While at the vets office today to get the boy's toe nails clipped (they were really bad and a two person job, getting a trim trax today)one of my other gliders had a seizure. The vet felt that it was because of the excitement of brightness, new smells/environment which in turned lowered her bloodsugar to fast and she experienced a seizure.

Has anyone else experienced this with their gliders?

If so what did you do? What did your vet say about it?

They had some glucose at the office and we gave her about 1cc of it and she snapped right out of the seizure.

All comments and input welcome.

She is sleeping peacefully in the bonding pouch right now. I may start carrying some glucose or honey along with some food around when I am wearing them for when that happens.

It is similar to when she fell while gliding last month, I think she upset herself so much by falling that she had a low blood sugar seizure. The family that I rehomed her from said she had them all the time, the seizure she had last month was the first seizure that she had since I got her from them over a year ago.

Has the vet run any tests on her to see if all is normal? My guys fall all the time when they jump and glide and it doesn't stress them out in the least - they act like it is just common place. I don't think everyone should ASSUME it is just from stress.

In the year that I have had her she has only had 2 of these episodes. I am going to put a bit more food in there, they aren't cleaning up their fruits well, but they are cleaning up the HPW so I am going to add a bit more and I think I will start giving them a snack in the morning before we load into the bonding pouch. A couple mealies and a spoonful of yogurt should do the trick.

Still hoping for more input on this.

My oldest boy has had a couple of seizures after heightened physical/emotional stress as well. I keep lactated ringers solution on hand and give him subQ fluids and give him some food. I keep him warm and try to reduce his stress level as much as I can.

Is this a NORMAL thing? I mean, I know a seizure is not normal but is the glider healthy, and the reaction a "normal" thing that we should all watch for or are we seeing diabetes or insulin resistance in gliders?

(I an diabetic myself and have a friend with a diabetic cat AND a friend who's HAMSTER died of diabetic complications)

Okay, I'm really confused. I thought I had a REALLY good vet. I've had glider toddlers since 2004 and done quite a bit of reading. Unfortunately, I lost Burrito 11/16/07. I told my vet that I thought she was having seizures (ONLY when she was sleeping) once in a while for about 4 or 5 months before she passed. She passed from cancer, probably brain cancer. My vet said all of last year that the gliders are too small to take blood samples to run disease checks. Now maybe they can run 1 test - glucose level, but is that what everyone else's vet has done when they checked for diabetes? Or has technology advanced so they do not need a large sample of blood so they can run multiple tests? Or do I need to question my vet/find a new vet? I will go the end of the world for my toddlers.

Seizures aren't 'normal'. Dakota didn't have his first seizure until he was somewhere around six. We (and our vets) give their best guess about what causes them, but if the test results that are run seem to come back normal, there isn't always a lot one can do except give supportive care when it happens.

I had a dog that had seizures occasionally and even with him, the vet said unless the seizure happened when he was in a harness in the office, they were probably not going to be able to figure out what the problem was (and even then it was a toss up).

I don't think your vet is a bad vet, some of them aren't comfortable drawing blood (mine isn't either, and even when she has, she is afraid of drawing too much, so she doesn't often get enough to do anything with). I still think she is a good vet and the few times I do know that blood has been drawn and they had enough to test (in her office), it still didn't tell them what the problem was or how to fix it. (I am not saying people should not have it done, I just think that it is a difficult test that we can't always expect to 'answer' anything).

THANK YOU for responding so quickly. I'm such a worry-wort!. Not that my todds are having any problems now, but since I am probably like most people.. wondering, Could I have done something else? What should I do in the future if I'm faced with similar situations?, etc..

I was re-reading the posts and was wondering; since the glider may have had a seizure due to low blood sugar due to the stress from the vet visit, etc... would it help if the snuggie had some extra goodies before going to the vet? Something to raise the blood sugar level, especially for those snuggies that are extra sensitive? I'm fortunate that I've not had that problem to date, but I could see how some might.

I'm so glad I found this site!!!!

You could try giving something before and taking something with you. I have heard of gliders that seizure if they are too excited and are extremely sensitive (even just coming out of the cage can set them off, if I recall correctly). It could certainly be a neurological condition that we just don't understand.

My boy, Dakota, that has had a few seizures, recently had a detached retina and she said that if they see any symptoms with it, they are often neurological so I asked if his seizures were related. She didn't think so (he hasn't had one for quite a while) but it did make me wonder.

Buttercup on of my WFB girls had a seizure one morning. I took them out to weigh and cut their nails. She had a very small seizure. I took her to the vet the next day and he did blood work, UA, Stool. Everything was negative. Ca+ was fine.

