Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ed,my 6 year old (15 pound) sulcata was showing off his manhood and it seems to have gotten stuck OUT. Called my vet and will go in tomorrow but the nurse said they usually just amputate. Help! Is that necessary? Any suggestions or advice??

Seems rather radical to chop off his manhood.
Give him a long warm water soak, at least it will do no harm, & he may retract it on his own.

When my chameleons have a prolapse,the vet does a simple op which involves (under anesthetic) pushing the manhood back inside & sutureing the vent just a little.
Both my chams were back to normal within 2-3weeks.
My vet informs me that it's likly due to poor strength in the muscle walls caused through lack of calcium/vits...??

Stay lucky
graham(UK)

Like the other post said, soak him in warm water. I can see that
they would have to amputate if it got so dried out and had the
blood circulation cut off, but it doesn't sound that far gone.
Slap on some rubber gloves and try to work a bit of vaseline
around the area it goes back in at. Good luck, hope it's not
too late. Don't be squeamish right now, if you can help.

Don't touch it!!! You could really do some harm trying to force it back in yourself. If you really want try some sugar water to make it go back in but the best thing to do is to keep it moist and free from anything that could stick to it, bedding, ect. After its been out a certain amount of time it is very prone to infection and while amputation sounds radical it is often the only solution to keep the tortoise healthy. Let us know what happens. Since you are not going to the vet till tomorrow that is probably too long being out and it will have to be amputated.

Today Ed went to visit his vet. The vet said the organ still looked good after 2 days out, due to a lot of warm soaks and lots of K-Y jelly. So he took a conserative approach and re-inserted it manually. When he did he could feel a bladder stone. He x-rayed Ed and said it was just larger than a golf ball and there was no room for anything else. Ed was more comfortable hangin' out because the stone is just where his organ should be. So.... Monday he goes in for stone removal ($$$$) and hopefully all will be well. The lesson is more soaks, more water, water, water to drink. No more tortoise kibble for us, just the grass, weeds, more grass and juicy grocery greens served sparingly. If your guy is fanning and showing his stuff a lot and there is no girl to encourage this behavior, think about his diet carefully.

P.S. I especially think of Teddy and Nikki because I know Teddy does a lot of showing off and he was a real fast grower. That makes him a prime candidate for this according to my vet. BTW he's a very good tort vet whom I trust completely.
Zab