Prolapsed rectum

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Originally Posted by Slim

I used to think this as well, but honestly, the majority of Ball Python owners and quite a few breeders don't have an online presence.

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That's what I was getting at, sorry if my wording was a little off...We, online, are in the vast minority of keepers, therefore we know so little as far as how common/uncommon something like this is.

Make a sugar paste and apply it to the prolapse, Then use few layers of gauze and wrap it up, Keeping the gauze moist. Changing it Daily and the sugar should cause shrinking so itll go back in.

Tell the owner this snake cant be bred

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Make a sugar paste and apply it to the prolapse, Then use few layers of gauze and wrap it up, Keeping the gauze moist. Changing it Daily and the sugar should cause shrinking so itll go back in.

Tell the owner this snake cant be bred

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Rich, the snake is at the vet's for the weekend and will be having surgery done. Out of curiosity, because I simply don't know, why can't a snake that's had a rectum prolapse breed? Of course I'm assuming that it will physically be able to breed, but what makes it so that it shouldn't?

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Originally Posted by RobNJ

Rich, the snake is at the vet's for the weekend and will be having surgery done. Out of curiosity, because I simply don't know, why can't a snake that's had a rectum prolapse breed? Of course I'm assuming that it will physically be able to breed, but what makes it so that it shouldn't?

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Your risking another prolapse. If he locks a female, and she decides to pull away, she can cause more problems

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Your risking another prolapse. If he locks a female, and she decides to pull away, she can cause more problems

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Thanks Rich.

Never seen it on a snake. Ouch poor baby. Had to deal with it in a chicken, unsuccessfully though, hers was too bad because the other chickens had got at it. They see weakness and get ruthless. Hope they fix it ok, and def don't breed.

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Originally Posted by bclose93

This can also happen if substrate sticks to the spurs when breading and is taken up when they retract. feel so sorry for that BP hope it gets better soon.

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Spurs do not retract after breeding. They are external. This would not be the cause.

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Originally Posted by RobNJ

You don't hear about it happening that often, but truth is, we have no idea how often it happens...sure it's not mites or RI, but we don't know. I'd venture to guess that those who participate in snake/reptile forums are in the vast minority of those who actually own reptiles.

As far as too large of a prey item causing this problem, I would think it's entirely feasible. Give a snake a meal that is too large, and it is automatically going to pass a larger amount of waste. Whatever may be coming out with that larger amount of waste, whether it be bacteria, undigested hair, etc...could easily irritate what is a rather sensitive body part. Same goes for feeding too often. Let's say a snake eats 2,3,4 times, goes into shed, and after shedding let's all that waste out in one shot. That could potentially cause a good amount of stress to the rectum.

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While too large of a prey item can be the cause, more often than not, the animal ingested some bedding, and the bedding caused an urate impaction. While I have not dealt with a prolapsed intestine, I have dealt with a prolapsed hemipene. In the case of a hemipene, I would suggest a sugar paste application. The reason being in general a pene prolapse is due to fluid being trapped in the pene, and the sugar will be hydrophilic and absorb the moisture in turn shrinking the pene. In some rare cases (which we believe in my worst case) the pene is twisted, thus causing the vein to be twisted and pinched and not allowing the blood to drain after breeding. In this case, you would have to get the vein untwisted and clear so that the blood will drain.

In your case, I would say it is intestinal, and I would apply preparation H. While I have not done this, I would highly recommend this attempt prior to surgery, as the surgery will be irreversible. The Preparation H is a great first attempt and will not harm the snake, so long as too many treatments aren't applied. I always get nervous about a vet that wants to perform surgery, especially since 99% of vets know almost nothing about herps. Hopefully this vet does.

Good luck, and I hope my post was at least somewhat informative.

Thanks for the info Tim! If the snake were still in my possession and this occurred, I probably would have tried to mend it before going to the vet, however, the current owner was just not confident enough to try anything. Not at all a knock on him, as experiencing something new can throw some owners for a loop. The vet he went to is a very good vet though and has performed multiple surgeries on reptiles. I'm confident that he knows what he's doing, otherwise I would not have recommended him.