Any updates? How is Denise? Did you take her in to the vet today? Please update when you can, been thinking of you all day, praying Denise was ok.

Nothing???? Steph Mo, you out there????

just letting you know you and your glider Denise are still in my prayers.

the report is back from the vet, the necrospy showed that it was some kind of toxin but overall it was inconclusive because he couldent figure out exactly what kind of toxin, he said that the body was in good shape and appeared to be healthy but that the toxin acted like a poison attacking the gliders vital organs like his heart and brain which is what caused the blidness and seziures before death, he recomended for me to change everything, food, toys, cage and to search my gliders play room for anything they might have gotten into. he said it was best not to treat denise with anything as he dosent know exactly what it is, but that she appears to be okay, if she did ingest anything it was in a small enough amount so that her body was able to fight it off, this is consistant with contaminated food as denise was allways a finkey eater but the others loved to gorge themselves, what ever toxic thing it was they injested it acted very quickely, killing the gliders within 48 hrs, my vet thinks it might be some kind of strong poison to be able to do that but i dont even have anything in my house like that, i suspect the crickets from the pet store might be from a bad source, mabye they got sprayed with chemicals or something, i work at an animal shelter and yesterday we got 2 complaints about bad product coming from that pet store! none were cricket related but im thinking its only a matter of time, i looked at the crickets and there all smaller than normal and look a funny color, normally there tan, but they look a reddish greenish color. what ever happened its terribly scard both me and Denise, i can tell shes depressed, when i open her cage door she jumps on my hand and dosent wanna get off, i moved her cage into my room so that she could be closer to me because she kept chirping all night as though she was crying for her friends to come back, my heart is broken for her but this whole thing has left me feeling like i have no confidence any more, any time i go to feed my pets now i get scared that i might be feeding them something bad, i dont feel like im a good pet owner anymore, i feel like the whole things my fault and i should have picked up on it, whats worse is when i called the pet store to let them know they might have bad product they dident care, there not even gonna remove it from the shelves! and that pet store sells suggies as well! this has been such a terrible and tramatizing expirence.

I am so sorry. You are a good glider mom. Even the vet doesn't know the exact cause and you can't be psychic and all-knowing, none of us can. I will continue to pray for you and Denise.

Wow. My heart was breaking through this whole thread. I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Could it be carbon monoxide? Didn't someone not too long ago have a similar experience and that's what it turned out to be?

:HUGS:

I'm so so sorry. I know how I would be feeling if this happened to me. I will continue to pray for you and Denise as well.

You must not think you are a bad parent, even though I know I would think the same if I were in your shoes. Things like this just happen, the do, and we can only pray that we learn from them and grow stronger from it. I am so angry at your pet store even though it's hardly a surprise that they don't want to take ownership for anything that might be wrong. That infuriates me!

I hope that our hugs and sympathy and support can help. As I said, I will continue to say prayers. Hugs, and God bless.

I am sooooo sorry for your loss. I will keep praying for you and Denise.

thanks guys, i really appreicate the kind words
also, what is carbon monoxide? (i know that sounds silly but i really dunno what it is)
mabye i will find a good rescue group and rescue a glider as a friend for Denise instead of buying one, my poor little baby is so depressed and all alone, she wants me to spend every second of the day with her, and thats obviously impossible, tho i do give her as much time as i can, poor litte baby

You silly girl, you shouldn't apologize for asking about something you don't know about - how else does a person learn if they never ask?
Carbon Monoxide - go get a detector for your home asap. They're pretty cheap - similar to a smoke detector. On Wikipedia it basically says that CO2 poisoning is hard to detect b/c it's tasteless/odorless/colorless/etc. Common sources are things like house fires, furnaces/heaters, vehicle exhaust, etc. Symptoms of just a mild poisoning are listed as things like headaches, vertigo, flu-like effects, hyperactivity, etc. Larger poisonings can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system, heart and even death.

In the case I was referring to above, the owner had her suggies pass kind of consecutively (sp?) as with you and yours. The the CO2 was leaking from her stove or something bizzar like that - but it wasn't strong enough to affect the humans in the home, just the suggies. It's worth looking into - either way I'd still permanently ditch the pellets and crickets and get this little one on a more balanced diet. Just keep spending time with her and start looking for a friend for her. Keep in mind that another glider will help her to be less lonely, but she will still need time to grieve her lost pals. Also keep in mind to do a quarantine to ensure your baby stays healthy! I'm sorry again for all this - keep us posted!

This is NOT your fault. I know I would be blaming myself as well but really, this is not your fault.

