Aww you guys are amazing!


Hopefully they will calm down after a bit? I know after Twinkie got neutered he had a particular hospital smell to him~ so maybe with all that's going on +medication the girls scent is off?

Sending good thoughts and prayers for your girls!

They will be getting the best treat possible, all their favorite fruits and vegetables! They have enjoyed getting their mealworms (plus all the extra), with Berg and I being their "hands", I am sure they will be elated to finally get to hold them, as well as their food, with their own two hands tonight!!!

Mrs. Berg - thank you, you just made my heart grow about 10 sizes. We would absolutely LOVE a picture or two of these two beautiful girls when they're ready for a photo shoot. I think I can speak for both myself and many others here when I say that we'd LOVE to see their sweet faces.

Aimie, Steven tried to get pictures last night, after reading your post. Virga was only a little cooperative, Cirrus went and hid behind our CPU, to groom in private, FOREVER! Steven is a perfectionist, so, hopefully we will get a good one sometime soon... Our latest concern is that neither one seems too interested in food. All those favorite foods, and very little was eaten! Tonight I try Darcy's diet. Neither one can afford much more weight loss, but, Cirrus most especially....

I just found this thread and have read from the beginning, holding my breath, crying, smiling, sighing in relief and always, being so proud of mom and dad for being so observant and getting their girls treatment.

I'll be following this thread closely and sending lots of prayers and best wishes!

Mrs. Berg - I'm going to assume that the girls have been on antibiotic and pain meds? If so, it will knock down their appetites. This could be part of it.

What are they eating and how much?

Aimie, They haven't been on either in 2 1/2 days, but, yes, I imagine the residue is still in their systems. Thank you, that makes me feel a little better.... They ate a few pieces of cantaloupe but not much blended mix or bok choy, their favorite. I am just worried about Cirrus. She is so small to begin with... I don't think they will eat the "protein" part of the darcy's diet. I tried to feed them glider crack while they were e-collared, Steven cooked fresh chicken for the canned, "we don't feed canned meat to our gliders" but, I think it might not have pureed enough, and they just weren't interested. Tonight, I am going to try a T of papaya, 1 T of bok choy, 1 T of blended mix and 1 T of ensure and see if they eat it. They just licked up about 1/2 teas. of the Ensure, so, I think they like it. If not, I know they love Kiefer, so, I will push that... Thank you for posting. I should have known the antibiotic would kill their appetite! They don't eat it all mixed up, and Tbull told me to do the ensure separate, but, if they won't eat it that way, I will try mixing it with the blended mix.. Oh, and they have greedily been eating meal worms, 6 each, their usual treat... And 1/2 tablespoon of yogurt...

Do they like plain avocado? That would be good to feed them right now.

Good thoughts and prayers.

Virga and Cirrus are starting to eat better and put some weight back on. We are weighing them every day to make sure the weight gain continues. They are still separated from Foehn and CB, but we are going to switch cages tonight and try and reintroduce them tomorrow.

Anyway, here is a photo I took of the ladies this evening as they were coming out for some play time. As I write Virga is on the wheel running at her usual speed. Cirrus is off in a corner beautifying herself. Virga is on top, and Cirrus is on the bottom.



There are some more photos of them during their week of recovery on my blog. It's been hard to get a good photo of them the last few days because as soon as they are awake they want to go!

awwww they look so sweet

Aw sweet girls! Thanks for sharing the plight of these two and I hope they continue to do well.

And there they are! Such sweet little girls, look at those faces! Thank you, Steve - I just want to kiss on their little noses.

It seems so funny to me that you all are saying how sweet they are! They are, after all, middle aged and like to think they are Queen Elizabeth type dignified! They are independent little women, I think because of the cats where they previously lived. We will keep you informed on their progress. For now, as Aimie knows, our struggle is to get the 4 of them to accept each other again. Actually, it's only 3. CB, our neutered male, doesn't care who comes out on top, just wants them to quit disturbing his sleep! This am, I could not agree with him more! LOL

Maybe you could have a chat with CB - alone, away from the others, and ask him if he could PLEASE control his women and ask them to please just get along. He sounds like a reasonable man, I bet he'd listen.

Poor CB, I think Virga has driven him insane! When there was only himself and his sister, he was so happy being as equal as he wanted, then, we brought the ladies in, and the poor guy is just overwhelmed! It is very comical when they go in heat... Each a week or so apart. He doesn't care. And, when he is unresponsive, and you catch him at it, he gives you a look that says, "please, take me away, I don't want to be here!" But, Aimie, shame, we are now off topic! LOL

This is amazing, I'm so glad they are doing so well. They will get back together, they can't just make things easy...that's not the glider way!

After a long Saturday night (stayed up most of the night listening to them crab and chase each other, and making sure they were OK), all four were sound asleep in the same pouch Sunday morning! They just had to work things out amongst themselves. We can officially declare our glider situation "back to normal"!

Need I say anything else? "back to normal" sounds like a very wonderful place.

Well FINALLY!!!!! Didn't I SAY that everything would be fie? Well??? Didn't I?

Congrats to ALL of you!

