Update on Kentucky Gliders: A Tragedy

With every bit of thanks and appreciation to Dr. Tharp, Sugeebaby, and Tmarie.... this morning was incredible... thank you, for being there for me and helping me through this loss...

Early this morning, with Sugeebaby's help, I was able to get two of my intact male rescues neutered this morning. I got a call from my vet's office at about 10:30 letting me know the boys were fine and were ready to be picked up. Since I was so excited at getting my little guys back home, and also so proud of my joeys, Thing 1 and Thing 2, I decided to take the rest of the family to meet my vet.... this is a recounting of my morning.... bear with me, this is a sad post... and I pulled from cross-posts I've made on my glider boards to write this....

"Well, I took the entire family with me to the vet's office today so that the staff could meet the rest of the family. Dr. Tharp always takes such great care of my gliders (and all of my other animals, too). I opened the pouch, and they were just crabbing their little heads off. Everyone was as fine as could be, and they were just full of themselves. Now, keep in mind, I am only within a 15 minute drive to my vet's office.

OK, so, the Kentucky girls and joeys are mad, and they want to rest. I woke them up to bright lights, and they hate that. Fine, I zipped the pouch up, and I picked up the freshly neutered males (who are doing GREAT, by the way, they are up and at 'em and doing fine), and we headed for home.

We get home, and I decided to keep the males in a smaller cage next to their colony for some observation before I put them back in with their colony. Laser neutering is the best method, in my opinion, and I expect there to be no complications, since the last round of neutered males went exceptionally well. So, I set the neutered males cage down, and I begin to move the girls back into their cage pouch, and all is well. While I am at it, I thought, ok, I have a huge stack of papers to grade, since this is the end of the semester, I might as well snuggle these little men. The joeys, Thing 1 and Thing 2, begin to crawl out of the pouch, and they are so cute, that I can't wait to sit down for our snuggle.

Problem: Thing 2 is up and spry and ready to go (now, he's the cuddler, and the lazy one), but Thing 1 is NOT looking good. He seems almost lifeless, and I am wondering, "What in the heck?!" I call for John, and I ask him to take a look at him, and he said, "Aww, he's just sleepy, and you woke him up, he'll be ok." Well, that was reassuring for a bit, but I took another look, and his movement was so slow and deliberate.

Now, I have had a bunch of gliders for awhile now, and I've raised a few joeys, but THIS just did NOT look like a sleepy glider waking up. He really seemed limp. So, I checked his skin for signs of dehydration, and he was "tenting", and I immediately got Dr. Tharp on the phone, and told him that we had just got home and one of the joeys did not seem well. I explained that his little nose and hands were pale-looking, and he was not very alert. I tried to give him just a dip of water with a syringe, and he took just enough to wet his tongue... but most of it went down his chest. I'd handfed my little AnnaBear, and I do not believe that anything went down the wrong way. There was no signs of anything like that, at all.

I called for John and he drove us to the vet's office right away while I held this little one in my hands (Andrea had thoughtfully warmed up a little blankie for him), and I held him and talked to him all the way to the vet's office. He decided he'd try to get out of his blankie, and he did manage to crawl out, and that was reassuring... He looked up at me, and he tried to walk around on my chest, but he was struggling, and I just cuddled him up in my hand and held him.

Once we got to the vet's office, he clearly looked like he was slipping further away. Dr. Tharp also checked for signs of dehydration, and he said he needed (forgive me if I spell this incorrectly) a lactated ringer and a blah blah blah - I was so worried about Thing 1, I didn't even clearly hear the second part... he showed me how to do this injection, and he prepared a second syringe for me to take home with me, in case he needed it later, since this was a weekend.

Cool... now, just before he got his shot, he turned and nipped Dr. Tharp right on the finger, at this point, I am thrilled, -- that's MY Thing 1, full of sass, and he ain't a gonna take this without a fight -- I was very hopeful...

But, while Dr. Tharp went to get that second syringe... Thing 1 took a gasp, and he shuddered... my heart started to break... I called for him, and I said, "Is this just a reaction to the shot, or is this the beginning of the end -- is there ANYTHING else that you can do?" Dr. Tharp said yes, and he went back in for another syringe. Again, I might get this word wrong, but it sounded like ep-uh-phen-ed-run (sorry, my attempt at phonetic spelling for what I THOUGHT I had heard). He seemd to move a bit, and I held him, because I know keeping them warm in times of stress is very important... then, he seemed to get very still.

I asked Dr. Tharp if this was just a little shock, or if he was passing, and he said I'd have to just hold him for a bit and wait and see... I held him close, I talked to him, I petted him, and kept him warm as I could... Dr. Tharp had done every single thing he could have done... but, just a few moments ago... here at the house, I knew he was gone... Thing 1 had passed and left us all.

I don't know what this was. He was fine this morning, just full of sass and spunk, just like I like my gliders (with attitude), and now, he's gone...

I know this may seem very strange, but I did take pictures of this little man. You can see his coat was very healthy. He weighed in at 46 grams, and he is approximately four weeks OOP. At this point, since I just found out his mother was pregnant, she may be stressing; so, I have decided to pull Thing 2 from his colony and handraise him. Since mommy is carrying twins, she probably just can't handle nursing right now. I just can't believe this. Thing 1 was fine one minute, and gone the next....

Goodbye, my little man, we did everything we could have thought to have done, and we will miss you so very much.

Goodbye, Thing 1