Urgent Advice needed! Life threatening (pet-related)

[Jay_Bunny]

Our gliders have been energetic and healthy for as long as we've had them. Even today, I saw them playing around in the cage. We did notice that Opellio was becoming very territorial over his food but we made sure both were getting enough. I will admit though, we have not taken the boys out for play time as we are slowly trying to win them over by just being in the room more often and sitting by the cage.

Tonight we went to get the dishes to feed the gliders and my fiance came running over to me telling me there was something wrong with our boys. I go in to check saying "They are probably just tired from all the playing they did today) but when I go in to check them out I was horrified. They can barely walk!

They hardly have any sense of balance and their ears are held back. They have no energy to speak of and they wobble when they move anywhere. We are afraid they will fall from the top of the cage and hurt themselves as one has already demonstrated that he had no balance. We are worried sick about them and I will be at the vet's door tomorrow morning before they even get to work.

What could this be? We keep them in the same room as rats, mice, snakes, and one lizard. Also, one of our breeder mice died yesterday at the young age of 11 weeks old (she was to be upgraded to breeder once she was 12 weeks old). It was very sudden and she had similiar syptoms to the boys. Lethargic though she did try and right herself when off balance. She made attempts to eat and I gave her water but she died a few hours later. It was very sudden, much like what is happening to our boys, so I am scared to death.

Anyone? Help? Please?

[JLC]

Ohhh man....I wish I had some sort of help to offer, but I don't know the first thing about gliders. But I'll say a prayer for the little fuzzies! I hope you're able to get to the vet in time to discover whatever it is and treat it! I know you really care about your critters.

Is it remotely possible that there is some sort of contaminant in the room? Or maybe an airborn virus or bacteria. Whatever it is, I hope the little guys are strong enough to get through it!!

[Jay_Bunny]

We are currently evacuating all mammals (except for the affected gliders) from that room and moving them downstairs into the living room.

Our female glider, Gizzy seems to be in good health as she has perfect balance and tons of energy, but all animals in the house will be taken to the vet just in case they may have caught whatever is attacking our boys.

[Jay_Bunny]

What we are terrified of is the fact that our 11 week old to-be breeder mouse died last night. She had been fine the day before and had been scurrying around eating and chewing. We found her yesterday when we went to feed the rodents and she wasn't moving. I picked her up and she just lay in my hand. We thought that perhaps she was dehydrated (and she was. Her skin did not fall back in to place as it should) and so we gave her drops of water and tried to get some food in her (soaked puffed rice in water to make it soft) but she wouldn't even chew. She died 8 hours later.

Temperatures stay around 72-75 in the house due to the fact we have reptiles. We did have an issue two days ago with our oven. We had not used our oven yet and were going to make some dinner and while the oven was heating up, the smoke alarm started going off and we turned the oven off and opened the door to let out whatever gases had been in the house. There was no smoke, just gas. The downstairs alarm did not go off because I think it is broken but the upstairs one did. The door to the animal room is always shut so I don't think much, if any, gas got into that room. We could only smell it downstairs and very faintly in the hallway upstairs. The smell of gas was absent in both bedrooms.

[Jay_Bunny]

I have never kept an eye on my glider's weight but now its even more urgent then before and I feel like such a complete idiot. Both boys are extremely underweight. I don't see how it could have gotten like this? Both boys are around 70g. A normal glider weighs between 110-130g I'm guessing by looking around on the internet. We are going out now to the 24hr walmart to get them Pedialyte and I cooked them up some egg to add to their dinner tonight.

As of right now they are eating. We have moved them into a plastic tub lined with paper towels. This is to prevent them from hurting themselves and so that we can better keep an eye on them. I have a feeling I will get no sleep tonight. I will be keeping watch over them all night tonight.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers tonight.

[Kathleen]

Sorry to hear about this! I hope they pull through. Stay optimistic.

[LadyOhh]

Absolutely. Keep us updated.

[Jay_Bunny]

We found a 24hr emergency vet about 20 min from us. We took them there and the vet said they were hypoglycemic. We are to feed them twice a day over the next few days to make sure their blood sugar levels stay steady. They are back to their normal selves and we are very relieved.

[tweets_4611]

Good!! I'm glad it was something relatively simple to diagnose and keep steady. I don't know that I have ever thought about animals being hypoglysemic...my mom and I both are, but it hasn't ever occured to me that animals could be too. I don't konw why....

Good luck with them! They have a good home with you and you seem to be taking very good care of them! ^_^

[frankykeno]

Off topic but not really off topic. First I'm glad the gliders are going to be okay of course, but what I'm worried about is your stove.

Call your gas company. When they hooked up the gas did they do the walk through and check your stove. If not, they should have (ours does). If it is expelling gas that needs addressed immediately.