April is very sick, need help, no vet available

I need some information on critical care for sugar gliders to try and help my female make it through another night. She crashed so hard last night and nearly died, the only way I saved her was by putting her on heat and giving her yogurt, wheat bread, and mealies. She was very, very ill, but only a few hours ago she had been bouncing around her cage and was perfectly fine.
What can I do to help her out? She's very dehydrated...I have supplied her with a water bottle with gatorade, and a small dish of ensure. There are no exotic vets on call this weekend...and I really need help. I am concerned that April may be diabetic...
If anyone has any articles on critical care that I can read please send them my way. She is on heat with food, water, and etc available at all times. Her schedule is very off...a few nights ago Rocky attacked her and kept her from eating so she's also very underweight...she weighed 56g last night.
Please help.

Exotic or not, best thing to do is to get this little girl into the nearest emergency vet clinic so they can subQ her and get her hydrated. A dehydrated glider goes down way to fast and a quick way to loose one.

Contine what you are doing with the water. I would also suggest to get some pedialyte and a syringe and try to get as much in her as you can while getting her to the vet.

She needs to have some tests ran, and even a vet that doesnt know about them can run them. Take along a few vet numbers that we have posted and they are more than willing to talk to a nonexperienced glider vet to help out.
Matter of fact, my vets number is 361-994-1145 His name is Dr. Tristan and always willing to do phone consults with other vets. If he is not in the office (he works at a 24 hour ER clinic)have the receptionist page him and he will return your vets call asap.

Rocky may have been attacking her the other night because he knew she was ill.

Please keep us posted. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumb.gif" alt="" /> Good luck <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

That's what I've come to suspect is that he sensed she was weak or sick and attacked her because of that. What kind of tests should i have run? I was scared that she had HLP for awhile because she was having extreme incoordination issues, especially with her hind legs.
She would overshoot when trying to eat, or grab her hind foot on accident. She's nearly 100% better from last night...not that that means that she's ok, but it was a huge improvement. But now she can move coordinately and is acting better. I will try and get in touch with some vets in town and see if anyone will try her. Unfortunately the true exotics vet isn't any good, and most vets won't even touch them if they don't know what they're doing.

PS: Is gatorade ok? I also have ensure for her, any critical care mix I can make up in the meantime?

As for calling around to see if they will look at her, dont...just get her get in the car and go in. Most vets if they dont see gliders will say no on the phone, they wont turn you down if you go in without a call.

Gatorade is ok, but in my honest opinion I think the pedialyte is better. But if that is what you have on hand continue with that.
Yes, keep the ensure and give that as well, make sure you are adding some calcium into it.

What diet is she currently on?

She is on Priscilla's diet, supplemented with rep-cal calcium every other night.

Why every other night on the calcium? They need it daily, as most of the veggies and such we feed are phosphorus heavy, which actually pulls calcium from the system. Some gliders also don't like foods with the vitamins sprinkled on top..can you be sure she is eating it, and not the male?-some gliders will also only eat the part that DOESN'T have the vitamins on it, and toss the rest away. This very well could indicate that calcium deficiency (HLP) is possible. HLP can also be caused from a bacterial infection that is keeping her from absorbing what calcium she is getting. Sub-Q fluids are needed...until you can get her in, also, like Peggy said-get fluids in her by syringe.

***In addition-be VERY careful with the Ensure with a dehydrated glider.*** We found this out with Peek the hard way. When a glider is dehydrated, they will pull the moisture from the Ensure, and what is left turns very pasty-almost clay like in the gut-which can cause digestion to slow as her system won't be able to move it thru well, or if she vomits, she can choke on it or it can block the airway. I'd wait on the Ensure until she's better hydrated, and go with the gatorade or pedialyte (50/50 with water), juice, nectar, whatever you can get down her.

The tests you want are urinalysis (urine test), fecal float, and direct fecal smear. Sub-q with D5w given under the skin on her back-vet may want to add a sub-q of calcium and glucose (sugar) as well-to tide her over until you can get her to your regular vet. HLP in a glider will show up on Xray as very light contrast on the bones.

In the meantime, keep her warm, either on a pouch on you inside your jacket, or in your shirt, and keep pushing fluids (when mine are sick, about .2-.3 cc per hour (that's 2 or 3 tenths of a cc). Keep us updated.

Your vet can also use a glucose meter to check for possible diabetes in the blood (only takes a drop)-2 indications of possible diabetes that show up on a urine test are ketones and high sugar levels in the urine. A UTI that has infected the kidneys will actually mimic diabetes (we went thru that with Chronos-vet was convinced he was diabetic, but it turned out to be a UTI that had gone up into his kidneys..causing readings similar to diabetes). A UTI or bacterial infection, if it has spread, can also account for the HLP symptoms. Keep us updated.

Ok, so here's the update. (Thanks for the heads up and info on the ensure, I'll wait until she's a bit more hydrated).

