Young Female dying from Peritonitis

[Albiback]

Hello,

I had a young female glider named Tate who recently and rather suddenly died.  The vet from Vale Vets in Stinchcomb Glos., (very good vet!) did an autopsy and found the cause of death to be peritonitis.  If I understand this correctly the stomach wall has failed for some reason causing gastric fluids to poison the blood stream. I have had my 3 remaining males checked and they seem fine, so we think it is a one off.  Has anybody come across this before, I have searched the net and found many other poor animals suffering but no gliders? 

Thanks

Al

[lunar]

Hi Al, im very sorry to hear about your loss

Peritonitis is technically an inflammation of the peritoneum, which is a thin layer of tissue that lines all the organs inside the abdomen. Sometimes it is caused by fluids leaking from some of the organs in the abdomen, such as the stomach, intestines, or bladder, but the main cause of peritonitis is actually liver disease, which seems to be fairly common as a cause of illness/death n gliders. Do you know if your vet sent off liver samples to a lab for histology? When you talk about poisoning of the blood stream, that is actually something different and is called septicaemia.
Unless the cause is infectious I think your other gliders should be fine, i would just closely monitor them and make sure you keep the cage clean, feed a good diet and make sure they do not have access to any chemicals which they could eat/lick (such as unsuitable disinfectants).

I hope that has helped a little. Sorry again to hear about your loss.

[loulou]

Sorry for your loss Albiback

lunar, is there any chance you can do a little write up about liver disease and gliders? you seem to be well informed on the subject and you are right the liver does seem to be involved in a high percentage of glider deaths cause so it would be interesting to read.

[Albiback]

Hello,

Lunar thank you for the detail, I did find it difficult to understand at the time but I was quite upset.  I don't believe a liver sample was sent for further examination, is this normal practise?  I would quite like to provide some feedback to Vale Vets for future reference as they are seeing an increase in folk keeping gliders, so it may be that we can help increase their knowledge and help some other poor glider in doing so.

I now have 3 boys: 1 x adult intact "Cane", 1 adult neutered "Lyle" and 8 month old "Darwin", who's mum Tate died.  Their dynamics have change subtly "Darwin" has not always been allowed to sleep in their nesting box but sometimes is, any thoughts?  Should I think about introducing another adult female, obvisouly being aware of breeding but would that straighten things out?

I have just started a dog psychology course looking for a career change... "Glider Whisperer" !?

Thanks

Al

[Marie]

I'm really sorry to hear about your little one 

[lunar]

So am i right in saying you have two entire males and one neutered? I havent had any where near enough experience in introducing groups of gliders to say this with confidence but I think introducing a female may make things more volatile - you might be best keeping the three as they are now if the group remains stable and they arent fighting. another option would be to get the other two neutered too, or possibly even putting darwen with a female into a seperate cage if breeding was your intention, although if your three are getting on well then personally i wouldnt really want to seperate them.

lol ill have a bash at it this weekend loulou when ive kicked my brain into gear! see if i can come up with something worth reading - i tend to spit out bits of knowledge in dribs and drabs, getting it all into one may take a bit of brain power! ill stock up on the junk food...

[lunar]

Oh and i forgot to answer your question Al....they only send off tissue samples if they suspect a problem with that particular tissue. so if the liver looked normal to look at they probably wont have bothered sending off a sample. sometimes organs can appear normal but have microscopic changes to them that you can only see under the microscope when sections of the tissue have been fixed and stained to allow all the cells to be seen properly.

[Albiback]

Hello,

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and useful advise.

I will check how things go with the group and hope they settle down, if not I think you are right in suggesting the neutering Cane and Darwin.

Al