Just got Austin out of his cage, and he was doing OK then he just starting kind of [censored] out, locking his body up, and started like foaming at the mouth or drooling a lot, kind of like he was throwing up or something.

Lately he has been odd, we'll get him out of the cage and he'll act like his whole body is locked up, like he'll just be stiff like a board and won't move for minutes at a time. Other days he's his happy go lucky self. Is this something we should be concerned about or did he just get sick or something? Any help is appreciated...on a side note I think its time for a vet visit for the little guy - but has anybody seen anything like this or know what might be going on?

What you have described is a Seizure. He needs to be seen by a vet ASAP! There are many causes (some unknown) for seizures in suggies.

It can be related to stress, low calcium or it can be a neurological disorder.

it really sounds like your glider may be having a seizure! I would get him to the vet ASAP. this could be serious. I hope he is okay.

Wanted to get that info in quick.

Yes, I have a girl SweetPea that has seizures. She started having them after losing her best friend Peanut. Actually, she had one the day Peanut had to go to the hospital to be sub-q'd. Our vet rushed SweetPea in also. She was given meds to stop the seizure and is now on meds for life.

Seizures are serious. Hopefully, your little one will be okay.

When a glider seizes, hold them quietly and talk softly, petting them gently, I use a Kleenex to wipe away the froth (foam) from her mouth. It can take a few minutes for the seizures to stop. REMAIN CALM! The more upset you are, the worse the seizure can be for your little one.

Good luck and please let me know if you need help!

We did use some cleaner in the room - not sure if he was affected by that - but either way I think he's up for a vet visit as soon as we can get him scheduled in there. Unfortunately there isn't any 24 hour vets here that I know of, and its hard to find a vet that knows about suggies - but we were able to find one nearby that we'll get him in there.

SugarBlossoms, that is excellent advice. We had a little flying squirrel that had seizures. It can be terrifying. Our first impulse was to shake her tap on her, anything to wake her up and make it stop. Our vet was good to work with us and told us to do exactly as you said.

Our vet didn't do any testing because she said that it was almost impossible to find to cause of seizures and that most of the time we don't know the cause in humans with seizures. She prescribed phenobarbitol and allowed us to adjust the dosage. The object with the pheno was to give her enough to stop the seizures, but not so much to make her sleep all the time.

Seizures can be caused by many things, a bump on the head, their internal wiring, even hormones. That was apparently the case with our flyer; hormonal and she out grew the seizures.

JC keep us informed about your glider. I hope everything works our OK.

Any update?

Just an update to the situation, we got him in to see the vet and the vet believes that it is due to a calcium deficiency. We aren't too sure why he would be lacking on calcium as they are all on the same diet, so the doc gave Austin some calcium supplements and we are going to add more calcium to their Ledbeater mix and keep feeding the supplement to Austin and see if this takes care of it.

He is a really good vet, we spoke to him about getting gliders neutered and he said he doesn't do it with stitches, and rarely has he experienced mutilation, so we feel really good about getting Austin, Luke, and Fry fixed (Fry and Leela are the two newest).

A glider that is on a good diet that is having calcium issues needs to be tested for bacterial infections as well as parasites. Both of these, especially the bacterial issues can cause them to not absorb and process the calcium like their body needs even if they are getting enough in their diet.

He did look at Austin for a while, examined him pretty thoroughly, this vet seems to know his stuff about Gliders (which surprised me lol). He said Austin is in good health except for this, and it's weird because he is on the same diet as all of the other gliders, and he is the only one affected. So we're watching him and if we have any more troubles, we'll take him right back in again. He's a happy go lucky glider until he seizes, and when it happens, soon as it passes he's back to his old self.