I think I'm in love with a boogar.

quote:

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Oh...and anyone wanna help me break outta this tiny cage she keeps sticking me in? She's cramping my style and I wanna run around!

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I have the night shift with him, and he is bound determined to eat a hole through his leather carrier. I try to manage his stress level with diversions but the little guy just doesnt realize he is supposed to be taking it easy. We really dont want to put him in a small cage as we are supposed to limit his climbing while the wound under his armpit heals.

Every now and again, Cody will bark out, and he will respond from across the room. But what really gets him going is the sound of Cody on the wheel. It has always been Casey's wheel, and not having access to it is driving him crazy jealous.

Now I am just waiting for him to tire down some and he should go back to sleep on my chest listening to my heart.

Poor baby. Wish there was a way to make them understand. You two are troopers. I hope Casey heals quickly so he can get back to the more important things...playing

The pics of Casey are precious. He looks strong! Thanks for sharing them.

They only thing that makes him look sick is the cone of shame. And the pink wrap but it's a cute look for him. Maybe Omi and Kai can sport it this Summer? Just for fun of course.

This weekend has felt like a long pause for us with Casey. His bandages seem to be holding well and the ace wrap is helping in him not pulling off his bandage. We are sooo hoping for more good news on Monday for his bandage change. We were able to take his cone off for 12 hours or so, which was a plus. He did leave his bandages alone for the most part and went straight into grooming areas he couldnt before. I am sure that really helped his mood and gave him some needed happiness.

He still misses his cage really badly and tries to make a break for it every chance he gets. I have a big surprise for him for when he gets better but I cant ruin it, due to being afraid to jinx it. So I am hoping to show it off soon.

We are still on Glider Watch rotations, while draining Chris and I, it just helps us know he is safe until we get the all clear. We received our order of Suggie soup and that has really helped over the weekend. He seems to enjoy it and since he can lap it up without the use of his hands, he gets less frustrated.

So again hoping for more good news tomorrow!

Just a small edit: All 3 of our gliders will be hitting the Vet this week. Wellness, fecal and urine checks for all 3. With the addition of our new girl in the house, want to have a baseline as well a health check.

Ok more informed update on Casey. After the long weekend, we finally headed back into the Vet for his wound check and bandage change. While Im guarded to say it is good news, it really does seem to be good news. One abcess pocket on his back was a scab and very shallow. It has shrunk and is healing nicely. His through and through piercing is slowly healing, but our boy in the end may be rock star when we are done. There was a little blood during the bandage change, but this to us was a great sign as the skin was returning to healthy tissue. All the stitches strings that were used to hold his bandages in place have been removed on his back. His main chest wound that was at one point larger than a quarter is down to the size of a pencil eraser. It is healing but is closing very very slowly.

He is still rotten though. He has managaed to take off his bandage today, so instead of going in on Weds for his new change, we are again going to have to go in tomorrow morning. I think he is really reaching his limit with the vet. His aggression towards her has been growing and we can fully understand why. He is ready to be a full time glider and not a wounded survivor, and just doesnt understand why we keep holding him back.

So tomorrow all 3 gliders will be in to see the Vet to check on wellness, so keeping fingers crossed on a good report card on all 3.

Yea!! good to hear! I'm so happy he is healing! Praying he gets to be a glider again soon!!!

Thats wonderful news. Poor Casey. He don't need no stinking bandage change! He thinks. All he needs is mommy. It's good to hear he has the strength to be angry about bandage changes. I don't think a thread has gotten more hits than Casey's thread. I'll keep all my fingers crossed as well and ask others to do the same.

Thanks for the update.
still praying for casey and his family.:)
We all got are fingers crossed!

~Erica~

This is very good news. Thanks for the update, and hoping for a quick comeback by Casey

Thanks for the update..Continued prayers for Casey!
And again, I sooo admire your faith & strength..Keep up the good work.

Update time!

So Casey continues to inch along the 'improving' line. He is not healing as fast as I would like but baby steps forward are better than the alternative. He is certainly living up to his booger status as every day last week he managed to pull off his bandages and we had to take him back in (an expensive past time for the booger at $70 a pop!).

Happily, we are trying no bandages today as a good portion of the wound is starting to close. Keep fingers crossed, we may be seeing a tiny spark of light at the end of a verrrrry long tunnel. We still have to keep ahead of the infection and it looks like the plan right now is to try and starve it out giving Casey time for his body to heal.

Sadly the VCA did not consider my application and Casey's care to be an 'emergency' and apparently we are too late to look for reimbursement. I would say Casey has had upwards of 20 'small emergency's' (some at night) that required quick action/surgery and over night care. All of these have really added up over the past month and a half (we are talking over 4K now), so with that said, I am unclear what they would consider an 'emergency'. Either way I'm a little disappointed.

