One more question for those of you who have gliders that have had surgery - how often did you check on them when they were not wearing an e-collar?

Well, when Joey had his penis forks removed, he hated the collar. For the first two days he spent a lot of time trying to get it off and the rest of his time trying to sleep. I put a shoebox on its side and draped fleece over it for privacy as well as putting fleece in the corner to sleep on. I found that keeping him with me during the day in a large bonding pouch let him rest, and then at night I did tent time with my gentler female glider. It picked up his spirits greatly to play with another glider. After a few days I let her nap during the day with him.

Once the collar comes off, I still kept him in the pouch during the day, checking on him when I felt him move or every hour, whichever was shorter. At night I pretty much camped out near the cage for the first couple days, doing homework and reading while he ate and ran in the wheel, played with him in the tent, and put a sleeping bag on the floor. It sucked, and it may have been overkill because he never went after himself, but on the other hand I would have been right there in an emergency.

Now, the other gliders were NOT fans of the collar, and when it came off, there was a little skin rubbed raw. The girls sniffed that area but didn't mess with it.

Prayers and hopes heading your way...

Just a quick update - Things are going well, since there had been no signs of trouble, we cut back to checking on Minnie every two hours last night and she slept though most of it. I carried her in a pouch with me for most of the day, and she slept pretty much the entire time, although she did wake up briefly to eat a pumpkin seed - first one she has wanted in a while.

I am happy for the good report! I have been thinking of you both so often, please give her a kiss from me.
Angie

I just got a call from the vet. She got the preliminary results from the pathologist, and it is a malignent carcenoma and it was all the way out to the edges of the mass that was removed. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Minnie goes in for a check on the site on Wednesday, so I will get more information then.

AWW!! I'm so sorry it was cancerous! I am praying they removed all of it!! Hang in there!And good luck on Wednesday! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

Oh no!! You and Minni are in our prayers. We all just have to believe that they got it all. Honestly, that could be the case, my aunt had thyroid surgery to remove her thyroid because it was not working and had a knot in it. The docs said it didn't appear to be cancer and were not concerned, but once it was out and sent off for testing, it came back as cancer. Luckily, when they did the surgery, that had removed ALL of the cancer and she is still cancer free. So, NEVER EVER give up hope. BIG SUGGIE HUGS to you!

Hi all,

Yesterday was vet check day for Minnie - everything is healing well and Minnie hasn't been fussing with the site at all (although she has been doing a lot more grooming than I have normally seen). The vet hasn't recieved the final report from the pathologist yet, so we are still in a wait and see pattern in that regard. One piece of good news is that Minnie has gained weight - she is now 71 grams, but she still feels and looks very thin to me.

I put Minnie in with Wally last night and the night before since they were both appearing upset when they were separated after playtime. I put a lot of extra pouches and sleeping places in the cage last night, since the night before Minnie has slept in a plastic igloo on the floor most of the night (and then under the paper at the bottom of the cage for the rest of the night). I think that she stayed in one pouch all of last night - at least she was in it the couple of times I got up and checked on her.

Minnie hasn't been eating much other than the Ensure, with and without the insectivore Recovery Formula, and about 1/2 a grape a day. She has probably been eating/drinking about 1 Tablespoon of Ensure a day, so I am starting to cut back on that a bit and see if she starts eating more of the regular food. With the two of them together, it will be harder to tell how much Minnie is actually eating, other than what I see her eat during playtime, so we are going back on Saturday for another weight check.

Hugs to all of you, know you are thought of and prayed for… <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

You are taking such good care of her. She is very lucky to have you. Both you and Minnie will be in our prayers. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

Hi all, just a quick update.

After 7 days, it was time to take Minnie off the Medicam. Last night was the first night with no pain meds, and almost immediately she started fussing with the site. One of the stiches (they are all independent loops) had been partly pulled out, and she was obviously trying to pull it out. I'm not sure if she had pulled it out herself or if Wally had snagged it or if it had started to absorb and released itself, but there was a distinct loop sticking out at the top of her pouch.

We got the e-collar that the vet had given us on her, but she spent most of the night fighting it and still is not happy at all. Since we were able to get the collar on so that she wasn't able to get it off, there was no bleeding from the site, and we were already scheduled to go back to the vet for a weight check this morning, we decided to see how the night went before rushing to the emergency vet. Other than trying to get the collar off most of the time when she wasn't being held on my stomach, it was a fairly quite night.

The visit to the vet went fairly well, everything is healing well, she hasn't lost any of the weight (may have gained a little bit, but it is hard to say for sure with the collar on) and she hadn't done any damage. The vet snipped the loose stitch off and cleaned up an large scabbed area, but is happy with the way it is healing. The vet put her back on Medicam for another 5 days and wants us to keep the collar on her for 24 hours before trying it off again.

I have the materials to make the "shot glass" style e-collar, but need to find the template (I'm about to go searching now). I would really appreciate if anyone can send me or point me to the template (I found the one from the EVF fund, but it doesn't look like it is the same shape, and when I print it out the dimensions don't match with what is shown in the image).

P.S. I sent a PM to Xfilefan - hopefully will hear from her soon.

[:"blue"] I looked and couldn't find the dimensions either.

Jen usually comes on later at night so hopefully she will be able to help you.

