Luna's in the hospital.

Today when I went to feed my girls I only saw Penelope & Cleo running around which is unusual. So I looked in the pouches and the cardboard rolls to find Luna but she wasn't there. I found her in a little "toy box". She didn't move, even when I went to give her a treat. I finally got her out but she still wasn't moving too much. She was very slow, shaky, and her eyes looked so tired. I immediately called the closest animal hospital that sees gliders. The vet for gliders isn't in until the morning but I brought her in and had a different vet look at her. She recommended she stay over night. So that's where she is. I'm so worried. The vet said the most common things would be that she's dehydrated or has a sugar deficiency. But I did the fur test and it was fine and she always eats and drinks normally. I'm just so worried. I'll post when I hear in the morning! Just hoping for the best!

Praying for your Luna.

did he check for a bacterial issue if not is he just guessing? I would check with another vet

there are vets who do consults with vets that are not glider knowledgeable they are on glider central somewhere

Which vet clinic did you take her too? How is she this morning?

The glider bet got in this morning. I have to wait till 10 to call. She is at the Milwaukee animal emergency center on 108th in Greenfield WI

Please keep us updated.

Im waiting to get her now!

So here's what the vet said- she said it's her diet and recommended me a new one. But I feed Priscilla Price. So I asked if it's that why aren't my other 2 sick she said their immune systems work differently. That makes sense I just don't agree it's the diet. She told me it's a calcium deficiency But I follow the diet. She also said I need to get a heat lamp/ rock and keep the room at 80 degrees. The vet was very rude to me and treated me like I knew nothing... I know I'm young, but I'm not ignorant. I know what I'm doing for the most part. I think I'm going to go to my normal vet Monday and see what they say. Any other suggestions?

Pitch the heat rock idea. I would go see your normal veterinarian.

Have them run a fecal on her and if you can get a urine sample have them check for a UTI.

The Pet Glider diet is a good diet, but I am not a fan of sprinkling vitamins on their food. What if one gliders gets more than the other? Then you can get deficiencies.

How warm do you keep your house? Normally if your comfortable then they are comfortable. My apartment is a bit warm for me, but for them it is perfect. It is usually 75 in their room.

Let us know what your normal vet says.

That's what I'm thinking. I don't like the heat rock because of the cord. It really freaks me out. I'm calling Monday.

It's normally 70 in my house but there is a space heater in a far corner of their room- so it's like 75. It's pretty comfortable.

Thanks!

The vet recommended nutrimax or smart hpw. Has anyone had any experience with these diets?

Well, the vet is recommending the standard Pocket Pets / Vet's Pride (ASGV) Diet

The Smart HPW is the same as HPW Complete and if you choose to use that feeding plan you can probably get it at a better price through Peggy's web page.

http://www.critterlove.com/diet-info.html

I would NOT make the pellets a major part of a glider's diet but you could offer a few pieces daily.

You would still feed a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily.

If the vet's concern is the amount of calcium in the diet - Priscilla's with the supplement provides more calcium daily than your gliders will get with any of the HPW diets - so making a change for that reason does not make sense.

If you stay with Priscilla's diet - after adding the measured amount of vitamins to the daily feeding you can lightly mix it in to the food so the gliders get a proportional amount of the vitamins based on the total amount the individual glider eat. Priscilla feels that freezing reduces the quality of some of the supplements in the vitamin/mineral supplement so it is not mixed in the full batch of staple as other diets call for.

Hopefully your regular vet will have more knowledge and can give you a better treatment plan.

If fecal testing and perhaps a urinanalysis was not done you can ask your regular vet to do those to rule out parasites or a bacterial infection causing your glider's illness.

I am not sure what Nutrimax is I think it is a pellet. Smart HPW is the same thing as HPW Complete.

HPW Complete is sold by Peggy at critterlove.com

Thank you. I am not going to start anything until I talk to my normal vet or my friend thats a vet. I am not comfortable with feeding a mostly pellet diet.

You don't need to feed pellets with the HPW Plus or HPW Complete diet.