For those interested this is what I was told:

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Thank you for your recent VCA application. In reviewing your application, it becomes evident that you are requesting reimbursement for procedures already conducted for your glider. The Vet Care Assistance fund does reimburse for emergency veterinary care as the emergency occurs. However, in your case, the treatment for your glider has been ongoing and the glider is not currently in a state of emergency. The TGI page from which you accessed the application describes our policy under the heading "Can I apply for reimbursement for a procedure?" by stating, "This program is meant to help out owners of sugar gliders that need emergency care. In these times we understand that your first call or e-mail is not going to be to us, but contacting us after the fact would be in your best interest."

In order to be considered for reimbursement, an application should be completed shortly after emergency veterinary care has been sought. Because your glider's treatment was quite some time ago, we are denying your request for reimbursement for those veterinary expenses. Hopefully your glider will not enter into an emergency state in the future, but if it does, please don't hesitate to apply for assistance at that time.

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Also, a special thanks goes out to kyro298 , you are an amazing person. Casey thanks you as well!

We have a bandage change tomorrow and I will update again after that and let you know how his progress goes.
In hopes, Chris and Casey

I'm sorry you weren't able to get the assistance from them, but I am glad to hear that little Casey is improving! Every time I see this thread come back up, I just pray that its good news. You guys are still in my nightly prayers! Best of luck guys!

Thanks for the update.:)
I am so glad casey is improving, he is a little fighter!:) Keep fighting casey, we are all praying for you.:)

~Erica~

Is there an appeals process? How can it not be an emergency?!? Geez! He would definitely die had he not had all the life saving medical intervention. I'm pretty sure you consider it money well spent but it would have been nice to get a little help. Never be too proud to take help from your friends here.

Maybe you can get some vendors to donate toys and other products and have a raffle to raise some money towards your vet bill.

Chris and Aiden, that denial letter may just be a good omen of sorts. It may just be the beginning of him completely coming out of this. From my lips to Gods ears. I am sure it has been financially strapping and the care has been stressful but it has made you both better people. I think any way. I'll be waiting for more great news.

If anyone has a few extra dollars, consider donating to help Casey out. There is a link a few pages back. They also posted their vet info.

On a side note, I know TGI is also really struggling with donations to fund their effort so if you're ever looking for somewhere to donate to, we have quite a few great organizations and rescues that could always use it.

quote:

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Originally posted by Omis n Kais g-ma

Chris and Aiden, that denial letter may just be a good omen of sorts. It may just be the beginning of him completely coming out of this. From my lips to Gods ears. I am sure it has been financially strapping and the care has been stressful but it has made you both better people. I think any way. I'll be waiting for more great news.

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I completely agree!

So we had our Friday bandage change today, and are still moving forward. The wounds are looking good. His bigger wound under his armpit just heals sooo slow, but from where we were 2 weeks ago I will take slow forward over fast backwards.

We may have to do some work with him when this is over, bonding wise that is. While he is extremely attached to us, he is very guarded with others now. He was always a little more timid than Cody, but never aggressive. The stress from all the handling and painful exams isnt helping us. He is also getting too many responses to his biting, so we are hoping it wont become his fall too behavior. Ohhh and me touching him with rubber gloves on, he goes crazy on me. I think he has learned exam gloves = stress and pain for him at the vets. Makes giving him home care a little challenging.

He is still onery as all get out and finally ate his way through the soft carrier. He worked on the seams around the door to the point he could get his hand under the zipper bottom and lift it up from the outside. Booger is way too smart.

He got to meet our new little girl, she had jumped out of her pouch after spotting him and ran to him. Once reaching him, she started grooming his face and curling up next to him. At one point she climbed on his back and he seemed like he was happy for the company. He even spent some time grooming her as well. While we are still keeping all 3 seperated (we had negative fecals so far) for medical reasons, it was great to see them bond quickly.

So for this weekend, we are still on Casey watch. While it may really not be as needed as it was early, Chris and I would never forgive ourselves if we put sleep over him and something happened. So we lovingly suffer onwards!

Update:

Casey is still on the mend. His chest wound has gone from the size of a quarter to the size of an eraser, which is good, but it is also still deep and we have to keep an eye on it. The back looks even better with one area completely closed and a spot under the arm on the mend and darn near closed.

His activity level is sky high, but we are struggling to keep weight on him. He stands at around 80g with upwards of a 5g weight shift. I'd really love to see him over 90g on a regular bases.

