Wellness exams?

How often do you do wellness exams?

What is included in your wellness exam?

Do you ask for extra tests besides what is included?

If yes, what tests?

mizvalorie wrote:

How often do you do wellness exams? Yearly for my personal gliders. Within 10 days of arrival for rescues followed by another fecal when Q finished. Rescues get one more check up before going to their new home. Also, any time I have issues And/OR whenever a cage mate is seeing the vet (i.e., if Jackie Chan has to see the vet, then his cage mate also gets a wellness exam). I also have wellness exams any time a cage mate passes away (i.e. when Riddick died, Venus and Cheddar went for wellness exams that day.)



What is included in your wellness exam? Physical examination by vet, fecal float, fecal smear, urinalysis & completion of the SUGAR Group's wellness exam form. Anything else I might ask for is completed.


Do you ask for extra tests besides what is included? Only if I suspect something from a glider's reported history or current behavior.

If yes, what tests?

Most of the time, if I request extra, I request that fecals be sent to the lab here in Amarillo for bacteriology and virology as well as parasite testing. If I have to have more done, then it is no longer a wellness exam for me, it is a sick or injured exam. A well glider does not need more than this, IMO. But, I should clarify that I am leaning toward making bacteriology on fecals a standard for wellness exams.

Mine go a couple x's a year just because I am a parinoid crazy lady lol, My Vet does a fecal float smear, Weight, checks eye's and ears and mouth.

I've learned the signs of my gliders. So they don't get wellness exams but I play with each one of them every night and can tell when something is off. First sign of abnormal behavior they are in to the vet the next morning.
When i get new gliders in they all wellness checks. Plus xrays and fecals to make sure they are healthly before going to their new homes.

Mine have all gone every year. I asked for extra tests when I brought two home from the Humane Society and then again after one passed away. I also took his cagemates in at the time for another check. For routine visits, my vet does the basic eye, ear, mouth/teeth, pouch, genitalia and weight check, UA, fecal exam and nail clippings. I've never had Xrays or blood drawn on any of them.

Yearly for the regulars and the newbies get them shortly after moving in here.

My regular vet prefers to do the entire exam while they're under and get blood for analysis to have a baseline we can reference if there are problems in the future. However, I have not been able to afford the blood test sometimes (I think it's close to $100/glider) & I have asked him to just do the physical exam without anesthesia and he has done that for me. I think only 4 of my gliders have the blood baseline on their files so far, but he'd really like it if the others did as well. He even said we could do it one at a time spaced out so I can afford it. My vet does not do UAs or fecals unless I ask him to - so, I have had to add that to our physical exams.

Otherwise, they go into the vet if I think something is wrong. Usually, it's at night, so we rush to the emergency vet & then have follow up visits with the regular vet who is much more knowledgeable & we like him a LOT more! Well, Eugene isn't a fan of his, but he loves the female techs there...such a ladies' man.

I haven't had my gliders a year yet, but the plan:

Yearly exams, including fecals -- which are considered extra at my vet.
That said, I still don't feel comfortable trimming nails myself so I will bring them in once a month (or once every few months, now that we've started using the trim trax) for that, and I will sometimes bring in a fecal sample to have checked at that time.


I don't plan to request that blood be drawn unless something appears wrong.

Thank you guys for your answers. It really helps to know what I should/shouldn't have included in a wellness exam for personal/regular gliders and newbies/rescues.

I'll be using a new vet when I move so that is what brought this up.