Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

My snake is about five months old. He's in a ten gallon with about 78-80 degrees on the warm end and 72-75 degrees on the cool end. He has fresh water every day and has never had shedding difficulties. He's never had any problems before, and has a great appetite. Yesterday he was fed a small fuzzy (his third ever, and smaller than a previous fuzzy). Although he's been fine in the past, I noticed something strange this morning.

He's been leaving drops of blood over the paper towels in his cage, and his vent is open and a bulging pink mass (his hemipenes?) is exposed. I think that this is what's bleeding, as it leaves a spot when he slithers around. Otherwise, he seems normal... but I'm really worried. Does anyone know what's causing this? What can I do to stop it, or will it go away on its own?

Thank you very much for your help, I'm really worried about my little guy.

~Lura

Sounds like prolapsed cloaca tissue.

Keep the area moist so it doesn't dry out. If you use sugar water, it may shrink and be pulled back inside the cloaca.

However, since you talk of bleeding and not just the prolapsed tissue, it would be best for you to take him to a vet.

Good luck.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

Current snakes:
1.0 '01 Hypo snow cornsnake (Tesla Coil)
0.1 '02 Ghost (pastel) cornsnake (Banshee)
1.1 '02 Bloodred cornsnakes (Desi and Luci Too)
To be added in February:
0.1 '98 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 '00 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

Thank you so much for your reply.

I just went to dab some sugar water on the tissue before contacting the vet, and the tissue was pulled back inside the cloaca. There is no blood around the area and it looks completely normal. This is about an hour after I first posted. What just happened here? I probably will still take him to the vet to get him checked out unless it's absolutely not necessary. What do you guys think?

Thank you very much,
~Lura

Taking him to a vet would still be a good idea.

My '03 corn did the same thing last winter...don't know why. It came out, went back, came out again and wouldn't go back in. It was dead a few days later.

Good luck with yours.

>>My '03 corn did the same thing last winter...don't know why. It came out, went back, came out again and wouldn't go back in. It was dead a few days later.
>>
>>Good luck with yours.

prolapses are often associated with impaction. too furry a first meal might be a culprit. But more likely I would suspect impaction on particulate substrate.
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Sonya

Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with the software.