I took in a young male sulcata - about 10lbs - and I've had him for almost a week. A couple days ago I turned him over so I could take a picture of his plastron to put up on the forum. I noticed that he might have something stuck on his tail. Not a big gob, just a little lump. Upon closer inspection, it was the tip of his penis. It was sticking out about 3/4 of an inch. It was dry and dirty. I rinsed him off and pushed it back in, noticing at the time that the cloaca seemed pretty large and stretched out. The penis went in fine. But the next time I picked him up, it was out again. Not the whole penis...just a bit of the tip. Pushed it back in again and set him down. Waited a few minutes and picked him up and there it was again. So I added some water to the bottom of an empty horse trough and put the tortoise in the sun in the trough. I left him there ALL DAY LONG! Don't worry about him overheating. Its only been in the 70's here. He was in the water for about 4 hours when he finally pooped. By the time I saw it the poop had all fallen apart and it just looked like dead grass floating around in the water. So I don't know if he was constipated. I gave him fresh water and left him there the rest of the day. When I went around, doing my evening chores, I picked him up and pushed in the penis, only this time I pushed it in as far as my finger could reach. Then I pushed his tail over to one side and held it there for about 15 minutes while I fed the horse, etc.
A tortoise doesn't like to have to stay in a tub of water for that length of time, and he'll walk around trying to find the way out. He'll climb the sides and walk. This exercise in the water usually helps him pass whatever is blocking him up.
I'm happy to say that this a.m. all that is on the underside of that tortoise is a tail! No more penis!! If it had popped out again, I was going to call the vet to come out and tack a little purse string suture on the cloaca to hold it in.
I THINK that this guy had been going around for such a long time with it hanging out, that the cloaca got all stretched and it wouldn't stay inside.
When you have a tortoise that prolapses, whether male or female, you have to try to figure out why. The tortoise has been straining to get something out, causing the prolapse. Is it stones? Is it an impaction? Is it constipation? You may have to have X-rays done to answer these questions. But fixing the prolapse isn't the only solution. You have to find out why it happened in the first place.
A tortoise doesn't like to have to stay in a tub of water for that length of time, and he'll walk around trying to find the way out. He'll climb the sides and walk. This exercise in the water usually helps him pass whatever is blocking him up.
I'm happy to say that this a.m. all that is on the underside of that tortoise is a tail! No more penis!! If it had popped out again, I was going to call the vet to come out and tack a little purse string suture on the cloaca to hold it in.
I THINK that this guy had been going around for such a long time with it hanging out, that the cloaca got all stretched and it wouldn't stay inside.
When you have a tortoise that prolapses, whether male or female, you have to try to figure out why. The tortoise has been straining to get something out, causing the prolapse. Is it stones? Is it an impaction? Is it constipation? You may have to have X-rays done to answer these questions. But fixing the prolapse isn't the only solution. You have to find out why it happened in the first place.