I think I just stressed her, and she seized. She hasn't had any others since. The vet said their was a possibility that she could have another.

Sorry to hear that your baby is having small seizures.Its really hard to watch one of our little ones suffer or go through anything .Prayers to you and your baby Kimberly.

wow stress seizures...............That is interesting.

just wanted to add my vet is not afraid to draw from the vena cava or tail. Not much can be drawn but enough to get a basic chem, cbc and something else. He sends the blood to Antech(sp?) who he says has glider "normals" based on blood drawn over a period of time from gliders.

Thanks for the replys and information I am having a Friday the 13th day I will put Ginger in another post as she may not make it through the night.

Honestly, this is not that uncommon. Some gliders just do not handle abrupt changes very well and they seize. A friend of mine has a glider if you change anything, he will seize. He has a high strung personality though. They usually go real still before the onset of a seizure. Please do not misunderstand me, it is not normal, per say, but it is not uncommon to hear.

Karin

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying this. If gliders had seizures when they were under stress, there wouldn't be any wild gliders. they all would have been eaten by predators.

If you have ever witnessed a situation where a glider was very stressed, you may have a different opinion. I have witnessed this twice, not in my own glider's, but others, and once in my home. Again, this is not the only reason for seizures, of course, and consulting with your vet if your glider has seizures is the best.
We are also not dealing with wild gliders and honestly, how do we know if wild gliders have seizures? The research just isn't there. Seizures do not always lead to death.
Karin

We have removed a lot of the 'wild' glider concerns. Most of our light colored gliders would not survive in the wild either (because they would be so obvious that they would be snapped up by predators). The risk of 'survival of the fittest' has been removed for our gliders, so in all likelihood, if a glider seized in the wild it may be caught and killed and therefore removed from the gene pool so the trait isn't passed on.

I believe Karin is referring to my Zev. We took Zev over to Karin's house to meet Deja and as soon as we put him in her cage he went into a seizure. Initially he was holding really still (some gliders do this so I wasn't really worried at that point, but it did seem odd to me since he is always high strung and is always running around like a mad man. Then he began to act as if he was choking on something and so we immediately started checking him out and then he went into a seizure. Ken pulled Zev out of the cage and I was expecting to have to rush to the vet, but as asoon as Ken pulled him out he stopped seizing. We brought him and Deja home (in separate cages and he was in a zip up pouch so he had no idea he was in a different pouch and was fine on the way home. Then we thought if we introduced them in a neutral cage (that didn't have another gliders scent on it at all) that we may have some luck. Now this was in his normal room and everything and he went into a seizure again and as soon as we pulled him out he was fine again. We called our vet and he said that it was most likely stress induced, but to bring him in. The vet could not see anything wrong with him and still believes it is stress induced. I was lucky he didn't have one at the vets, but he never took him completely out of the pouch due to this stress/seizure thing. He did get a great look at him by manipulating everything around. That was a few months ago and he has not left his cage at all and he has been fine. We introduced him and Deja in his cage and have since introduced him with Abagail as well. He was a bit stressed due to Deja passing and then he didn't handle being introduced to Abagail as well, but now they get along perfectly. Last summer we took him between home and our camper and he did fine (he was in colony then that ended up not working once puberty hit even though boys were both neutered), but we area afraid of doing it this year. It is his cage so we are hoping he remembers and does ok with it. We are going to put him and Abagail in their cage about a week before we head out to the camper for the first time and we are hoping this goes ok. I am afraid of putting him into any situation that may stress him. I have noticed that he does do better when he has another glider with him. I am hoping that since he has Abagail the camping season will be as easy as last year before the seizures started. He is only 9 months old now.
I also agree with Karin on the fact that we have absolutely no proof that wild gliders do not have seizures in the wild. Also we all have to remember that we are no longer dealing with gliders that "wild" gliders. They are completely domesticated. There is also the issue of the possibility of genetics playing a role. Just like in humans there is always the possibility of genetics being an issue. I had no idea that other people were having this issue with their gliders and I never had time to ask if it was an issue. I have been sick more days than not and other life events happening have prevented me from remembering to do a lot of things. LOL
I just think that there is a lot of research that needs to be done on this if it is an issue with a good percentage of the population. I know that I had gliders for a very long time and the only time I have seen a seizure before the glider did not make it. I totally know now that they don't always have to be sick to have a seizure and that it can be caused from stress. If you look at humans what happens if they are stressed for a great deal of time. I know I have experienced this and my body does not react well. I get insomnia, I lose weight like mad (I need to do this more often), I get migraines, and Lord knows there are plenty of other things that I am not remembering to write down. Stress does have weird effects even on us so who is to say that gliders can't have similar problems.