Posted By: Bourbon
Seizures and HLP (Calcium Deficiency) - 05/14/03 10:41 PM
If your glider is Calcium Deficient, seizures will not be one of the first symptoms. usually in gliders what happens is that they slowly lose the use of their back legs, starting to drag one leg at a time, this is the time where most owners notice, and possibility of bones in the legs being broken, commonly refered to as stress fractures. By the time the HLP advances to the point where they can no longer stand (starts slow, but noticable) and they can't use their back legs at all, the system then goes into what we refer to as shut down mode. where the organs and brain functions also shut down totally. This is when the seizure activity is noticed, by this point this is little hope of recovery.
One of the most common things we are seeing right now, is vets are treating gliders for HLP based on blood tests and what the patients are suspecting, who is not actually Calcium Deficient. Please if your vet thinks your glider is, or if there is reason to suspect it, please have an X-ray taken.
Seizures can be caused by many many things, from too much of one Vit or another, (commonly VIT A), head injuries, bacterial infections, wrong meds or improper dosages of meds. so many more things as well. Complete testing should be done before any administering of meds. A VET visit is a must. this is not something that can wait, nor is it anything that you can treat or diagnose without proper testing by a VET.
One of the most common things we are seeing right now, is vets are treating gliders for HLP based on blood tests and what the patients are suspecting, who is not actually Calcium Deficient. Please if your vet thinks your glider is, or if there is reason to suspect it, please have an X-ray taken.
Seizures can be caused by many many things, from too much of one Vit or another, (commonly VIT A), head injuries, bacterial infections, wrong meds or improper dosages of meds. so many more things as well. Complete testing should be done before any administering of meds. A VET visit is a must. this is not something that can wait, nor is it anything that you can treat or diagnose without proper testing by a VET.