Upon feeding my gliders tonight I discovered Falcore had got stuck in the fringe of the vine and it had knotted around hid hind back middle finger. The finger is smashed and flat from the back knuckle up. It is still flesh colored mostly but clearly going to come off. There is no blood and minimal swelling and pinkness to the surrounding fingers. I have removed him from the cage and he is in an e-collar. The vet won't see him until tomorrow morning.

What can be done in the mean time?

How do I care for him tonight?

What are your experiences on this and recovery?

He is in with the vet now. She seemed confident 0that would be a simple removal. He should be able to come home this afternoon.

In the mean time, after he comes home what is recommended for care? I assume he will still need to be caged alone until completely healed. What type of items can and should go into the hospital cage? What sort of pouch or something else can he cuddle into to sleep especially if he is in a collar? Should there be toys if so what kind? Any recommendations on how to feed him?

Im really upset and confused on what to do, I know I've had gliders for over 2 years now but this is the worst I've had to deal with. Any help is greatly needed and appreciated.

We are finally home and the finger was removed at the knuckle. It looks bad at least to me. He is currently in one of the airline shipping crates. We used this for traveling and to to keep him from climbing last night. But will get him into the hospital cage tonight, but I wory about the bars on his foot. Will it be ok or should he stay in the crate a bit longer?

He is very lethargic and being very still. I sat and held him in my hands for almost 15min and he barely moved and didn't try to get away, is this normal?

He fought the collar off and curled up in the corner of the crate and is sleeping so I've left it off since I can watch for him for biting the wound.

He has ate and drank some both last night and today which I see as a good sign, but I'm still so very scared for him. I feel I need to do more but don't know what.

Last night he ate some avocado and a bite or two of an apple slice and 1/2TBSP of critterlove. Today he ate about a quater size slice of apple on the way home and drank over a tsp of water when we got home.

He was given pain meds today and I have a couple doses for the next 2 days and he has an antibiotic to have for 10 days.

Please tell me your thoughts on the pics..does this look really bad to those more experienced? Should I be more concerned about the other toes as well? They all just look bad to me now. The removed toe does have 1 stitch in place as well.

It does look rough and he may take out the stitch, as long as it doesn't start bleeding when he does it, don't worry about it.

My gliders that have had tail amputations have gotten the stitches out and then they leave it along.

Please keep posting pics and keep us posted on him.

Extra blankies in his pouch will help him stay comfy and have something to cuddle.

Thank you for ladies for the tips/advice. Falcore seems to be doing better today. He's moving around pretty decently considering the missing toe. He is even climbing the side of the cage and figured out how to do it in the e-collar.

He hasn't ate much today, and didnt want much to do with his critterlove, salad or the apple and avocado ive offered, but im hoping he will have an appetite tonight and eat a bit more.

Should I worry about his low appetite today? What signs should I be looking out for?

He did manage to pull that stitch and it did bleed a bit but stopped up and has since dried and kinda scabbed on the end of the stub. I've caught him twice trying to go for the toe, but he did it while cleaning his hands and face so he may of just been trying to clean the area since there is some tiny dry bits of blood in some of his fur on his foot area. Im not sure but I hope it wasnt a mutilation attempt.

Ive tried to give him time out of the collar again and it goes well, but man he hates that thing and tries so hard to get it off and has successfully succeeded a couple times. How is the best way to attach it? Ive used staples which worry me since he scratches at it while trying to remove it and ive tried tape which doesnt seem as good. Any more suggestions? And how do I know if its too tight? I get paranoid that it may strangle him.

Ive included a pic of his foot today. What are your thoughts on his progress?

My ecollar had Velcro. I purchased it on line and it works really well-wonder if you could get some or have some Velcro with the glue back and use? Glad more active today!

That's a great idea, thank you Claralice!

Thank you Karen. I do think it looks better too. I think I was more worried because of how it appeared after surgery...the blackness of the toes, but that rubbed off during the first night. The vet said she used a colagulant (sp) and I think that may have been the dark stuff.

Right now I am mostly concerned about the not eating. I dont want him to get worse due to it. He hasn't wanted any f&v even apple or avocado. He has ate a couple yoggies, not what id like him to eat but better than nothing I suppose. I did get him to eat all but 1mL of his critterlove this morning so that makes me feel a tad better. Hes at least getting some nourishment. Any other suggeations? Can I give him more than the 1TB of CL if he will drink it or is that not a good thing?

Today will be the last pain med dose so I hope poor appetite is just because of that. I know pain meds make me not want to eat, but I know im ok without doing so. I just wish he could talk, haha, it would help soooo much.

