I have a glider named Natasha. When I got her she didn't have a name, but Natasha seemed to go with Rocky and Bullwinkle I already had. I stole her from my sister who didn't seem to think anything was wrong with her.  My mom called and
asked if I could b/c Heather really doesn't spend time with her, clean her cage, or will overfeed her so she doesn't have to be home to feed her for a day or two. I have noticed a few times when I have been over that she is alot thinner than my two kids, and I don't think that by any means they are fat.
      When we bought her @ x-mas Heather had mentioned that her back legs were kinda funny. Not that she was dragging one or the other, but she had a little bit of a time walking and running around her cage. Mom went out and bought RepCal for her, and they feed it regulary to her on her food at night. When  I brought Bullwinkle over to be with Rocky no one ever saw Natasha come out of her pouch. Heather said she was putting Repcal over her food, but the little thing never came out to eat. Natasha rarely came out of her cage, and her food was left in large amounts in her cage so she wouldn't have to be fed nightly
     Lastnight was the first time I really got to watch her to play since i brought her home three nights ago. Her back legs are WEIRD (note the cap letter when I say weird) "We shouldn't breed her with my male, we should breed my mom's glider who's back legs are stronger" is what she said.

3/5/2000
     Heather told us a short time later she was moving out of state so I decided just to take Natasha. I took her to see my vet a few days later because I just didn't
think her legs were right. She just Looked Wrong. Her hips seemed to be sunk in. Her whole back end just didn't look right. When she is bee-bopping around it looks like her hips had been broken and never healed right. She can launch herself, glide, and land, support herself on her hindlegs when eating, sat up looking around, or hanging on the cage. But she does this thing...I notice it when she is on top of the cage chewing on the clips that hold their toys. she like loses control of what her whole hind end is doing. it jumps around, and back and forth. She has even fallen over ! My other kids sometimes do this thing with their tails- it jerks and sways like a cross between a snake and a cat's tail. She does this with HER WHOLE BACK END. All jerky and jumping all over. I didn't know what it was. I thought HLP right at first watching her walk around, but how long can that go on with out getting any worse, or getting better. This has been three months now.
     The trip to the vet wasn't fun. Natasha isn't really bonded or friendly, so she bit everyone there including the vet, and me. We didn't know how we were going to take x-rays of her.  Finally we just decided to take the x-rays through her bonding pouch. .Two  x-rays.. We also took a pelvic x-ray to make sure her pelvis hadn't separated. It hadn't. So she doesn't have broken hips, or ostioperosis,  the bone mass in her skull was okay.  Her skull looked thick and white in the x-ray, but her little back legs you could see through and gray. They were so thin and transparent.
     She had very little muscletone in her hind legs. We decided since she wasn't getting any exercise her muscles were weakening, and couldn't support the eight or so tendons she has running over her knees. These would slide and snap causing her hind end to jump around when her concentration wavered.  All the funny jumping around she did with her back end, where it looked like her front and back end weren't talking to each other, was just that. Only two of those ligaments were strong enough to function right. Whenever she stopped thinking about keeping her legs where they needed to be those ligaments slipped, and caused her leg to jump.
     Metabolic Bone Disease was decided.  The vet gave me a prescription fluid to give her, Omingslix. It is high calorie for her being so underweight, high vitamin D3 to help her metabolize calcium faster, and vitamin C to prevent scurvy. A few drops everyday. I upped her Repcal on her foods, and added it to her Leadbeaters, gut load crickets, and vits in her water, added exercise was needed to strengthen the ligaments and muscletone.
     The vet thinks we should be able to see visable improvement in three weeks, and for us to come in for follow up x-rays in 30 days. But she is going to be just fine. she is alittle under weight. I took all three in ( I cheated. so she got a look at all of them) and the other two look to be in great health, but she wants to see Natasha gain a little.
 
3/28/2000 
     She seems to be doing so much better now. It's been not quite a month. Her weight has increased, and she looks healthier. She runs on her wheel for hours it seems at night now. Her hips don't look quite so sunken in, and her back end doesn't seem to "dance" so much anymore.

10/5/2000
After finding a new vet that I liked much better than the first I found out it wasn't hlp after all. After  Bounty1 from Glider Central recommended neo-calglucon I went
in and asked the new vet. She said to bring her in and we'd take a look at her. I
asked the old vet for the first x-rays we took so we could have a comparison. The bone density was better than the first films, but her problem never stemmed from low calcium levels. The new doc manipulated her hips and knees and found it to be an injury to her knees. The first vet was right about all those ligaments running over the knees and apparently Natasha either was born with them defective, or she hurt them when she was very young.  She is doing fine now with the exception of there being a little hitch in her git up and go.
 

Side Note from Bourbon: In my heart I believe that as the first doctor had suggested that HLP could have been a factor still, as the second set of x-rays revealed better bone density.  The exercise also may have been a contributing factor. The prescribed treatments obviously made some improvements. The second Vet revealed the ligaments were damaged even still. Once there is an injury to a ligament, it may never heal properly . I want to applaud Jax for her persistance in this matter and we all wish them both the best of luck.