Larger Snake Cloacal Prolapse

[vovalyosha]

By larger, I mean larger than your average corn, of course. If there was a red tailed boa, for instance, or any snake with this condition, how would you go about fixing it? My ex high school biology teacher's clutch of ghost(?) red tail boas (they are grey, that's all know. I know zilch about their morphs) hatched back in the beginning of june and one of the babies had this this morning.

I read somewhere that sugar water paste is good? Or should a vet be consulted? I swear, it's one thing or another with their snakes. Stargazer, now this; hopefully it doesn't get worse. :/

 

[MegF.]

I had a green tree python prolapse and I ended up going to a vet for her because I was worried I'd damage the intestine. I did use a sugar/water paste or you can use preparation H if you have that. Place the animal in a tub with the wet paper towel soaked in the sugar/water solution and you can make a paste and place that on the prolapse. Depending upon how large it is, it might reduce on it's own. My GTP's did, but when she perched, it re-prolapsed and so required sutures. I've known several GTP owners that placed the prolapse back in using a q-tip or larger diameter sexing probe with ball tip. Use extreme caution not to puncture the intestine if you attempt to reduce it yourself. Once the prolapse is back in place, you can use a fabric bandaid over the entire cloaca to keep the prolapse in place until it heals. Remove the water from the tub at this time of course or it won't stay in place. It's unusual for young snakes to prolapse and I've never heard of anything good coming from it...usually there's something very wrong. Adults tend to do it if overfed or allowed to have too much fecal matter built up. Parasites are also sometimes a cause although with CBB I doubt this is the issue. Feeding too often might be the problem and can lead to prolapse. I now feed every 2-3 weeks instead of weekly with boas and pythons...and my colubrids for the most part and have not had an issue since. My GTP went on to lay a clutch of eggs and has had no further issues. I'm glad I did the sutures though. She was able to perch normally (not an issue for a red tail though) and I soaked her daily for the first few days and then every 3 days for the next week. After 2 weeks I got the sutures removed and she was fine. I did wait 2 weeks before offering her a very small meal. I waited another 10 days before offering a little larger meal and then waited for her to poop. If you don't think you can reduce the prolapse, then keep the snake on wet towels to keep the tissue from drying out and get them to a vet as quickly as possible. I went to an emergency vet an hour away for help...fortunately, even at 9 at night, the emergency vet had a reptile specialist there. They did a great job on her...and I had to fight the techs to get her back Hope the little baby does well.