Just remembered I have a couple of Jen's. It is 2 1/4" wide X 7 1/2" long. I hope that helps. [/]

[:"blue"] Here are the photos of Jen's e-collar plans and here are the directions:

[/]ECOLLAR INSTRUCTIONS

1.) Trace template onto clear plastic notebook cover, then cut out.
2.) 1 sheet Dr. Scholls molefoam- cut 2 strips ¼” along long edge.
3.) Remove one adhesive strip and stick one on top of another leaving one adhesive strip for later.
4.) Cut ¾” off of dual layer molefoam- remove backing and adhese to clear plastic as shown.
5.) 1 sheet moleskin- sut a strip 1-3/8” wide down length
6.) Cut slits ½” deep at ½ “ intervals down length
7.) Turn collar over molefoam side down. Remove backing from moleskin. Affix uncut edge to collar- about ¼” of it
8.) From the middle of moleskin- wrap around over molefoam, maintaining contours. Trim excess mole from edge.
9.) Cut 1/2” strip from moleskin
10.) Remove backing and adhese over slitted mole skin.
11.) Cut 1 strip 1-3/4” long X 5/8” wide
12.) Remove backing and place on edge of collar
13.) Wrap around edge of collar
14.) The Complicated Collar- Apply a small amount of duct tape, Fold a small amount of duct tape over to make a tab for easy removal.

Thanks Karen.

The dimensions say 2 1/4" wide and 4 1/2" straight across the inner edge. When I print the image, it comes out more like 2" wide.

This is the first time that I've had to use the e-collar, so I really want to make sure that it is the right size.
Anyone else have a template image that is the right size?

[:"blue"] I have measured everyway and I can't get the 4 1/2 inner edge. I used a tape measure and went around the bottom edge to get mine second measurement. I didn't see any dimensions on Jen's directions unless I just missed them.

I even put my bifocles on <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> [/]

I just heard from Jen. She sent me a file with the template, and I'm going to print it out now. Hopefully it will come out the right size.

[:"blue"] <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" /> Jen. [/]

Thanks Jen and Karen. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" />

I made the e-collar and we got it on Minnie. She still doesn't like it, but she isn't as off balance with this one as the traditional one that the vet put on her. We had to trim the width of the collar a bit, and I had to combine two pieces of moleskin to go all the way around the inside edge (our moleskin in Canada is 4 1/8" in length, the moleskin in the US must be about 5"), so I alternated which end the second piece was on, and it seems to have worked ok.

Minnie has had the collar on for almost 1/2 hour now, and she is able to walk around - big improvement. She is in a back-pack style pouch that I am carrying right now, and is quite calm. I'm going to put the pouch in the travel cage and put it beside the bed for the night, and see if she will stay calm and let me get a bit of sleep.

I'll post an update in the morning.

Thanks again.

[:"green"]Thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear that the e-collar is working okay for her now that you've got the shot-glass style collar on her. Hopefully she'll leave the site alone when the collar comes back off since the vet extended her treatment of Medicam.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug2.gif" alt="" />

Morning. We made it through another night, but neither of us got much sleep. Minnie would calm down for about 1/2 hour, and then she would start fighting the e-collar again, and keep at it until she pretty much exhausted herself. Looking at it, you wouldn't know that it was new at 10pm last night - it is all scratched up, and has holes chewed through it in several places. I'm not sure if we didn't get it on her properly or not, because the pictures don't look like what we ended up with it on her, and they don't look like a glider could get at the plastic to bite through it.

She managed to slip it off once during the night, but I caught her at it and we got it right back on her. She got it off again this morning just as Gilles was getting up to take over. She isn't messing with the stiches, so we are going to try leaving the collar off and see how it goes.

Things are still going well. Minnie hasn't been fussing with the site at all, and seems to be getting back to her normal self (although she is still sleeping a lot).

Minnie is still doing well, although still sleeping a lot more than normal. She hasn't fussed with the site anymore, and is back in with Wally again (they both get so upset when they are apart).

Friday night will be the next test, as we are supposed to stop the Medicam again after tonight. I'm going to have a close look at the site tonight and if it still has an exposed stiches, I'm going to talk to the vet tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the thoughts, prayers, and help.

Hi all. Minnie is still doing well <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" />, but is still sleeping a lot. She will sleep until I get her up in the evening, and then doesn't stay out for more than 1/2 an hour. She is coming out during the night some to eat, as I saw her out and eating some of the fruit and veggies the evening before last.

The vet is happy with the way the site is healing, and Minnie has gained another gram (up to 73 grams now). We kept the Medicam going over the weekend and tonight, so tomorrow night will be the next test.

Minnie is now off of Medicam and isn't messing with the site at all. YEAH!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/multi.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" />

She still isn't very active and I have to get her up at night, but she seems to be stable weight wise. I'll be taking her back to the vet this week for a check-up, so will post an update then.

Thank you for the great update. I think about you and Minnie alot and keep you both in my prayers.
Angie

Thanks for all the updates. She is so very lucky to have ya'll as parents. You're doing such an incredible job. I continue to send prayers and good luck wishes your way <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/heartpump.gif" alt="" />

I'm so glad Minnie is doing well. You are being such great glider parents with all the care and attentiveness you are giving her. I hope she continues to heal well and gets back to her old self soon.

Minnie had her check-up yesterday, and everything is great. She is maintaining her weight (72 grams) and the site is healing up wonderfully.

Her nails were getting long (probably due to the decreased activity level), so the vet trimmed them while we were there.

Minnie didn't want to come out of the coconut last night at playtime, so I brought it out of the cage and fed her crickets by hand (she ate 5). I looked in on them when I got up to the bathroom during the night, and Minnie was out and eating. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yelclap.gif" alt="" />