there is still so much we do not know, and so many things we are continuing to try, some of the copmmon grounds with all of them is that there is bare metal in the cage, whether it is the galvanized wire, a copper nest box or in Devil bunnys case the bottom. that is only one common ground, others include their ages, as well, as most are either hand pulled or rejected joeys, or was bought at a pet shop.. very very few was puirchased from
breeders. there are many myths, and many more theories, this does happen to females as well, but we are able to save almost all of those, once diagnosed and treated, however getting the e-collar on is the first step, we have to stop any damage from happening or the prognosis is not good.
Not all gliders that live in galvanized cages are sm's, not all that have bare metal in the cage are either. SM's are virtually rare when you consider the numbers, which makes it very hard for us to get a lot of info.
on the self mutilation page at gliderhealth.com is as good as explaination as we can give to everyone. to explain what it is we are dealing with.
X-File Fan actualy tried something for us, to "see if it would work" it did with hers, now we need to see if it will work for others as well. Riker is still an at risk glider and can go back to mutilating at any time, she is aware of this, and is prepared. 10 weeks I think now without the collar and all of our fingers are crossed that it is permanent.
Dawn has petey.. he has been out of the collar now 2.5 years, but will always be at risk of starting to mutilate, but again they are always prepared just in case.
the one thing these two had in common, is they were able to get the collar on before damage was done.
The sound.. you must always be aware of the sound.. it is unlike anything you will ever hear, when you do hear it, you will know it.
don't be nervous, or scared, the biggest thing we need is for the owner to remain calm, and know what to do in case. these cases are rare in the numbers, we may have 3 to 5 a year, which is not that many, some we can't get to until it is too late, but again the e-collar is everything.
again this is rare, so we don't need any panicing, the e-collars are a good thing to have made just in case for many reasons, injuries, can also happen as in aj's case.
the jackets that have been posted have been tried with the sm's and they won't work for long termers, we are in the process of working on one we hope works. but the collar must be put on asap if your glider needs to be stopped quickly. Flossing is normal, it is when they go beyond that, and x-file fan explained that very well.