This post is mainly for me to journal my experience for later use or for other owners.

Last night, I walked into my sugar glider room to find my 6yr old male glider listlessly walking along the bottom of his cage. At first, I only saw him from the profile and he didn't look like himself. His fur was cracked and dirty, with food in it and his own feces and urine all over his tail. This alone had my heart racing and I immediately reached in to pick him up.

It was then that I noticed his left cheek was completely swollen and he was making a constant chirping sound, almost like a soft, barely audible bark. I've had sugar gliders for over ten years and knew immediately that something was seriously wrong. I drove him to the emergency vet, who did a full oral exam on him and didn't find anything wrong with the interior of his mouth. She believes it might be a tooth abscess, a skin abscess, or a tumor, though the third option is unlikely in her opinion.

I was sent home with antibiotics, critical care food because my little guy doesn't seem interested in eating much, and orders to contact my local vet for full xrays to discover the exact problem.

This morning, I called my regular vet, who is out of town for a month. This prompted me to call over a dozen other "exotic vets", of which half wouldn't even see a sugar glider and the other half is unable/unwilling to do xrays on him. The only vet within a reasonable distance of me (less than an hour and half) that will both see sugar gliders and do the xrays is a large animal veterinarian of all people.

I trust this vet with them, he's the same one that has done all four of my neuters as well as a tail amputation without any problems, but I do find it odd that no other vets are willing to do the xrays, does anyone else have this problem?

Also...they can't see me until Monday and I have the glider on Bactrim (Sulfamethoxazole / Trimethoprim) at the moment. If it is an abscess and the antibiotics start to clear it up, is the vet going to be able to see anything on the xray? And should I just camp out in their waiting room as a walk in tomorrow (My day off) to see if they can get him in faster?

As of now he's doing okay, he's leaving the pouch to use the bathroom, and seems alert and oriented and willing to interact with the other gliders now that he has some food and electrolytes in him. But gliders hide illness so well that I'm sick with worry.

I'm going to post pictures and a video of the noise he's making for future reference, but with the chaos of last night and work today, I haven't found the time to snap a photo yet.

Any advice, personal experiences, etc. are desperately needed!

So I just got off of the phone with Southpaw Animal Hospital and a Dr.Drake that I saw came highly recommended by other sugar glider owners in my area. She's willing to do both the xrays and a possible tooth extraction if needed, something I wouldn't feel comfortable letting my local horse vet do.

I'm extremely relieved to have finally found a vet willing to work with him!It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

If it is a tooth abcess, it will still show on the xrays even if the antibiotics make the swelling go away (antibiotics basically don't cure an abcess, they just stop the progression of the infection and make it go dormant, but it's still there).

quote:

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Originally posted by sjusovare

If it is a tooth abcess, it will still show on the xrays even if the antibiotics make the swelling go away (antibiotics basically don't cure an abcess, they just stop the progression of the infection and make it go dormant, but it's still there).

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Good to know! I've been doing a lot of research on this today and other than people saying to get to the vet, I haven't gotten a lot of information.

For more detailled informations:

A tooth abcess basically is a pocket of pus accumulated under the root of the tooth, often in the bone, and doing so it destroys bone tissues, hence its visibility on xrays.
It is usually the result of an infection caused by bacterias who managed to introduce themselves there, and the pus and swelling is caused by the body's response to fight it. Usually a channel opens in the soft tissues to drain it, either in the sinuses, either in the mouth, but there are risks that it also infects the brain or the eye, or that it reaches the blood vessels (septicemia).

Antibiotics will kill the bacterias, and the swelling will stop, however the cavity left is an open door to new infections.

In theory root canal treatment could be performed if the tooth is restorable, however with small animals, it is often easier to do as if the tooth was not restorable and proceed to extraction and curettage of the soft tissues surrounding the root. This can only be done after the infection has been stopped and the swelling subsided, to prevent all risk of disseminating the infection during the surgery.

I just got back from the vet and she doesnt think it's an abscess after doing the xrays. She did a needle biopsy to see if it was a tumor and found that it is an infection, but not pus filled like an abscess would be.

He's also anemic with dark stools and she thinks he might have a bleeding ulcer. Until that's solved she doesn't want to take what little blood he has, to do a blood test.

So right now he's on a stomach coater, proton pump inhibitor, and the antibiotic. Once he's pinkened up and she fills he's able to with stand it, she wants to look at his blood and see if that shows anything.

Looks like it's a waiting game right now. But it's not a tumor, which I'm thankful for.




Sorry for the sideways pictures.

When my Leo had that, it was a bite from one of the joeys which got infected

That might be! There's no joeys in the cage but with a colony of six, it's possible there was a scuffle somewhere.

My vet asked me to keep Zane separated tonight to see how much he's eating and drinking. Of course that means I'm paying extra close attention and he seems completely uninterested in food. I've tried syringe feeding him but he wants nothing to do with it so every twenty minutes I'm turning into nurse ratchet and squirting .3ml of food into his mouth whether he wants it or not. Its a mix of pedilyte, eggs, beef baby food, yogurt, cooked vegetables, honey, and green juice. It been liquefied in the blender to go through a tiny syringe. I feel absolutely sick now. Its gotten to a point where I'm sitting by his cage, begging him to just get one bite of food and one lap of water from his bottle.

Just wanted to check in on how your little man has been doing today? Our furry family is praying for yours

He seems to be a little better. He was very active last night and this morning and while food still isn't interesting to him, he's been drinking a gatorade, water, and green juice mix. His feet and nose have pinkened up and are both warm to the touch now. He's also been grooming His head and chest, which he want doing before, though he still won't clean His underbelly or cloaca, but baby steps. His cheek is still very swollen and his eye is more slanted than it was which worries me but overall I think he's improved.

I kind of left a frantic crazy message at the vet's office when he wasn't eating or drinking and after googling for hours....so now I feel like a crazy pet parent and regret calling but I was sleep deprived and brain washed by horror stories online!

Been wondering how is you little guy doing?

He was getting worse so I took him back to the vet where they drained the abscess and took out two teeth that were causing the problems. They were so small that the xrays didn't show anything, but once they went in, they found the source of the infection. They also changed his meds since it didn't seem that the other antibiotics were working. He seems to feel a thousand times better.

His breathing isn't as nasal as it was, his eye has opened about 3x as much as it eas, he's stopped his constant barking/chirping that my vet called "crying for help", and he's eating about twice as much as he was. Hopefully these antibiotics do the trick and he keeps getting better!


This is him prior to the draining, at the vet the eye was completely closed.

And here he is after surgery, the incision is on the other side, but he obviously got his appetite back!

I am so very happy he is doing better , just reading about him made me so sad. They are such sweet and loving little kids, it breaks my heart when I hear about any of them being hurt or sick.