I did tent time with him last night for the first time in over a month. He went nuts! We are trying to keep him from too much movement, but I felt good about letting him loose and you could tell he seriously missed running around. I'm hoping that all his jumping, running and climbing will help pump blood into the wounds (as well as exercise him muscles) and help the healing go faster. I have no idea if that reasoning holds water, but it sounds good right???

All three gliders have been to the vet and looked healthy with negative fecals. Yesterday little Caylee slipped her pouch and daddy watched as she ran up to Casey and introduce herself...I was not too pleased but the impromptu meeting did not go as badly as I feared it might. My biggest concern is Caylee is still soo small! She came from Lynsie at LuckyYou Gliders so I've no fear about illness, but she's just over half the size of Casey, and Lynsie said she may stay fairly small. Has anyone had problems with size differences? Casey and Cody are all but twins in size; when the time comes, if Caylee stays small, will I be looking at a potential issue?

Caylee appears to love Casey though and was more than a little pissed when I separated them. She hangs on her cage now giving me 'the look' whenever I check on her. I must say Lynsie's gliders ROCK if they are all as sweet as Caylee has been! Bonding has been downright fun in comparison to Casey and Cody. Casey's response was more, 'holy-cow...can I keep her?' He really pays attention now if I need to go into my bedroom...'where is the pretty girl???'

So we will keep up the watch with Casey, the meds and regular vet checks on his wound. Slow is frustrating, but better then a backslide. Keep him in your thoughts, because all your well wishes seem to be paying off! You guys are amazing, thank you!
As always in hopes,

My girls are smaller than my boys, including the moms and their baby boys who aren't babies any more (2 and a half). They seem to do just fine, although my girls are a little bit grouchier than the boys. A lot of it will depend on their personalities.

I have been following your story and am so glad that things are going better. Thanks for the updates. I always check for them hoping that he is OK.

Good to know Caylee likes Casey already. Hopefully little sister won't drive him crazy when they finally do get all together forever.

Thanks for the update.
Glad casey is doing better.:)
Casey and family will still be in my prayers.
Keep fighting casey!!

~Erica~

Thanks for the updates. We are praying for the little one!

So we finally got some decent news yesterday!!!

The vet finally feels we have hold of the infection even though we are staying with the antibiotics until everything is completely healed closed and we are 100% sure their will be no additional abscessing. But still, it feels good to hear the vet sounding so positive!!! And happily we have gone from daily bandage changes, to every-other-day, to every week now!!! Holy Cra*p that is gonna help my savings account!

The wounds on his back/arm are all healed except for one pen tip size nick that will likely be gone in two days. The once gaping wound the size of a quarter on his left pectoral area has closed down to the size of a pencil eraser and shows enough decent granulation that they want it to continue healing on it's own with no more wet/dry bandages and no need for any follow-up surgery's!

Casey's weight is holding around 85g and now that he does not need to go to the vet quite as often (or fight itchy bandages) I think he will start putting the weight back on.

Poor Cody has begun over-grooming in several areas so I've been trying to allow Casey to spend more supervised time with him. Cody is ready to have someone to share his cage with, Caylee is very aware of the boys and impatient to get out and have a closer look, and Casey is ready to be back in a normal cage with his Stealth wheel. It's been hard with three separate gliders all badly wanting to be with each other.

But I wanted to share the good news and ask that you keep sending him your happy thoughts!

I love you guys for your support, it has been vital to my mental strength!
<3 Chris

Chris,
I am so happy to hear all this. We all love you too! And Casey and Cody and Caylee and Aiden. I bet he's going to go nuts once he gets back in that cage with his wheel. Poor Cody. Can they not be together at all?

Well, I am considering putting Caylee and Cody together a little early. She's a sweetheart and the bonding with her has been great and coming from Lucky You Gliders I'm not concerned with illness, but I am concerned about size.

Cody is a healthy, robust 99g+ while Caylee is sitting at 43-45g. Cody has always been neutered so he's never displayed any mating behavior, then again he has only ever been with another neutered male. I know even neutered males can sometimes do the 'mating' dance, so I'm worried about little Caylee...

Cody's grooming is not a good thing either(above the eyes, base of tail and on his sides). They are not large patches, but it is obvious he is stress grooming so I don't know. Poor boy has been without Casey since March 1st!

What's your thoughts?

I would go ahead and do supervised intros, if it were me. Sometimes this kind of an emergency out-weighs other considerations.

And - PLEASE don't let the reputation of a breeder discourage you from running routine fecals on a new glider. All the breeders have occasional out-breaks, and you'd be better off safe than sorry.