I have a 4 year female caramel glider that lives with 3 others. I found Bella last night sitting on the bottom of the cage. I took her out and offered her honey, yogurt, veggies which she took aggressively. I watched her and held her till this morning. I did take her to the only exotic vet available today familiar with sugar gliders. He checked her over and other then her not caring too much about what he did to her he couldn’t find anything. I will admit I couldn’t spend $500 for him to run a bunch of tests and take extras but I agreed to him giving her sq fluids and a vit b injection. He also gave me a special nutritional food (carnivore care) that I am to administer 3x a day. Other then that he said he would check back in a few days to see how she is. He stated that even tho she was obviously sick due to being so mellow that she did react to him stimulating her and he was hopeful because she wasn’t shaking which would shows signs of more serious issues. I was really hoping she would improve but I don’t think she really has other then she appears more alert. What is strange is that she has been awake a lot, she won’t stay in her pouch and in fact crawls to the top and then crawls onto me to lay. She keeps crawling higher on me and out from underneath her blanket. She even bit my shirt which I thought was odd. She doesn’t really get up to walk but rather lays flat and uses her claws to move. I did trim her nails and she did try to nip me once which I see as a good thing. Not sure what else to do for her or what any of this unusual behavior might mean. Oh and she constantly clicks (like when they are happy) while laying on me. I liked the vet I saw as he seemed to do what he could since I wasn’t able to spend $500 to do other tests. She was running a low fever. He suggested we could give her an antiobiotic but didn’t really feel it would help. Please don’t judge me for not wanting to spend the money. I unfortunately am not that attached to any of my gliders because I’ve never been able to bond with them to that point but I dont want her to suffer or die for that matter. My other 3 seem fine. I feed her critter complete even tho he suggested a zoo pellet instead. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I would have had him run a fecal and test for Giardia and also checked for a UTI, urinary tract infection.

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Thank you Kim for responding without judgement. I wish I would have gone to this forum prior to taking her in. He never suggested a fecal or a Giardia and I mentioned a uti and he said he saw no irritation there and that he feels like I would have noticed her straining or licking there and he saw no signs of that or staining. I really think he felt it was dehydration as did I. I unfortunately lost her tonight and didn’t realize how awful I was going to feel as I feel now that I let her down and now it’s too late. I am devastated and feel like I wasted $175 that I could have spent now on a neprosy since I have 3 more gliders to worry about. Out of curiosity u mention that the others may have kept her from eating. They aren’t all typically up at the same time so why couldn’t she eat when they are not around. There is always food left over. I just don’t want to let this happen again. Thank you!

Critter love complete.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Gliders are very good at hiding their illness.. it's part of their survival instinct.

I would be more concerned now about the remaining gliders. A urine/fecal and giardia test and exam should be done post haste just in case is was contagious.

Have you checked out the vet database for your area? (Click on the blue words vet)

Again I am so sorry. I hope this was isolated to only one glider.

Mema,

I am very sorry for your loss. May you find comfort and peace in your memories of her. Glide Free Little Bella

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