Hello!
My name is Otto. I live in Sweden. I've had sugar gliders for 7 years. I started with 2, Luna and Tindra. Luna happened to be pregnant. She gave birth during my purchase of her. I named the new girl Ori.
Now Ori has always been a firecracker, high octane speed devil. I love her. A bit of a nibbler. But going back 1.5 years, Tindra, after multiple siezures and becoming blind and was prone to accidents, didnt clean herself, damaged teath and couldnt have hard food. Very reluctantly and a bit too late I made the call to have her put down. It broke my heart. Fast forward to May of this year, Luna (mother) died in her sleep of I assume old age. She was well passed 15 years old. Never had any problems. Ori was alone, technically. I spend 3-5 hours with her every day after Luna died to fulfill her social needs (she was never realy social with her mother while climbing/playing. So I assumed some gliders are more or less social than others) Regardless, I didn't want to take on the responsibility of a new glider just to appease Ori. I would fill the gap.
This was fine for 2-3 months until last Sunday. She was a little slower than usual. And I noticed her breathing alot faster. She tilted her head up a few times and she was breathing with an open mouth. I did some research and suspected pneumonia or some airway infection. Took her to the vet on Monday and got prescribed anti-biotics and anti-inflammatory. She had a UTI when she was 1 year old and got the same anti-biotics and that cleared it up. She hasn't had a problem since.
Now I have to stress, Sugar gliders are a very nische, rare pet to have in sweden. They're legal, with some strict terrarium rules. But the rarity of them makes most vets around me less knowledgeable. They know the medicine to weight needs, but they don't know the animal or the stress levels they can tolerate and they don't know the finer details.
Moving on, after treating for 5 days with bactrim, Ori has stayed slow (barely any activity), rapid breathing, Squeaky/popping breathing , lethargic, uninterested in her staple food (good calcium to phosphorous ratio, 40-50% protien, She eats better than me, Learned most of the diet from everyone here) She's more clingy when i cuddle with a hand in the pouch, she wont let go if she's awake. On Tuesday i had her in my hand and massaging her face to lul her to sleep. White mucous gathered on her lower eye. I removed it with a wet cotton swab, she didn't mind too much, flinched a little.
Every morning this week she's been awake in different places and just looked around sitting still. She's nowhere near as active as she was normally. I cleaned out the whole terrarium from most things and completely sanitized everything.
video of Ori eating a piece of banana. I took on Wednesday. Notice the faster than normal breathing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE3hv3fzZfkI cant find any lumps to indicate Lumpy jaw, No abscesses, I did count her BPM to 86 when sleeping. I'm worried that its cancer or a heart issue.
Does anyone recognize the behavior / symptoms combinations? What can I tell my vet if its an organ issue?
