I’m unsure if anyone will see this but I have no where else to turn at this point.

I have an 8 y/o male glider that I cannot stop from continuing to self mutilate and I’m at the point where I am genuinely considering euthanasia.

This started with a nodule in his tail that caused him to chew off the last third or so of his tail, I immediately took him to my exotic vet who amputated a small section of tail to remove an exposed bone. His tail was bandaged and he was given pain meds, antibiotics, and a sedative. Everything was fine until the day we took him back to the vet and he chewed through his bandage and tore up the end of his tail. Then we tried an ecollar, his tail improved but after several days the collar caused his face to swell (problems with lymph drainage I think), so I removed it and rebandaged his tail. The next few days seemed to go fine until I rechecked his tail and it had gone necrotic because he’d managed to get it soaked in urine without my noticing, his cloaca was also swollen and bleeding slightly so I rushed him to my vet again, she suggested we wait and watch his tail, lanced his impacted anal gland, and gave me a different cone to try. I also purchased an e jacket from Denise (who is a literal angel), and she included another e collar. Well none of the three were able to contain him or prevent him from reaching his tail/cloaca, so I combined the moleskin from Denise’s collar with the second one the vet provided. It seemed to work but I left for an hour this afternoon and came back to him collarless, more tail gone, and an even more inflamed bleeding cloaca.

I don’t know what to do anymore, we’ve spent over $1k on him thus far but are more then willing to pay for more surgeries. I am just beginning to think that his quality of life has diminished so much I don’t know if it’s really fair to him.

He lives in a two story critter nation with my 11 y/o female, and eats TPG if that matters.

I don't know what to tell you. I have trussed a glider up with an e-jacket and an e-collar at the same time for a tail amputation which turned into three amputations.

With his age it is very hard on him to keep being put under.

I wish you the best, that is all I can tell you at this point.

Anon here,

Well he managed to pop off the e collar last night, but looks shockingly okay compared to last night when he looked like he could pass any minute. The only thing I can think of is that he nearly strangled himself trying to get out of the e collar. He’s removed all the dead tissue on the end of his tail but has seemed to stop chewing on it and his cloaca. Not really sure how to proceed but I’m definitely a bit more hopeful then last night when I posted this.

If he is leaving it alone I would just watch him. Most just want to clean things up and then they quit messing with it.

That’s what I’ve decided to do, he hasn’t continued to mutilate today past what he’d done last night after removing the cone. I’m hoping he’ll power through.

He’s perky and alert tonight, happily had a mealy snack. His tail hasn’t had any further damage done to it, and his cloaca has returned completely to normal. Im guarded but hopeful as the top of his tail still certainly looks funky but his behavior has improved by a mile.

Another update, he’s leaps and bounds better then the other night. His cloaca is back to normal and he still has not touched his tail since he initially took of the cone. The necrotic tissue is starting to fall off naturally and my vet had agreed to just leave him be since he’s improving so much!

That is good news!

Unfortunately he back at it. The remaining 1.5 cm of tail that I was suspicious off became stiff and cold and he’s started to mutilate it further. I’m keeping up antibiotics and pain meds and I’m hoping he’ll stop at that, if not back to the vet we go

He was mutilating because the tail was dead. Hopefully once the dead part is gone, hopefully he will leave it alone.