Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female Bufo Americanus developed this reddish-brown sack on her behind several days ago. It is perhaps a quarter inch or a bit more in length. (She is about 3 inches long.) It appears to be coming out of her anus, but is not poop. She does not seem to mind it, has done nothing to remove it, and otherwise is looking and acting normally -- except for spending a little more time in the water. (She seems interested in "soaking" the sack.) Anyone know what this is? Does it have something to do with eggs or mating? Should I be worried? Any information -- or guidance on how I could get more information -- would be greatly appreciated!

Here are photos of the toad and the sack.

Its difficult to say without seeing the toad, but it looks like a prolapsed cloaca. Whatever you do, don't touch it and don't try to push it back in.
I've never seen this in a toad before but have seen it a number of times in reptiles. It is usually caused by stress and poor nutrition.
Its not definately a prolapsed cloaca ~ but it is not a normal occurance either.
It could correct itself, but this is something that is likely not going to end in a good way, so you should be prepared for that. If it doesn't work out for the better, my condolances in advance. Please keep me posted. Thanks, Leo
Skin & Scales

Thanks for the information, even if it is sad. We will try to keep her happy, contact a vet and hope for the best. Her environment has a substrate of sterile soil -- those just-add-water bricks -- plus pet-safe plants from Petco, and bottled water in her dish. Her diet consists of crickets, waxworms, and mealworms, with the crickets dusted with a supplement. So I don't know what the stress or nutrition problem could be.

Do you know of any vet for toads in New York City?

Joan

i have seen this in marine toads as well. hard telling the cause but the former owner of the toads had kept them in fine ground bedding and i seen peices of bedding in their droppings. i wondered if the wood caused intestinal infection. could the toads ingesting too much wood cause this??

Thanks for your thoughts. The bedding seems more like soil than wood, but who knows?

Since I posted, I saw something that suggested that one of the causes could be overfeeding. That may have been the case here. We were going away for a week, and left several crickets and waxworms in the tank for the two toads to eat while we were gone. When we returned, both toads looked quite well-fed.

Joan

You can find a herp vet on this site: http://arav.org/USMembers.htm
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Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.3 Crested Geckos Fox Mulder, Zoe, Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle II & Yurtle II
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.1 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

Thanks everyone. We are taking our dear toad to a vet tomorrow. Let's hope for the best.

Joan

We took our toad to the vet today. She said it looked liked a prolapsed intestine. After they cleaned it off, it turned out the tissue was still alive. The vet was able to put most of the tissue back in, but wanted to keep our toad overnight to finish the process of shrinking the tissue and putting it back in. They don’t know what caused the prolapse -- they said toads from the wild may have parasites that cause it. (My theory, after a little research, is that it was caused perhaps by overfeeding.) Just to be safe, I am replacing all the soil in her terrarium. We also plan to handle our toads with rinsed-off latex gloves in the future to minimize the risk of the toads catching anything.

Hopefully we will be bringing her home Saturday.

Joan