I honestly believe based on all I've read on this thread that aflatoxins are the likely cause. While it basically attacks the liver, once the liver stops functioning properly, the other organs start to be effected as well. (the liver filters the blood and if the blood isn't filtered properly, the toxins will then attack other organs)

Those few that I've talked to who have lost a number of their gliders like you have also blamed themselves but it is NOT YOUR FAULT. Guilt is part of grief and I hope your's passes quickly for you. Denise is grieving too and you just comfort each other as much as you can.

Stephanie, let me start my entry with and a box of Kleenex...I'll snitch a few for myself & give you the rest.

Do you have any appliances that use either natural gas or liquid petroleum (LP) gas? (furnace/stove/dryer) Do you use a fuel-powered space heater? (kerosene) These are the sources where carbon monoxide can develop. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you get a detector (they cost $20 US dollars, not sure what the Canadian price would be) I can't remember exactly who it was, but they had a SMALL leak in their furnace which killed their gliders...such a tragedy!

Second step: Is there any rat/mouse/ant/bug poison anywhere in the house? If you're renting, did the landlord/landlady spray for pests recently? Replay all the steps about detergent/cleaners you've used recently.

Third step: Throw out EVERYTHING as far as food + crickets go. Get new stuff from SOMEWHERE ELSE (not from this uncaring pet store, obviously! )

Fourth step: You and Denise need to allow yourselves to grieve...the loss has been devastating to both of you. EVERY POSSIBLE MINUTE you can spend w/ your little girl will help you both. Make sure she eats every night, even if only a little.

And by the way: YOU ARE NOT A BAD MOM, ok? Things like this happen, despite all the things we TRY to do to keep our fuzzbutts safe. This is one of those "character-building" experiences that are part of life...how we handle it & learn from it & move forward (no matter how hard it seems at this very second) is where it counts. These words are being said from EXPERIENCE---it's a hard teacher sometimes...wish it wasn't, but then again maybe we wouldn't listen so closely if the roar was a whisper in volume intensity.

Continued prayers for you & your baby.

Ditto to everything minkasmom said. Absolutely ditto.

You are not a bad mom. This was not something you could have known was going to happen. I am glad that Denise is ok. I would definitely be switching her diet. I would not rush out to get another glider for a couple of reasons. First off, you both need to grieve. She may be missing her friends, but that does not mean she will just accept another glider right away. And truly, since you are not sure what caused this (though I believe the pellets/crickets are the most likely culprits), I would just keep a very close eye on Denise right now, and give her all the love you possibly can. I am so sorry for your loss and having to go through all of this.

Still praying that you two get through this.

Honey, you are NOT a bad glider mom. Remember that. The stupid pet store, on the other hand... Grr!

Just try and spend lots of time loving on your glider, and you'll both get through this. It might be wise to start thinking about getting a friend for Denise... maybe a rescue? But first you should make sure that you find out what was wrong, so that any future gliders don't find themselves in trouble. It seems that crickets are a likely culprit, from your descriptions of their eating habits, and the crickets at the pet store, although you never know. I'd switch to mealworms, personally, just to be safe.

you are not the only person that has had this happen to. please stop blaming yourself. we all know this is a accident and accidents happen everyday to all of us.

I can tell you one thing I will be keeping a closer eye on the food my gliders get. and had no idea this could happen in such a short time. i feel alot of people did learn from this and it will save lives.

If I can help you in ANYWAY please let me know. Do you need a Sissy bonding pouch for your baby Denise? Just pm me your address and it is on its way.

I would have a urinalysis run. Early stages of organ dysfunction can show up there-and if so be finer tuned if followed by a blood test (if possible and if indicated-some gliders are just too small for an adequate sample before the risk outweighs the benefit). Gliders hide illness until they can't and are very good at it. Considering the others, testing her urine would be wise, to look for anything abnormal-even if not seriously abnormal at this point.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Oh this breaks my heart for you, but you cannot blame yourself! The one thing I've learned in this short amount of time I've had Bella is that no one has all of the answers, and there's no way you can know or could have known this would happen. You're a good mom, or you wouldn't feel so bad right now...

I'm so sorry...

stephanie,
i would be happy to send you a glider for free...i'm not sure about international flights tho, i will look into it, i am very close to the canadian border in NY & if you can afford it i will split the shipping with you so u can get a friend for Densie...i hope i can help somehow {{{HUGSSSS}}}

I too think its the pellets and/or crickets. Stick with mealworms. I agree with everyone else so far, get ALL new food for Denise and make sure she's hydrated. Take her to the vet as well and get her a checkup. If anything, it will give you piece of mind that she is ok.