Oh been meaning to ask... what about using Vetrecyn VF on the wound? The vet didnt say to put anything on it, but would it be ok to put a drop on the toe a couple times a day?

Well it's been a couple days and overall I think he is doing good. I am spending my days with him sleeping inside of a treadmill cover inside the top of my shirt. This way he doesn't gave to be in the collar all day and the cover works nice since its open and I can check in quickly if I feel him moving to make sure hes leaving his foot alone. Mostly he does, but he wants to clean it so I let him lick as long has theres no biting.

He hasn't had any pain meds since Friday morning and doesn't seem to be bothered with pain so that's good I think. His appetite hasn't improved much, but he is drinking most of the CL still, its just in the morning when he wants it. Throughout the night he really doesn't want to eat. Ive tried offering him food when I wake to check on him every 1.5-2hrs with no luck. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I have his CL in a silo next to his water silo, and even with his collar on he can get to them to drink. Last night I tried to mix things up a bit and boiled an egg and small chunk of chicken, skewered them with apple, celery, green pepper and avocado then placed the skewer across the lower corner of the cage and used clips to hold it in place. He was able to nibble on everything but just didn't eat a lot (I know I offered way to much, but wanted to keep things in big pieces for ease of reaching). Im going to keep doing this until he can be 100% e-collar free.

I have a large round bucket style pouch that I hung from c-links low enough for him to pass though while wearing the collar and he snuggles up pretty good. I'm just constantly trying to make things easy for him to lower stress. He's going to be 7yrs old next Sunday so his age has worried me on how well he can bounce back, byt every day he's showing me just how tough he is. He's been a little trooper and I'm proud of the little fella.

Here's some pics taken today of his foot.

The vet said to have him in the collar for 10-14 days, it seems so long. He doesn't like it, but he's not fighting when I put it on him anymore, but he does still get it off.

She didn't tell me how long to keep him separate, I just assume it would be until its completely healed. I am letting them spend a little time supervised seeing each other. I think they all miss each other.

There's only 1 vet in my town that has seen only my gliders and he's not too familiar with them but is willing to help if he can, but isn't equipped for surgical/anesthesia so I knew he couldn't help this time. We had quite a problem trying to get Falcore in for help. I was turned down over the phone by multiple vet clinics including one that treats exotics and zoo animals 1.5hrs away, which is where every other vet said to go previously so I always thougt that'd be the place to go for an emergency, nope. I was even turned away from a local vet in person. I showed up shortly after opening hoping to be seen, but just wanted them to look at him. To say "yes i can help or no its beyond what i can do" but no, the vet refused to even let me open the crate to just look at him. I was so disappointed. I ended up getting him into Westside Animal Clinic, still 1.5 hrs away, she isn't real familiar with gliders but has seen them before and has done neutering. She is familiar with small animals and was confident she could help and was willng, so after all is said and done, I am pleased with her as a vet and as a human being so will be going back for services there in the future.

You could try leaving the collar off now. His foot looks great. Leave it off and let him eat.

I have to say I'm happy to hear you say his foot is looking good, you're much more experienced about gliders and know much more in this area. Your opinion matters.

So you think it would be ok to leave the collar off throughout the night or just a period of time unsupervised? I worry he would try to nibble at the toe while cleaning or self mutilate. Im not sure when in the healing stages of wounds that the risk of SM lowers. Since I've been carrying him all day since it happened I know when he goes for the area and gently nudge him elsewhere.

Am I being too worried?

I would still be getting up every hour or so to check on him, even if just to ease my mind.

I would try for a while supervised in his cage, kind of sit there and ignore him.

They are smart little buggers and he may not leave it along. I think by the weekend he should be collar free.

Well unfortunately we are back at square one.

Even though Falcore seemed to be doing bits better each day, I started to worry about the appearance of his toe. The end was hard and dry, but not black and dead, but more like bone. So I sent the vet some pics on Wednesday and sure enough she thought the same. So I had to take him back in for a second surgery on Thursday morning to fix it. The skin on his toe had receded back from the tip and had started healing onto the sides of the bone and she had to remove the full toe down to the palm. She added 2 stitches in this time and a dab of glue to help keep everything closed better this time. Im not sure if thats good or not, but I definitely dont want to risk bone exposure again.

I was so worried bout him going under so soon again, but just kept telling myself that I've read many stories where this happens and its not always a bad thing. Due to this happening it has brought up a lot of questions. I'll post some later on along with some new pics of how his toe looks. Any continuing imput on this injury or on how gliders cope and live post injury is very welcome.

Yes, thanks for the update! Prayers for healing.