I took one of my joeys in for his well baby check up yesterday( he goes to his new home on Monday )and it got me thinking of when I got my first gliders.

I was one of those, "oh they're so cute, I must have one" newbies. Didn't even think of having a vet close by. Well of course my little man got carried away with his "playing" and his penis swelled up. I called my vet and NOPE they don't treat gliders, the front office didn't even know what they were.
Luckily, I am one of "those" moms, and I did not take no for an answer. I had some wonderful people on here tell me about KY jelly and how to watch for problems, BTW, you do not know embaressment until you are driving to abunch of convinence stores and gas stations at 2 am asking for KY jelly!

The next morning I drove my man ( some of you know him as Storm, from my Ice and Storm posts ) to the vet's office and when they told me again that they do not treat gliders, I had a seat and waited, and waited, and waited. I was there for 6 hours when finally one of the owners / vets came out to see what I needed. Needless to say, I spoke pretty loud, so all the other people in the waiting room could hear. Telling him that just because he wasn't a cow, horse, or dog, he was still important and I was not going to drive 3 or 4 hours in an emergency to get him help. I needed a vet in town that could see us at ANY time! I also mentioned that sugar gliders were getting very popular and it would be silly to turn away all that business.

Well, we went back to the office and he got on the phone to several exotic specialists and the CO vet college, he treated Storm and promised to do more research on these little ones.

Now he has done 14 neuters for me, afew surgeries, and LOVES to do well baby and happy visits. Several of the other vets in the office now are able to treat my suggies ( although I have not trusted anyone else to do any surgeries yet )and the office staff must have cuddles from any of the suggies I have with me when I come in.

Sorry for the long drawn out story, but I just wanted to let anyone that has been told, "We don't treat gliders" to NOT give up. Take some water and treats and camp out if you need to, but if you trust the vet, do NOT take no for an answer. And please do not wait for an emergency. It took my vet 2 months of research before he was comfortable doing my first neuter. But soon he was calling me to tell me everytime he finds a new and safer way of doing things.

I took a picture of doc with Lakota ( little man that is leaving me on Monday ), look at that smile on doc's face, looks like he likes them to me.

That's an awesome story! I'll be sure to try that whenever I'm older and move in case there are no vets around me that treat suggies.

I just have to point out that I about made my lungs collapse from laughing at this:

You are VERY lucky T to have found such a nice vet

Pat, Boo-Boo, and BJ

Thanks, that's why I posted. It breaks my heart when I read about a glider parent losing a little one or them having to suffer while they try to find a glider vet in the middle of the night.

There have been many times when I have called crying and hysterical because one of my babies needed help, or that wonderful 3 am phone call, demanding that the entire surgical staff be woken up, because Aries's leg was falling off! Only to find out that fresh raspberries and yogurt on a messy eater can make an amazingly real looking horror movie scene. ( Don't worry, I took in massive amounts of muffins and starbucks when they opened up later that day )

But if I had not already found a willing and understanding vet office, I don't know what I would have done.

I've lectured a couple of vets about the fact the learning does not stop when you get out of vet school, many obviously think so since there are so many bad ones. So good for you! The worst is when you have an emergency and you take the glider to an emergency hospital and they give you some lame line. The owner who has a good middle of the night exotic vet is indeed a fortunate owner.

I am so glad my regular vet will see them also. I remember when I first got Reese and the exotic vet was closed so I called my regular vet and was told that he would not treat him. So I ended up taking Reese to the emergency exotic vet hospital a half hour away. Anyways when I called Dr. Thompson the next day and told him that I was told he would not see Reese. He was mad. He told me if I had an emergency again to just come right in and they would be treated. And I do that now and if he doesn't know something he calls my exotic vet. Funny thing is Dr.Thompson worked with the exotic vet that has treated my gliders. DR. Mike Selig