Give Denise all the spare time you can...is there anyway you can carry her around in a bonding pouch or sissy pouch during the day? If she can spend more time with you it will make her feel better and more secure since this happened so fast and she's suddenly alone.

Can you contact the pellet manufactuer (Sp??)? I'd let them know there might be a problem.

awww im sooo soryy!!!! you are NOT a bad mom.... it wasnt your fault... sending prayers your way and once again i am sooo sorry!!

This is so sad.. I've been reading this thread all day. I'm really very sorry to hear about your poor little guys- I hope that Denise is okay though. I know this is really hard, and as hard as it is, I hope you feel better soon :/ It's not your fault at all, so don't beat yourself up!!

thanks for all the kind words and help everyone, iv taken today and tomorrow off work so me and Denise can have some time together to morn, the good thing about working in an animal shelter is they are very understanding when things like this happen. I do not think it was carbon monoxide as everything in our house runs on electricity.. as for poisons, the closest thing i can think of is flea treatments i give my cats and dog, about 6 months ago we had the house fumagated when my kittys picked up fleas, but we took the pets outta the house for about 4 or 5 days when that was done, iv had the kittys on monthly flea treatments ever since but i dont see how that could effect the gliders..other than that we have had no poisons in the house. the pellets i was using was "sugar glider formula" the manafucture is Sunseed, im not sure if anyones heard of them before.
Denise is a very tiny glider (about half the size of what my other gliders were) so a blood test was impossible to do,
i did have her urine and feacal smear done which turned out normal, all the vet could find were sings of stress, which was understandable considering she just lost her buddies, my poor baby
once again thank you everyone, youv made me feel worlds better

Steph:

I have heard of that and it really is not a very good diet for a glider. Timmy came here on that (well, Quiko pellets, but basically the same thing.) I feed the Priscilla Price diet and love it! (So do my babies!) They are all nice and healthy (they don't like the 'cereal' but they are sleeping during the day.) HPW is another good diet. I like the PP diet, as you can get all the ingredients to make it in the grocery store (you will need to get the vitamins from Priscilla's store, though).

I am very sorry you went through all this and I pray Denise will stay healthy.

I just wouldnt get food for the animals from the pet shop you were getting them from before. Maybe something there was contaminated that made them sick. thats really awful about your sugar gliders tho and no you arent a bad person. things happen sometimes and we dont know why. I had a rough bit myself with some of my animals.....:-( but my guess is maybe something in the food with all the scares we have had lately even in people food! I hope your other baby is going to be ok! I figure tho if there was a carbon monoxide leak wouldnt all the people in the house have gotten sick too or killed? Usually when there is a carbon monoxide leak you kinda just fall asleep. Is it harsher on animals?

Some companys use a catnip spray on toys that they can't put nip into . They don't list nip on the package either

A while back a member on here posted that they had bought cat toys for in her cages. The store was short one for all here cages. She place the toys in the all the cages but one. All their gliders in the cages that the toys wer place in died in a 24 hour time frame . the cage without the new toy was fine .

Hang in there Stephanie,
This was a horrific, unimaginable thing to have to happen to anybody. I can feel your pain believe me. I have NEVER felt worse than when two of my glider's passed. NEVER!!!!
This is not your fault so please do not beat yourself up over this.
I feel for little Denise. NO ONE can tell me animals don't have emotional feelings. That poor baby. I hope you find her a friend. I see where someone has offered you one. I hope that works out, for the both of you.
My deepest sympathies.....Pat

Here is another thing that I seem to remember about stuff we cant see or smell that made animals, children and adults very sick a number of years back. And even though things changed because of it, this does sound somewhat similar. Maybe worth checking into? Have you recently had new carpet put in? I know this was probably, what, 10-15 years ago? But there was a chemical that was used in making carpet that made people and animals very sick. Or what about any lead based paint in your house? Just a few suggestions. You are NOT a bad momma. Things happen that are sometimes out of our control. Just spend all the time you can with Denise and take time for both of you to grieve. There are a ton of people that are here for you if you need anything. Hugs, thoughts and prayers for you and your little one.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm keeping you and Denise in my thoughts and prayers. I can't imagine how sad it is for you and your little girl. Please, do not 'blame' yourself, your a wonderful glider mommy and all of your babies knew this deep in their hearts.
Many blessings to you and Denise.

All I have to offer is

I was so hoping you would know the exact toxin..........

Prayers for you and Denise