Yes, Aimee, you did! It was hard to listen and watch them work it out by themselves, but they did. And we all survived!

I'm just so happy - you need to stop giving me these stories because each time I read them, my heart grows. Pretty soon, it's just gonna bust right outta me! LOL

The ladies just had their four month post-operative check-up yesterday. Good news is that they have both regained their pre-operative form (Cirrus 88 grams, Virga 91 grams). The disheartening news is that a few days before their appointment MrsBerg noticed a small nodule on Virga's abdomen. (She gives them a good once-over every morning after yogurt). The vet wanted to do an x-ray, ultrasound, and needle aspiration to cover bases in light of Virga's history, and we of course said yes!

After it was all done the vet came out and brought us back to the examining room to show us the x-rays and ultrasound. She had several concerns, but cautioned us that the x-rays and ultrasound had yet to be seen by the radiologist. The nodule was subcutaneous, right below the skin, and to her it didn't feel like it was the type of lump to be concerned about, but it would today before the pathology report was available. What was more troubling was two spots on her liver evident in the ultrasound, which may be just cell regeneration, and some clouding evident on the x-ray in Virga's lungs. Worst case is these might mean her cancer has metastasized.

Our vet called tonight, but we were gone at the time. She left a message that she wanted to discuss the cytology report with us, and will call us on Monday. However, the message was disheartening for what it didn't say. If the pathology was negative, I assume she would have said so on the phone. I don't know...

On top of it all, for about the last week Virga has been having some sort of spasm or tremors when she wakes up in the pouch. As she's having one she makes an noise similar to the noise they make if they are annoyed with each other. The first couple of time we heard that's what we thought it was until MrsBerg saw her do it. The strange thing about it is it stops as soon as she is out of the pouch, and we have never heard it at any other time of day. This one has all of us, including the vet, stumped.

Monday can't come soon enough.

Oh Steve...I'm sorry to hear you're having to worry about this again with little Virga. Let's hope it's nothing/something simple and that the vet just wants to go over everything with you at one time.

As always, I'm thinking of all of you.

Oh gosh Steve I am so sorry to have to read this news and I hope and pray for your little one and hope Monday brings you some relief. . and here is a lil angel to watch over her

I'm praying for any updates today. Praying so hard for good news! Worried that there hasn't been an update yet.

We just had a call from our vet, concerning Virga's mass. Sadly, it appears to be another mammary tumor. They are not sure what the spots on her lungs and liver are, and would like to do a cat scan. Because the surgeon and radiologist are so interested in our Ladies, the scan would be paid for by research grants. Having heard that, we have agreed to have a cat scan done on Virga, and Cirrus. They want to use Cirrus as a "control" subject, which will further add to any information they can obtain. I asked the vet how Virga could have gotten another mammary tumor since the surgery before was to remove all mammary tissue and she said that based on all the information available to them, they were sure they had removed all mammary tissue. But, that it could be that gliders have tissue like rodents, that is, that it extends to the back. The one thing that worries us is that she may need to inject a contrast through a catheter, she says that because they are so small (thank God they have packed on grahams since the surgery), that may be difficult to do. She is going to try to schedule it for tomorrow or early next week. Thank you all for keeping our ladies in your thoughts and prayers and hopefully, they will help improve chances for other glider ladies.

Sending many prayers and best wishes. I hope your next update is full of happy news!

I'm sorry to hear this, but I am happy that they are continuing testing to try to learn more and cure your girls. It's great they have a grant to pay for these tests.

Keeping you and your girls in my thoughts!

Virga and Cirrus had their Ct scan today. I think the staff at the vet med hospital have fallen in love with our Ladies. The vet took me into the examining room, started to hold back tears, hugged me and said that Virga's lungs are worse than she had suspected. The cancer has more or less taken over. It has affected her metabolism, she is not in pain, but, because they did have to add a contrasting dye into her leg bone, now she is a bit of discomfort. She and Cirrus are on pain meds until that is no longer an issue. I asked how long they thought she would have any quality of life and she said 2-3 months, because the cancer is such a fast growing one. Cirrus, who was also scanned as a "control" also seems to have some cancer in her lungs, but, not to the extent that Virga does. This was immediately after the scan, and the radiologist wanted to do some further work on the image to try and get a better idea of exactly what we are dealing with. While it was something we suspected, it was tough having it confirmed. They were able to get a tremendous amount of information from the CT scan, so, at least the Ladies are helping to further educate the vet world ... Dr. Whittington will be meeting with the oncologist and they will be looking into any oral chemo drug and any other meds that may give Virga a quality of life for a longer period of time and maybe put Cirrus in remission. However, she was very careful to inform us that chemo in animals is more for quality of life, and if it goes into remission, that's a bonus. We were concerned that Virga has been over grooming her tummy, she is now bald. But, she does not seem to be doing anything in the way of self mutilating, so she was not concerned with that. Another concern is that Virga has been having body tremors that occur while she is in her pouch, then stop as soon as she gets out. They seemed to be diminishing this week, but, tonight she had the longest one we have seen in the last two weeks. No explanation as to what is causing this. Sorry this is so long, I tend to go on more so than Steven.