Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello again. It's been quite a while since I've posted here. I read regularly and learn a lot all the time. Since my last post Little Blue has been happily crunching crikets and living in his new big cage. About a month ago we noticed that he has grown what look like testicles near his vent. We thought at first it was calcium buildup from over powdered crickets. In the two years I have been watching/reading this forum, I've never seen anyone with a lizard with this problem. Is this normal, cancer ?? Very strange. This morning I was lucky to catch him hanging on the door of his cage and managed to snap a picture. It is a little hard to see through the wire mesh but I blew it up the best that I could. Any suggestions regarding what is wrong would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello,
From what I've heard here that is serious a problem. Someone else will have to explain it to you, since I can't remember what to do about it and am not positive it is what was talked about before.

Good luck,
Morgan

Those are "hemipenes" look at this word on your favorite websearch.

Look at platinumtlc thread named : "So took my collared to the vet" below.
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Sara - Female Eastern Collared
30 X 16 X 12 enclosure
Full carpet
UVB 8.0

Oh boy. This does not sound good. So since it sounds like a major case of lizard penis hemeroids, what do I do to get the swelling to go down. Obviously, I should try and put them back while they are that swollen. Should I take him off of sand?

They say you must keep it lubrificated with K-Y lotion (any waterbased lubrificant).

I would remove sand to make sure no sand sticks to his rear.

So ...
Remove sand,
Give a bath to clean it up,
Apply some lubrificant,
And you may try to replace hemipenes.

BUT I would wait some other advices BEFORE doing so.
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Sara - Female Eastern Collared
30 X 16 X 12 enclosure
Full carpet
UVB 8.0

On google I found this site:
http://www.adcham.com/html/veterinary/vet-hemipenal-pare.html
It called it a prolapsed hemipenis but it was red, oozy and generally ouchy looking. Little Blue's balls are hard to the touch and he doesn't seem to be in any pain that I can tell. He still jumps and runs around the tank all the time.

Blue's looks as if they protruded, and then dried out...keep in mind it was very had to tell by the photo what exactly I was looking at. It could very well be a nice set of lizard testicles, but I doubt it ;O)

I had a veiled chameleon that had prolapsed hemipenes that got very dried. They actually protruded about 1/2 inch from the body and dried...looked more like a piece of fingernail or something. It didn't really look like your lizards, but chameleons my be better hung than collareds...who knows LOL.

Those two spots are so symetrical, I'd guess it is a problem that needs looked at. If they tell you they'll surgically remove them, tell them to forget it. I had that done with my chameleon, and my nephew had it done with his leopard gecko. Neither lizard lived more than a month, and was somewhat expensive of a procedure.

Put the lizard in a glass container and try to get some better pictures of the underside.

John e

I will take him off of the sand (hopeully tomorrow morning) and put him in a smaller cage. His cage is quite large and he is very hard to catch unless I get him right as he comes out of his hole and hasn't warmed up yet. He is usually in his hole by the time I get home from work and since his hide is built into the wall, I can't get my hand in there to get him out without squishing him. I'll try and get a better picture in the morning and post it tomorrow.

I of course highly recommend taking him to the vet ASAP but if that's not an option or wont happen soon then read on.

It's difficult to be sure by your picture as the wire mesh is obstructing my view in your photo. Since lizards don't have testicles per say, it's most likely a case of a prolapsed hemipenes. This is not that uncommon and can occur more so during breeding season. Since most keep their collareds on a grainy sand substrate, the possibility of some sand attaching to an exposed hemipenes is likely. The folds of the cloaca usually clean off most of the sand or foreign matter as the hemipenes retracts and there's no problem most of the time.

I've had this occur with one of my uros during breeding season but was lucky enough to catch it soon after. If it goes untreated for any length of time the soft delicate tissue will lack blood flow and eventually dry up causing much more serious problems which may end up fatal. I had a collared (aquaflame) male who died from this problem as it went unnoticed for probably a week or more. By this time the tissue had dried and was colorless (lack of circulation) and it didn't take long after that to eventually loose him.

My suggestion is to get him in a warm soak where you can gently massage the area while his hind quarters are submerged and hopefully work some of the obstruction from the cloaca. If you see any signs of it retracting, then continue but with gentle action. If there's still some hemipenes exposed then dry him off then lubricate. KY is what we use at work but any antibiotic gel such as neosporin will help if that's all you have available.

Please take him off the sand for now. use paper towels for a temporary substrate while he's in therapy. If there's no change, repeat the soak/massage and lubrication once or twice a day and hopefully he'll be back to normal soon.

John