harsh on a joey's system). After weeks of emergency visits, sub-q fluids and medications, our little baby was ready to pass on to the rainbow bridge. I knew he needed to have a necropsy done. This is what the vets reported back (he had a UTI as well):

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Gross description: The stomach, small intestines, and colon are severely distended with gas. The gastrointestinal contents are liquid and light tan.

Gross diagnosis: Intestinal gas distention

Histologic Description: All tissues examined are moderate autolyzed.

Small intestine: Within the lumen and attached to the mucosal epithelium are numerous 0.05 cm diameter, round basophilic organisms.

Kidney: The pelvis is infiltrated by small to moderate numbers of lymphocytes, plasma cells, and neutrophils. The inflammatory cells are clustered around small bacterial colonies.

Final Diagnosis: Intestinal cryptosporidiosis, Suppurative pyelonephritis with intralesional bacteria

Comments: The cause of death is attributed to dehydration secondary to severe intestinal cryptosporidiosis and bacterial pyelonephritis. The renal lesions are likely a result of an ascending bacterial infection are the likely cause of the bloody urine seen clinically.

About a week later, I noticed similar symptoms in his brother. In addition to his severe dehydration and rancid-smelling diarrhea, he began to paw at his mouth frequently and his cheeks looked swollen. My vet suggested that, because they had been together literally 24/7, I should put his brother down because she was almost certain he had it. After watching the other suffer for so long, I decided with a heavy heart to let him go. Here is the necropsy from the second brother, completed by a different vet:

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Gross Description: A 32 g, male, juvenile sugar glider is necropsied on 3/20/14. The sugar glider is in good postmortem condition. Muscling and fat stores are decreased and the carcass is moderately dehydrated. The abdomen is moderately distended.

One cheek pouch contains small amounts of food that are easily removed. The stomach, small intestines, and colon are severely distended with gas and contain small amounts of yellow to tan fluid and no formed feces.

Gross Diagnosis: Intestinal gas distension

Histologic Description: Small intestines: Large numbers of 2 to 5 micron diameter, round organisms are free in the lumen or adhered to the apical surface of the mucosal epithelial cells.

Final Diagnosis: Intestinal cryptosporidiosis

Comments: The cause of death is attributed to dehydration secondary to intestinal cryptosporidiosis. The cheek pouch contains feed material; however, there is no evidence of impaction or a fistula.

Afterwards, my concern was shifted to the parents and to my new breeding pair. The parents had been with the babies frequently. The new breeding pair, thankfully, were still under their month long quarantine. The vet had also suggested that because the babies appeared to be sick, that I practice good biosecurity and handle the new ones first before moving to the sick ones. After doing research online, I became extremely worried when I read about crypto being transferrable to humans. I also read about it being potentially fatal in younger children, elderly, and immunocompromised persons. Crypto is also EXTREMELY difficult to kill and is resistant to chlorine bleach. It can survive without a host for months. My vet suggested that I put the parents down, as she assured me that there was no way that they did not contract it and that if they stayed I would forever have to keep them in extreme quarantine. After visiting several other vets and gathering second opinions, I believe that this is a light overexaggeration. I posted a plea for help online, saying that if I could not find an adequate home for them that they would have to be put down. Thankfully, someone adopted them out of the kindness of their heart and is keeping them in quarantine. Interestingly enough, they had testing done specifically for Cryptospordiosis through RAL and it came back NEGATIVE! According to Kimberly Miller, there is rarely (if ever) a false negative with this test.

After the parents were gone, my entire apartment went on lock down. EVERY SINGLE THING in the glider room that could not be autoclaved was thrown out. No exceptions. The room was not entered without gloves, caps, and foot guards. Seem a little overzealous? Probably. But when it came to my babies, I wanted to be positive that they didn't have it or contract it.

Even though the rescue pair had never touched their cage, I moved them to a brand new smaller one. I followed Val Bett's instructions for getting rid of Giardia exactly (https://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/t1651-effective-sterilization-cleaning-when-treating-parasites). They went to the vet once a week for a month for fecals. For three days, I took their larger cage and used a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (something that does kill Crypto) and H2O2 bleach to thoroughly scrub it. After it dried, I washed it off and then steam cleaned it. For a week straight, every single day I steam cleaned the carpet in the room where the rescues stayed. I used the combination of hydrogen peroxide and H2O2 bleach on the walls. Everything in their cage was washed with the H2O2 bleach in the washer and then boiled before being placed back in. I KNOW this seems ridiculous, and I can promise you that it was miserable, but if there is a chance that you have gliders that haven't contracted it I believe this needs to be taken VERY SERIOUSLY! Please keep in mind that once gliders contract Cryptosporidiosis, there is NO CURE. You can treat the symptoms, and they can become asymptomatic, but they will always be carriers for it. Because I planned on breeding my pair, I knew that if any of their tests ever came back as positive, I would have to neuter and retire them.

At this time, I started contacting other vets for second opinions. I met up with a veterinarian that studied this as her DMV research project in dairy heifers (apparently it's a huge problem in the dairy industry). She told me that even if a cow becomes asymptomatic, once she becomes pregnant Crypto will come out of remission. Even though Crypto is not a coccidia, it behaves as one and the best thing they found for bringing it back into remission and saving the babies from dying is to give them Albon. Thankfully, it is safe in sugar gliders - even, if necessary, in baby joeys. My research showed that this is the proper dosage for sugar gliders:

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Sugar Glider Albon 5% susp 2oz
25 mg per kg body weight
Wt in grams - amount
70 0.035 cc
80 0.040 cc
90 0.045 cc
100 0.050 cc
110 0.055 cc
120 0.060 cc
130 0.065 cc
140 0.070 cc
150 0.075 cc
160 0.080 cc

I also got RAL testing done on my gliders for Crypto, which came back negative. Here is the information that Kimberly Miller sent me to get testing done:

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have attached the order form to order genetic testing from RAL for you. For your testing you want to select - Cryptosporidium Genus-fecal swab. They will do the “swab part”. You just send the sample. They offer many other tests that you can view on the form as well.

There are directions to send in the fecal but you can also review below:
·         Use a Ziploc baggie or other airtight container to collect your sample.
·         Do a clean catch. Meaning…when the glider is going to the bathroom - catch the sample in the baggie if possible. This is best for DNA testing so that no other “proteins/contaminants” are affecting the results.
·         Try to obtain a pea sized amount if possible. This can generally be obtained in one “session”.
·         Be sure to close the container or baggie with little air and tight with no openings.
·         Package into a shipping box or hard envelope and send to the address on the order form.

Here is the order form online as well: http://www.vetdna.com/application/forms/smallanimalsubmissionform.pdf

Main link to the website: www.vetdna.com

If you are dealing with this problem, I wish you the best of luck! I know this was long and likely obnoxious to read. I hope that it will help someone one day.

Thank you for posting it. I know this was hard to go through. It sounds like you were pretty thorough with your babies, though! Good job! I think it will be helpful.

It was not at all obnoxious to read.  Thank you so much for posting this.  I know that if this will help even one glider in the future, it will be of tremendous help.  Thank you again and I am so sorry for your losses.