In Reply to: Ill gliders posted by Bourbon on September 09, 1999 at 03:02:10:

Is there any chance that the glider may of had a stroke? The symptoms of the vision loss, partial paraylsis and lethargy sound simular to the signs of a stroke. The other symptoms like the weight loss and dehydration could be secondary results of a stroke. I just thought I would ask if this could be a possibility since the glider was fine one day and not the next.

Lea

: There seems to be a problem with a glider here. He has all the symptoms of hind leg paraylsis, with one exception, he seems to be blind, only having one direction and that is forward, not stopping for obstacles in his path, when coming into a pillow, he continues to move his legs as if he is still running, he literally ran off the edge of the bed, right into my hand...The calcium treatments, high protein treatments seem to be working, it is a slow process. he has regained a partial use of his legs, he can hold his own head up now, he can even lick up food, There was some other things with this, SEVER dehydration, sever weight loss, his eyes lookes slanted and had no definition to them at all, almost sunken, lethargic, not eating or drinking, and his jaws he held clenched shut. His back feet clenched togeher holding each other, his front feet clenched into a ball curled inwards. It all seemed to happen very, very suddenly. he was fine one night up playing and eating, then the next morning on the bottom of the cage. The update I got tonight, said that he ate his first solid food, he actually opened his mouth and ate a green bean. so for that we are all grateful, this improvement is no guarentee that he will pull through this, But i wish to thank ALL of the wonderful people involved with him, that has been trying so despretly, to help find cause, and cure. The order of the names, are just cause I can't put everyone first, although we would love to..
: (Cynthia, Betsy, Jane, Shell, Pennie,) my support/research team, to all of you I wish to say many many thanks for being there.. Linda Altman- for giving me some added insight, Dr. Dan you are wonderful..if not for his help, the glider surely would have died the first night. Dr St. Jean for being available in the middle of the night and being willing to learn. Dr. Smith , for all the research that you have done these last few months for us..
: This was not my glider, and many of the people involved nebver even heard of him before now, We all have hopes he will pull through this.. not what is the diagnosis??
: we don't know..
: could be many things, diet inconsistancies, genetics, neuralogical,diabetes, heart attack, calcium, vitamin E, or protein defienciy, a spider bite, or a bad/good bacteria inbalance..could be anything..
: We did not self diagnose this glider, she took him to a vet first. I wasn't happy with that so i called Dr Johnson, and he in turn spoke with another vet, they got him started on a multi- treatment plan, to cover most possibilities. he started making progress immediatly, so something they are treating him with is working..
: Please do not take things for granted, not their diets, nor their past histories. There will be some serious modifications in this home, but will he ever be okay? is there brain damage? we don't know.. what we do know is that the owner has never lost faith in him, She has fought each step, and it has cost her some serious money, but for her, he is worth it. Anyone with any insight that may help us , help him, please let one of us know..

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