My name is Elizabeth and I adopted 3, 1 year old neglected bonded gliders a week ago today. I did my research, and have a large cage, quality food (HPW diet), plenty of bonding and cage pouches and toys....Two of my new "babies" are amazing. Bandit and Stubby (yes, he has 1/2 a tail, hate to think what happened to him) will crawl on my husband and I and Bandit did his first glide to me for a raison. He also glided to my husband's face However, the third baby had to go to the animal ER today. He is eating and drinking and never was very social...understandably as he was shuffled from a home to a pet store to his forever home (me). I thought I would give him time, and would never pull him out of his pouch but today I looked in mid-day to give him a papaya treat for bonding (hubby thinks its funny that I carry them in a bonding pouch for 4+ hours a day) his left eye was blue! I used to work at a vet clinic, and I immediately took him to the animal ER. Thank goodness the doctor has treated gliders before....she told me that he has a severely ulcerated eye and gave me antibiotic eye drops. She said apply one drop to the infected eye every 4 hours. I will be doing this and waking up in the middle of the night to try and save my baby's eye. We will go to the regular glider vet tomorrow and see if it needs to come out. I am willing to pay what I have to have him taken care of, but can gliders live happy lives without one eye? I want to make sure that if I have to make the decision to either save him (YES) or euthanize him I know that his quality of life will be so poor I will be doing the right thing if I have to have him put down. Ugh! What a horrible thing to happen our first week! Any advice is much appreciated

I had a rescue come in that was blind in one eye and he did very well until the ravages of his former life claimed him after 18 months.

He ran in his wheel every night, he was the first one up for dinner, first one out for treats and went crazy for pasta.

For pasta he would hang on the side of the cage and do squats like a baby does in a play pen to get my attention.

See what the vet says, if the eye has to come out I am sure your little guy will adapt. He may not glide as far or possibly may not glide at all.

Just because he can't glide doesn't mean he can't live a good life.

Thank you so much for that post! I am able to feed him in his pouch, I've fed him mealies (holding them so the head doesn't whack him in the eye) fresh grapes and papaya. He is eating and making happy noises but his eye looks so bad... I will do anything to save my new baby. We named him T Rex because he was so bites but now I realise that he has just been in pain...I need to find him a name that means strength or courage. Thanks again So glad to know that I'm not alone.

Your baby can live with one eye if it comes to that.

Our thoughts are with you and him.

Here is a link to Eye issues on The Sweet Spot.
http://thesweetspot.forumotion.net/f2-eye-issues-blindness

You can also contact Val over there or Something To Believe in on here (they are the same person) as I am sure she has dealt with this type of issue before.

Good Luck Little Buddy.

Thanks so much for the resources.. It's so hard to find good info online! He seemed a bit better last night. Calling the vet in 30. According to the animal ER doc, she's very experienced with gliders. I am praying that he's going to make it! Feeling much more confident this morning.

If he is eating and drinking then there is no reason for you to have to euthanise him. He is no different then a dog or a cat. He will adjust to only having one eye. Like was stated he just might not glide. I have gliders here with both eye's that do not glide.

You can call Val anytime as she would be glad to help you. She gets calls 24/7

Sorry Val's screen name is Jackie Chans Mom on here.
http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/users/8199/Jackie_Chans_Mom
Her phone number is on the page above.

Thanks so much! All good advice. We have a vets apt at 3pm. I had to separate him from his brothers because they were crabbing at him constantly. I was worried that they were going to eject him from their "colony" for being sick

If the eye has to be removed your baby will be fine. I have a rescue, Owen, that had a severly damaged eye that had to be removed. When he came to live with me, I was nervous I would not know how to care for him. Owen does great with one eye. The only thing that is different about him, is that he will not run on a wheel. I think only having the one eye, he has issues with depth perception. Other than that, he is great!

Hey, if we humans can do it, so can a glider, especially if he's in captivity. I personally have no issues having a single eye... Until you ask me distance, haha.

Love this Making lemonade out of lemons

Thanks so much for everyone's advice! He is in a separate cage next to the other one. He is on clavamox, met cam and an antibiotic eye drop. vet says he might keep his eye. I told him to get as aggressive as he needed to but he doesn't think at this point he is going to lose it. Crossing my fingers. Considering neutering as well. I have hard horror stories about SM which is the only thing that would prevent me from doing it but if they are fighting I may have no choice.

As I have only had them for 7 days, is it reasonable that I ask the pet store for some sort of reimbursement?

I have a one eyed glider, Artie. The eye is not out, but completely whited out. I assume it was an ulcer that was igorned by the previous owner. It was too late to do anything about it when I picked him up but the vet and I tried. His mate is Peg. She's missing a leg. I don't know the story there. She hoped out of the sleeping pouch on the drive back home when I saw no foot and a dried bone sticking out. Both of the little handicaps work out fine, but I do try to approach Artie from his sighted eye, because I've started him a couple of time appproaching from the blind side and he bit me. Good luck, but I don't see it as a problem.