If you have read my story about what Roseanne went through over a year ago
it will help you to better understand what we are going through now. I
noticed on 12/21/99 that Roseanne's mate Dan had some swelling on the right
side of his face. It was swollen so badly that his right eye was nearly
swelled shut. I took him in to see the vet. He was so calm that she was
really surprised at how calm he really was, and him a wild caught glider. I
told her about Roseanne's history. With Roseanne she had to be anestized to
examine her well. Dan did not need that. She finally got him to crab a bit
so that she could look at his teeth, especially his molars and they looked
great. She then shaved his cheek so that she could look for wounds, again
she did not have to anestize him to do this. He didn't even crab at her
while she did it, though he did try to pull his head down into the towel
that the tech was holding him with and she told the tech that he was going
to have to hold his head up a bit further so that she could shave him.
Again she found no problems, no wounds there. His eye was okay so it wasn't
an irritant. Under his bottom eye lid was very red and inflamed. Again she
found no wounds, no scabbing or scaring or any sign of penetration to the
mucosa of the eye lid. She gave him a shot of steroids for the swelling and
put him on Baytril with dextrose. She said that this may be some swelling
that would resolve itself on it's own but we didn't want to take chances.
He gets his Baytril twice a day. On the night of 12/21/99 his eye was
swelled shut. So he went from bad to worse. Last night 12/22/99 it was
still swelled shut. I will send in an update when there is a change in his
condition. I should mention that he has not had a change in activity level
nor in appetite.
 
 

On 12/31/99 Dan went back to the vets. She wrapped him up in a towel so
that she could get a better look at him. She looked at me with shock and
dismay in her eyes. She said, "I don't know how to tell you this." I
stopped her right there and said, "His skin is sloughing off." She looked
at me very surprised. She said, "You didn't tell me this on the phone. You
didn't tell me this. Why didn't you tell me this?" I told her that I had
just noticed it like that this morning. I also informed her that Roseanne's
did the same thing. She said, "Please tell me that she is okay." I told her
that Dr. Steve saw her after she had given birth and nearly weaned her son
and that he said that she looked like a totally different glider. That you
couldn't even tell that she was the same animal. I told her to give Dr.
Steve a call and talk to him about how Roseanne did. I told her that we got
a C & S on the wound on Roseanne and found two organisms at work there and
that one was sensitive to the Baytril and the other was sensitive to
neomycin so we continued the Baytril for another ten days on her and
cleaned the wound with peroxide and applied neosporin to the wound.
        With Dan however we never found any type of wound. She was very anxious
and showed Dan to several vets their as well as the techs. She wanted them
all to see his wound, the severity of it and kept telling them that I had
assured her that he would be okay. I bothers me a bit that the vets would
turn to me for comfort. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
        Anyway she said that treatment sounded like a good plan of action. She
gave me more Baytril and instead of applying neosporin she gave me an
antibiotic eye ointment because when his skin sloughed off his bottom eye
lid came off with it. His eye now has an ulceration on it.
        I insisted on a C & S to find out what organisms he has their and make
sure that we are treating him with the right antibiotics. The differences
between Dan and Roseanne. Is that with Roseanne we found two tiny wounds,
with Dan there were none. Another difference is that her eye was not
affected. Also she had a thick yellow drainage that Dr. Steve said looked
like refrigerated Parkay, not the kind that has been sitting out for awhile
but the refrigerated kind. Dan's drainage started just a couple of days ago
and it was clear. Roseanne stopped eating, I had to force feed her for
three days. Dan has a healthy appetite. She said that he eats like a little
pig. He was chowing down on a piece of critter cookie at the time that she
said that.
        I did Dan's treatment last night. It is to be done twice a day until we
get the results of the C & S back. I hate to say it but this looks ugly. I
can nearly see the bone under his eye. I do hope that he doesn't loose his
eye over this. Dan and Roseanne both are wild caught gliders but I have had
them for over three years now and I love them dearly. Right now they are
more tame than a lot of peoples captive bred gliders. It took me nearly two
years to gain their trust and I could never part with them unless it was
through death.

01/06/2000
His prelim. report on the C & S came in and he does
have staph. intermedius growing in the wound. It is sensitive to the
Baytril and the Vetropolycin that I am using. He has had no further drainage.

1/09/2000
Dan had not eaten in two days so I called his vet to speak with her about
this. I told her that I thought that Baytril would cause a loss of
appetite. She did some research and called me back. She confirmed that my
suspicions were correct and she changed his antibiotic to SMXTMP.5NYST.1SORB
Tonight he drank his gliderade as if he weren't going to get any more. I
thought that he would burst before he finished. It sure made me feel good
to see him eat like that again.

1/14/2000
Dan went back to the vet on 1/13/00. She now has me using the
Vetropolycin eye ointment every two hours after wiping the eye with
spring water on a cotton swab to help to keep the eye moist. She wants to continue his antibiotic until Sat. 1/15/00. She tells me that with the pressure
behind his eye the ulceration is growing not only outward to cover more of
the eye area, but it is also protruding more and could possibly rupture.
Another possibility is that it could end up being so painful to him that
she would want to remove it. It is also possible that it will heal but not
likely.
She wants to see him again in a weeks time. I told her that his
appetite was off and he was eating precious little and she tells me that his
weight is up from 96gms to 110 gms. Must be the gliderade.

01/21/2000
Dan went back to the vet on 1/20/00. She said that he was healing
well and needed no further antibiotics. His third eye lid was intact and
functioning well, and she even saw evidence of a bottom eye lid beginning to
grow back.  His eye it's self is healing from the ulceration as well and she
thinks that it is going to be okay. She wants me to continue his
treatments as I have been and she wants to see him again on the 31st.

3/6/2000
I was in the hospital till 3/3/200. While there Chuck did Dan's treatments, but could not do them every two hours. He would be gone for work at the least 10 hrs. a day, then he had to sleep sometime. I thought sure that Dan would be healed enough to go back in with Roseanne and their sons by now. Not so. He still has a tiny area below the right eye that is red and weeping just ever so slightly and his eye is still a cloudy color indicating that the ulceration of it is still there. I told Chuck that I think that he needs to be seen again. So after I get him in to see his vet I will let everyone know how things are going.

3/12/2000
Dan had another visit to his vet on 3/10/00. She looked at the tiny red
wound on his face and said that the healing process had stopped. She said to put him back in with Roseanne and his babies. I did that. He had not seen his boys but is just the best of Daddys. One little boy stood on his back legs up against a corner of the nest box and crabbed at Dan. He took the boxer stance and even swiped at Dan a couple of times with one front paw like he was going to tear his Daddy up. Dan just sat there looking at him as if to say, "Oh yeah just what do you think you are going to do."