Some people offer them. I haven't had pellets in the cage since June as the guy that feeds my gliders for me feeds them early.

Here is a link to the diet page that shows the suggested fruit and vegetable mixes you feed. There are three of them, scoll to the bottom of the page: HPW Diet information

If you have any questions please feel free to call me, my phone number is in my profile.

What we have to take into consideration is that a large part of "published" information regarding diets is by Dr. Brust. Therefore, the references that vets have are going to be those that he recommends. Most of our homemade diets are not in any of these publications and vets don't know much about them. Again, they are going from their reference materials.

I'm seriously hoping to get better information out there with the Diet Study.

With that being said, it is entirely possible to have a calcium deficiency on a diet that requires sprinkling of vitamins on top of their food. This is a huge reason I personally do not recommend TPG diet, I don't condone the "sprinkle method" for any diet plan.

So my point is don't panic and run from a vet that is going to promote a pellet diet and Smart HPW. Not to say that I agree or disagree with their recommendations, but remember they are going from their reference materials, not from personal experience, nor are they in the glider community to know/learn about the other diet plans available.

I hope that you get a firm diagnosis for your little one. Please keep us posted on what you find.

I hope Luna is doing better. I'm glad you're taking her to her normal vet on Monday, looking forward to update.

Sounds like the vet that saw her follows Dr. Brust's methods or PP. I'm glad you know better.

It could be that Luna isn't getting the right amount of calcium if it's being sprinkled, she may not be getting as much as the others.

We'll her appointment is at 5:30 tonight. Dr Blessing said she will answer any questions I have and do some urine samples and maybe blood work depending on what she sees.

I'm getting my little guy back from the animal hospital tonight. I also do the TPG diet. I was wondering if this sprinkle issue is what happened to him. He is the last to mosey out of bed and go eat so he would get less of the vitamin topping than everyone else. I'm convinced that I should try another diet now. Everyone is doing well except one little joey and when he ended up in the emergency hospital he responded well to calcium shot. I hope your little Luna is ok.

I cant beleive the vet was rude to you, the paying customer. SMH Still praying for your glider. I am not a fan of sprinkling on vitamins, I have been very vocal about that over the years, its not safe practice

The first ones to the plate could be getting too many vitamins and the last ones to the plate could be getting none.

So last night the vet just did a check up and didn't have time to do anything else. So she asked me to bring her in this morning. So I did and I had to fill out a form to allow her to do blood test and put her under to give her fluids and such. She wasn't available to talk, so I signed the papers but informed them I didn't want her to do anything until she called me. She still hasn't called yet, but I want to ask for other options that are available. She didn't explain what she thinks is wrong. So I don't want to blindly let her get put under. I just want to know what the vet is thinking for a problem, I just don't want it to be a trial and error and just guessing.

The past 2 nights I have put their food in separate bowls and had them eat separately, she is doing a lot better now. But I still want to make sure that was it.

Glad she is doing better. Hope all is well and that you find out for sure.

So the vet decided it would be okay to give her a vitamin B shot and give her Pedialyte for a few days. If she doesn't look better after a few days then it's back to the vet for sedation and fluids and possibly a blood test.

Any ideas on how to get her to drink the pedialyte? She hates it

You may have to syringe feed that to her. Do Not take away her water.

Why does he want her to have pedialyte?

If you are trying to rehydrate her just offer her foods that obtain a lot of water ie: watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe, etc...

Also plain water is always best so please do not leave that out of the cage.

She has water 24/7. She has a water bottle of just water and one of water with some pedialyte. The vet says it will bring her appetite up and make sure shes not dehydrated

Try watering down the pedialyte.

You also need to be sure to change the pedialyte at least every 8 hours it will spoil if left much longer than that.

Read the label on the bottle - I think it should be used within 24 or 48 hours after opening the bottle - it may be best to freeze the pedialyte in ice cube trays to avoid having to waste most of the whole quart. You can just thaw a cube each time you put some in the cage.