Posted By: LabNGliderMom
Please pray for Gracie... - 07/27/10 02:15 AM
June 28th she had to go to the vet for a UTI- she took her antibiotics and seemed to be better...
Then Sunday morning I get up and hear hissing and I think, oh no- not again... I pull Gracie out of her pouch and see that her cloaca is swollen and she has been over grooming between there and the base of her tail... (not SMing - she wasn't attacking it or having issues leaving it alone - she had just licked it raw trying to clean it since she had some feces stuck in the fur there). But being the worry wart that I am, I stuck her in an e-collar and headed for the e-vet over in St. Augustine.
Unfortunately, all they did was a culture- they didn't even want to touch her really- the only e-vet there who ever handles gliders was on vacation. They did get on the phone with the exotic/glider vets at UF in Gainesville, though... and let me talk to the vet while they emailed her pictures of the area. SHE felt it could be stones or some other kind of "blockage like constipation"... but she told me straight up that if I had a regular glider vet, I should wait and take her to him Monday morning... the charge for getting a vet into the UF office after hours is $200.00 - AND they MAKE you pay 75% of "the high end" of "whatever they feel the bill even COULD be" and that is UP FRONT. She said they do NOT do payment plans and that they WOULD turn her away EVEN at the risk of her health if I did not pay the 75% up front... and she told me the range for what she "thought" this was might be $500.00 to $1200.00 so if I had a regular vet I should keep an eye on Gracie overnight and take her in to see her regular vet then. She also said to keep her in the e-collar and to coat the area with sugar, which she said would "draw out the swelling". All of which is what I did.
Of course, I am a HUGE softy- and Gracie is my glider who HATES being confined... a zipped bonding pouch makes her flip out... so you can imagine what the e-collar did to her... of course I spent half the night on the floor beside the hospital cage so she could be out of the collar to eat and drink- she did eat some and drink some but not much- and she did not even try to groom the area, either. Regardless, her cloaca continued to swell and feel "hard" and there was a large "area" showing up in the center of it that was very dark in color like a blood clot.
This morning I was in the vets office as soon as they opened and of course the vet was running late <sigh> but once he arrived, he looked at the whole thing- the swollen cloaca which he commented was "obviously not the vaginitis he envisioned when the office called him upon my arrival"- the darkened clot-looking center of the cloaca which he said "could be a tumor possibly" or that "may be due to impaction"- the over groomed area which upon closer inspection is really "raw meat with no skin left on it" in a spot about half the size of a dime- and her weight which is only 60 grams but she has always been my petitest glider (though the weight and this whole thing started to remind me vaguely of Andi's issue with Shy last year).
The first thing he said was that he wanted to NOT do surgery if it could be helped... he felt the risk was just to high... he palpated the area and almost immediately it was like she totally relaxed- there was an "ahhhhh" look on her face- and then urine flowed out of her cloaca like it was a water faucet. We decided that aside from the "possible tumor" which he'd rather look at after we got her healthier, this was "likely" a stone that had passed when he palpated... they gave her Metacam for inflamation & pain and Baytril for infection and Silver Sulfadine ointment for the raw area and Gracie took a nap and slept the whole way home. Since then she drinks like there is no tomorrow every time she gets up and she is eating more and accepting her favorite treats again.
HOWEVER
This evening she is swelling again and though her vet showed me how to do the palpating thing he did this morning, either I am not doing it right or it is just nor working. Granted it is NOT as swollen as it was this morning... but it IS swelling again and that dark spot is showing again when after the vet this morning the swelling subsided so much I couldn't even see it anymore. So... another long night in store and another trip to the vet in the morning... please pray for my little Gracie girl- she's the first female glider I ever got- mate to my first ever glider, Scout- and she means the world to me... I'm going to take a nap while my husband is awake enough to let me know if she is in distress....
Then Sunday morning I get up and hear hissing and I think, oh no- not again... I pull Gracie out of her pouch and see that her cloaca is swollen and she has been over grooming between there and the base of her tail... (not SMing - she wasn't attacking it or having issues leaving it alone - she had just licked it raw trying to clean it since she had some feces stuck in the fur there). But being the worry wart that I am, I stuck her in an e-collar and headed for the e-vet over in St. Augustine.
Unfortunately, all they did was a culture- they didn't even want to touch her really- the only e-vet there who ever handles gliders was on vacation. They did get on the phone with the exotic/glider vets at UF in Gainesville, though... and let me talk to the vet while they emailed her pictures of the area. SHE felt it could be stones or some other kind of "blockage like constipation"... but she told me straight up that if I had a regular glider vet, I should wait and take her to him Monday morning... the charge for getting a vet into the UF office after hours is $200.00 - AND they MAKE you pay 75% of "the high end" of "whatever they feel the bill even COULD be" and that is UP FRONT. She said they do NOT do payment plans and that they WOULD turn her away EVEN at the risk of her health if I did not pay the 75% up front... and she told me the range for what she "thought" this was might be $500.00 to $1200.00 so if I had a regular vet I should keep an eye on Gracie overnight and take her in to see her regular vet then. She also said to keep her in the e-collar and to coat the area with sugar, which she said would "draw out the swelling". All of which is what I did.
Of course, I am a HUGE softy- and Gracie is my glider who HATES being confined... a zipped bonding pouch makes her flip out... so you can imagine what the e-collar did to her... of course I spent half the night on the floor beside the hospital cage so she could be out of the collar to eat and drink- she did eat some and drink some but not much- and she did not even try to groom the area, either. Regardless, her cloaca continued to swell and feel "hard" and there was a large "area" showing up in the center of it that was very dark in color like a blood clot.
This morning I was in the vets office as soon as they opened and of course the vet was running late <sigh> but once he arrived, he looked at the whole thing- the swollen cloaca which he commented was "obviously not the vaginitis he envisioned when the office called him upon my arrival"- the darkened clot-looking center of the cloaca which he said "could be a tumor possibly" or that "may be due to impaction"- the over groomed area which upon closer inspection is really "raw meat with no skin left on it" in a spot about half the size of a dime- and her weight which is only 60 grams but she has always been my petitest glider (though the weight and this whole thing started to remind me vaguely of Andi's issue with Shy last year).
The first thing he said was that he wanted to NOT do surgery if it could be helped... he felt the risk was just to high... he palpated the area and almost immediately it was like she totally relaxed- there was an "ahhhhh" look on her face- and then urine flowed out of her cloaca like it was a water faucet. We decided that aside from the "possible tumor" which he'd rather look at after we got her healthier, this was "likely" a stone that had passed when he palpated... they gave her Metacam for inflamation & pain and Baytril for infection and Silver Sulfadine ointment for the raw area and Gracie took a nap and slept the whole way home. Since then she drinks like there is no tomorrow every time she gets up and she is eating more and accepting her favorite treats again.
HOWEVER
This evening she is swelling again and though her vet showed me how to do the palpating thing he did this morning, either I am not doing it right or it is just nor working. Granted it is NOT as swollen as it was this morning... but it IS swelling again and that dark spot is showing again when after the vet this morning the swelling subsided so much I couldn't even see it anymore. So... another long night in store and another trip to the vet in the morning... please pray for my little Gracie girl- she's the first female glider I ever got- mate to my first ever glider, Scout- and she means the world to me... I'm going to take a nap while my husband is awake enough to let me know if she is in distress....
Please tell Julie I am thinking of her! 
I'm so sorry to hear that. Glide free, little one.