I took April in to a veterinarian about an hour away and he saw her very shortly. I was very impressed with how he handled her and he seemed to have done a bit of reading. his tentative diagnosis was that she had a lower respiratory tract infection (he couldn't confirm because every time he grabbed her to listen to her lungs she of course crabbed).
He said this was probably due to her lowered immune function due to lack of food when Rocky chased her away and kept her from eating/drinking. That set off the entire system and has probably led to that (I thought I heard congestion last night when I was nursing her back to health).
He said that because she was fighting off an infection she probably went hypoglycemic because she was using so much energy to fight the infection. He was very impressed with how I had responded to the emergency and said she was hardly dehydrated now and did NOT need SQ fluids! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> He ran a urine test for glucose and she was negative...he said that if I wanted to I could run her blood for glucose in the AM and also check for fructose if I wanted to which would give approximate levels for the past five days.
April is a lot stronger now. He put her on amoxicillin for the next seven days to help her fight infection, which will need to be combined with yogurt. Does anyone think I should run blood tests just to be sure in the morning?
Thanks for everything!

PS: I guess I assumed that calcium was like other vitamins and didn't need to be supplemented all the time. I'll change that habit and make it every night from now on. I usually mix it into a little bit of yogurt, and it's in both dishes so I assume that they both have enough calcium.

Priscilla's diet... it calls for a 5:1 ratio of calcium to phosp. when feeding as directed. BML is 2:1 when fed as directed with the Rep-Cal.

My suggestion is to supplement with the vitamins that Priscilla sells that go with her diet plan. Or at least contact her and ask how much to use of the Rep-Cal.

Sounds like your little one will be on her way to recovery rather quickly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/muchlove.gif" alt="" />

April has turned down again...she does have a lower respiratory infection...she's been sneezing and coughing and ate hardly anything last night. I've been syringe feeding her gerber baby food (is beef ok?) and some 50/50 water gatorade mix. She is up to 80g, but still dehydrated and weaker. Anyone out there who can help? I consulted with my veterinarian and he said it would be best at this point NOT to give her SQ fluids for fear of overhydrating her and making the pneumonia worse.

first off.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

Bless your heart. It is easy to see how hard you are fighting for this little one.

As for the beef...I would suggest chicken baby food instead. It isn't as high in phophrous as the beef (or so I have been told/read). However, at this point, any food is better then nothing so what ever you can get her to eat.

I would keep her on you and love on her as much as possible. Love can do wonderous things. Keeping her in your shirt all nice and warm will help her as well. She won't have to use vital energy to stay warm.

Keep up with the fluids. I tend to agree about the sub-q at this point BUT is may become necessary if you can not get fluids into her in other ways, so don't totally rule it out.

My prayers coming your way that the antibiotic kick in and she makes the turn back to the good. Hang in there! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

Poor baby. I hope she gets better soon. My prayers are with you

with very sick animals ive always had success with a milk replacer . i dont know which one would be suitable for sugar gliders but someone who has hand reared may do . good luck in getting her well also warmth is very important . sick animals often end up in the airing cupboard for a while to give them a boost , just make sure its not so hot they can dehydrate quicker cos that is a risk with sick animals that wont drink. a dish of water in the room to stop the air getting too dry may help as well.

Poor baby, I think you've got all the advice you need on here, so I'll be praying for you and your baby!

i know a glider that got better from pnumonia with baytril and oxygen and was given steroids. the baytril was given in shot first and kept in an oxygen cage overnight and sent home with oral baytril. and another recovered from shots of amakacin with sterile saline and penicillin all mixed in a shot together. its a last resort very very strong antibiotic that will kill almost any type of bacteria. always get oral calcium and bene bac when a glider is sick. because bacterial infections drain calcium quickly from gliders and hlp can result as a secondary problem to a bacterial illness. the bene bac restores the natural flora that the meds destoy.

Hang in there! Keiko <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/littleglider.gif" alt="" /> , Hiroshi <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/littleglider.gif" alt="" /> , Tomoki <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/littleglider.gif" alt="" /> , and I are all praying for your wee one to recover quickly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/heartpump.gif" alt="" />

Thank you so much everyone. You have all been a major help to me in my time of need!

April is doing better. She ate a little more last night and has been very active in her dislike of Mom coming anywhere near her with anything that looks remotely like a syringe for force feeding. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

She has been getting pedialyte and *chicken* baby food dusted with calcium. She is a strong spirit now and I am not as scared about her welfare as I have been.

She has been on heat ever since she caught ill and confined to a small carrier so she can't be quite as active and have another crash. She is still weak, but has made leaps and bounds, so I thank everyone on here for your prayers, thoughts, and suggestions.

You may want to put the carrier half on the heating pad and half off. That way if she feels like she is getting too warm or cold she can move to the other side. I'm so glad to hear that she's feeling better! Hugs to the both of you.

Carole <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" />

With you having to force feed her... think I would do so with the BML mix. It would be better for her as to nutrients and can be drawn up into a syringe. Thin with a bit of gatorade.

If my glider... I would give the antibiotic another day or so and if not improved... would discuss a med change.

Too bad the vet did not do a culture of her thoat and nasel area when first seen. This would have helped deterimine what kind of bacteria she has.