For future reference, Stewie was neutered at 9 -10 wks oop.

A few days before I was scheduled to pick Stewie up from Kim, she and I decided to have her vet perform the Lazer neuter. She has taken many a glider in for this procedure, and I felt more confident with her vet than I did mine.

The plan was to take Stewie from Mom and Dad, neuter, and put him back with them until I picked him up. That way his stress level would be fairly low. Well, it didn't turn out that way...

He was dropped off the night before and picked up by her after work the next day.

So what happens next was a first for Kim...

When she picked him up they told her he went after the surgery area (I think when he woke up from anesthesia. Kim help me out). Anyway, they put and e-jacket on him after this incident and then glued his now injury back together. This should have not been glued for many reasons (I'll get in to that later).

He was put on pain meds for 3days and antibiotics for 5days.

Kim had to give him a bath, he was covered in dinner from the night before. He was quite a mess. (Pics later)

So when we picked him up, we went over meds and care of wound area. She showed me his now glued wound, and another area of glue that was stuck to his inner left leg. She told me all glue had to come off before he could be free of his ejacket...

Ok, sounds easy enough...

Disclosure: I honestly feel for anyone else, Kim would have kept this sugar glider until he was out of his jacket. If we had delayed my trip for her to care for him, I would have missed out on post care of a neuter gone wrong. This so far has been very educating for me. Thank you Kim for having enough confidence in me to go through this.

To be continued...

I have never had a glider go after himself after a pom off neuter. If I had been there, he would have gone into the jacket with no glue.

I wish they had called me first before glueing him.

I really wish they had called.

So i finished up giving him his antibiotics twice a day on Tuesday night, I had help groom him below the ejacket about every other day. He was not happy.

On the 7th morning after neuter, I took him out of his jacket and we had some tent time so he could get some much needed grooming and run and stretch. I could observe him and keep him away from the wound in case he went after it.

After an hour, I scooped him up for a much needed bath. This was a first for me. I ran warm water 3/4" at the deepest point. He didn't get soaped up, just a 3 minute soak. I was way too busy trying to keep from getting bit and keep him in the water.

After that I wrapped him in a flannel kitchen towel to snuggle and dry him off. He was asleep in 5 minutes, but held him for almost 2hours rubbing him dry and rubbing the area where the ejacket had been.

After that, I started to really look at all the glue... It was stuck hard and in places stuck down to the skin. I trimmed off what I could on his leg. The wound scab hadn't come loose yet. I decided to put him into a bonding pouch instead of putting him back in his ejacket. Bad idea. He started lunging at the glue and wound.

It took 5 attempts, 1 escape and 5 bloody bites before I got him in his jacket correctly. I put quick derm on his wound and checked every day, reapplied. The glue started to soften somewhat and I removed more of it. Scab finally came loose after another 4 days, and on day 14 the scab came off. I worked on the excess glue but was affraid I was going to injure him.

So another tent time, without jacket for an hour.

Then a bath. I did dilute some Dawn dish soap this time and rubbed his lower area, so the bath just became a rinse of about 30 seconds. More cuddle time, but instead of sleeping, Stewie was grooming. He pulled some glued fur off, made a bald spot. But he never chewed on himself. I decided to leave ejacket off and watch him close for agression towards this area for 48 hours. All he did was remove a little more glue and fur.

He still has a small chunk left but it's flat on skin.

That was 2 days ago. He still has the glue spot, but he's not chewing on himself. It looks good.

Now the bonding process can start!

Thanks Kim for this experience!

.. Wow. I don't know what else to say. Yay learning experiences?

I'm glad everything turned out as well as it did!

Lol! Well, for me as a moderator I either parrot what I read, or share my own experience when someone needs advise or help. Plus Kim was a text or phone call away.

We chatted daily through this whole ordeal. Stewie even got to talk to her!!!!!

Oh, I just checked his belly and all the glue is gone?!!

Now I'm concerned about a bowel obstruction.... I never found any glue or fur in his cage or bedding

He's going for a well check next week. Just to have a baseline for future use. Oh and to turn in his neuter record.

*bark bark bark* *crab* *chirp* *CHIRP!!* *Hiss* *pfssst*

Do you know what this not-fuzzy-hooman-tree-thing has been doing to me, mom's-hooman-snack-tree?!?! Sure, there's cuddles... & snacks... & food... & play time... but she makes me take a bath! A BATH!!!

He got a bath at my house before Dawn ever picked him up. Easy peasy!

Easy for you to say! Did he jump out of the sink, on to a cold coffee pot, when I tried to pull him off, he grabbed the handle for dear life and dumped about a half a cup of cold coffee all over the counter? Did he startle the bejesus out of you when he jumped on your arm not once but twice crabbing the "I'll kill you" montra and start biting your arm, all while you have a hold of his tail? I just knew I was going to hurt him and break it.

That was the first bath. Needed 6 hands just to hold his frantic butt.

I put three inches of water in the sink so he had to swim and I held onto the base of his tail by his butt and let him swim around.

I guess I had the home field advantage and this wasn't the first sugar glider I have bathed, he was number four or five.

It's been almost 4 years since I handled a Joey. Fiona was never so robust. This little guy is healthy and smart and very active.