Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I was feeding my ackies and one of my males has a serious intestinal prolapse. At least 1 1/2 - 2 inches is stuck outside of his body. Luckily I caught it very early no more than an hour or 2 at the most because he was fine earlier today. I have pulled him out of his cage and soaked him in the tub. Now he is in a rubbermaid container with about 1/2 an inch of water in the reptile room where it is about 85 degrees. THe tissue still looks pink and healthy and I can see feces inside the intestine. I have heard of this before but never had it happen. I am doing my own research but any help with what to do further would be greatly appreciated. Anyone with any knowledge or experience with this issue please respond.

Obviously, my first need is what to do to help him. After that I am hoping to figure out why this happened. Is it a husbandry problem on my part? Is it just something that sometimes happens? I have 14 other ackies and I have been breeding them and raising them for 4 years, so I am fairly experienced. I also keep pilbara monitors and 1 Kimberly. These are much more difficult than ackies as everyone knows and I definitely do not want this to happen to them, or to any other ackies. Once again any help with the current issue and future prevention advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks to everyone in advance.

Eric

I'm going to just take a guess at an impaction. I'm sure someone else will be of more help.

Prolapse can be associate to multitude of reasons but parasites or poor husbandry are often in cause.
A good vet is the best option if it isn't an option in your case try this...
Put it out of the water asap, put some sugar on the organs and push it gently back in place. Reduce your temps for a couple of days can also help. Don't put it back in water, it only get worse.
Hope this help.

See a vet as of yesterday!!
The prolapse was most likely caused by dehydration, coupled with stress, and/or possibly other problems.
You can correct the problems that led up to the prolapse but the prolapse needs medical attention.

Besides the sugar mixture that someone else mentioned...you can even use some sort of steroid hemrroidal cream like hydrocortisone cream or even Preparation H to apply to the prolapsed tissue. Get it back in before it becomes too engorged.

DR
Suboc.com

I just lost a chameleon to this same problem and unfortunately learned about it too late, now i could pretty much teach a class on prolapsed rectums (interesting!)Anyways, soaking in water/sugar mixture UNTIL you get it to the vet. vet is absolutely necessary seeing that i took my cham to the vet and it STILL died. no i am not being sarcastic but if it keeps happening (which it seems like it is) they will need to stitch up part of your lizards butt to prevent it in the future. I also read that squirting some KY jelly near and around the vent/ affected area will help shrink it back in. reasons for this are sometimes not related to husbandry but can include anything such as these stressed, dehydrated, constipated, full of parasites, and ended up with a partial blockage that weakened or damaged the intestine. Hope it gets taken care of, good luck!

Why is it that some of us in 20 plus years have never seen a prolapsed rectum in our own collections?
I can tell you that if you read "petstore reptile books" the reasons you listed are what they say causes them. But if kept properly these problems do not occur at all.
As was sadi a bit earlier, you can try the sugar water mixture but ONLY as a "first aid" treatment before you take the animal to the vet.
Your job as a keeper is to fix the environmental problems the lizard is dealing with which caused the prolapse, and never have it happen again. Just like respiratory infections, and mouth rot, these are the result of serious husbandry issues that have needed fixed a long time before you see the scondary problems and infections.