I have 2 female gliders showing several symptoms of an unhealthy glider. I have posted about them before a while back. They have been to a couple different
vets, but we still don't know what is wrong with them.
I'll start with Gracie, my 1 year old WFB het. She has a very slightly inverted pouch. It doesnt seem to bother her at all, that I can tell, but it is there.(I will try to get a picture tonight). She also has a yellow stained stomach. The
vets I have spoken with and taken her to see, all don't really think she has a serious problem but have told me to watch her very closely for any signs of discomfort, pain, or of it getting worse. she has had her pouch swabbed and a culture done. It is not a yeast infection. It is not red, dry, or irritated. But it does look a liitle swollen around her pouch. I have also noticed some shaking with her, it is not constant, but does occur somewhat frequently. I should add that she is a shy girl and very fearful, so it's possible that she is shaking out of fear.
Now Roxi is the very unhealthy looking girl. She is an approximately 2 year old cinnamon. I got her 1 year ago and she had a beautiful cinnamon colored, thick coat, with a bushy tail. But she did have an awful odor starting the day I got her. She was on Darcy's
diet then. I already had Gracie at that time and she was on BML, so I attempted to switch Roxi over to that, but she wouldnt touch it. So instead I switched Gracie to Darcy's. I had them on that for a couple months and they both smelled awful and had diarhea. So I did some research and decided to switch them over to the Suncoast
diet. That did help the odor for awhile and the diarhea stopped completely. At the end of May(They had been on Suncoast
diet for 4 months by then) they started smelling again, but no diarhea. Then Roxi started getting a little thinner, and her coat lost its Cinnamon color. And her stomach turned a rust/grey and yellowy color. These things came very slowly and did take me awhile to notice what was happening. First
vet accually told me Gracie was a male and was marking of Roxi and causing the smell and color stains, which was COMPLETELY not true, Gracie is a FEMALE! After another month I noticed her hair was thinning out, so I finally found another glider
vet, and took them in again. This
vet said their was definately something wrong with her. So she had Fecal and Urinary tests done. Nothing was found, so he suggested switching her
diet to either BML or Pricillas
diet, so she has now been on Pricillas
diet for 2 months and her weight has improved greatly, and the smell is much better. But her coat is still in very poor condition. We took her to another
vet 3 hours away for blood tests and again nothing was found. My
vet has been contacting other exotic
vets to see if he can figure out what is causing this, so far all are stumped. The
vets all think that it isnt something contagious and don't believe Gracies inverted pouch has anything to do with it either. One
vet said it could be something genetic.
So to sum it up, Roxi's current symptoms are very thin coat, loss of cinnamon color to coat, tail and base of tail are especially thinned out. Stomach stained grey/rust and yellowy colors starting right under her chin and ending at her tail, including backs of legs. recently she has started rubbing up against the cage bars and scrathcing a lot. I havent had a chance to tell my
vet about that yet, but will asap. Is it possible that she could have some type of mites?Very frail appearance, not sure how to explain that, but I will get pictures up. She also drinks a ton of water and urinates almost continuously, which we believe to be the cause of the staining of Gracie and Roxi, but she doesnt have a UTI.She is still very active, and eats very good.
If anyone has ever had a glider have these symptoms or has any idea what could be causing this, please let me know!
Anther thing, when I got Roxi, the lady said that she had to stay on Darcy's
diet. I remember her mentioning that it made her coat shiny. I have tried contacting the woman again to ask if this has happened before or if their is any reason her coat is like this, but she wont return my emails.