Emergency please help

My baby beauty snake ate yesterday. Today I went to mist and saw something wrong. He has like a bright red ball protruding from his cloaca/vent. I can take him to the vet first thing in the morning but what can i do in the meantime? What is wrong? He is moving with no problems and looks fine but this cant be right at all! Will try to get a picture

Sounds like it could be a prolapse: do you have any pics you took?

It definitely sounds like a prolapse.
A prolapse in this case is when a portion of the rectum protrudes through the anus.

Do not try to push it back in. Keep the environment moist and do not let the prolapse dry out.
Keep your snake on paper towel substrate and a minimalistic sanitary environment in the mean time.

Make paste from white sugar and water. Dip the prolapse into it. This will help reduce the swelling. It should go down significantly. It might even go down 100% with a few treatments.
Do not feed your snake for a while. It may take time for it to heal. You don't want to have your snake defecate and stress out the cloaca.

Pictures would help a lot. Definitely sounds like it could be a prolapse to me as well.

[IMG]http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/y...psf29b1282.jpg[/IMG]

Yes, that is a prolapse.
:(

Definitely do the sugar treatment in the mean time.
If it doesn't improve in a few days, it's time to see a vet.

I looked it up and everything points to prolapse, but there were no pictures showing one so I wasnt sure. What causes a prolapse? What can I do to keep it from happening again? Is he in a lot of pain? Should I remove his climbs so he doesn't drag it?

You'll want to put him on paper towel as a substrate, if you haven't yet. It'll help keep it clean. Use the sugar water trick Nikki mentioned.

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Originally Posted by Tavers

I looked it up and everything points to prolapse, but there were no pictures showing one so I wasnt sure. What causes a prolapse? What can I do to keep it from happening again? Is he in a lot of pain? Should I remove his climbs so he doesn't drag it?

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Yes, take out his climbs. Keep his enclosure very minimal and hospital clean.

I cannot tell you what caused the prolapse. Sometimes it's from strained bowel movement. Sometimes it's just random.

Okay, I will do all of that and then vet first thing in the morning. He has been doing so well and then all of a sudden this. He still acts normal too which is strange. I just really really dont want to do anything to hurt him. Thanks for all the advice everyone!

Poor little guy, I hope for the best and that he is alright.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Yes, that is a prolapse.
:(

Definitely do the sugar treatment in the mean time.
If it doesn't improve in a few days, it's time to see a vet.

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I second the sugar water application, just make sure you keep the tissues moist.Use a paper towel substrate and dampen it. However at the slightest sign of the tissue drying out or looking less pink, I would take it to the vet ASAP. Necrosis will be very difficult, time consuming and expensive to manage.

Good luck, please let us know how things work out.

I'm dealing with a chronic prolapser here. Very frustrating, and sad too. It can be caused by power feeding, the animal being dehydrated, parasites, or just randomly. My case is random. The sugar water paste is okay, but I'd suggest some plain ol' preparation H. It has the same effect, and will also keep the area moist, which is your #1 priority. I'd also limit the amount of stuff the snake has to climb around on, and keep substrate to moistened paper towels. Bump up your humidity by misting, too. If it doesn't go back in by itself overnight, I'd go to the vet. They can tuck things back in and put in a purse string stitch to give the animal time to heal. You won't want to feed for several weeks after that, and when you do, definitely keep them very small, much smaller than normal. It's not always the case, but IME, once it's happened they're more prone to it happening again.

Best of luck.

I took him to a vet this morning. I have a vet at home, but I'm at school so I had to call around a lot. Finally found one that seems really good. She believed it was due to parasites and is doing a fecal. She said the tissue looked healthy and had stayed moist. She's going to deworm him,sedate him and replace the protrusion and then put in a few sutures. I should get him back later in the day. She also gave him some pain medicine which I was thankful for, and I'm sure he was too. Thanks for all of the help from everyone.

I'm so glad you found a competent vet to get him taken care of. Great job caring for that prolapse in the interim, sounds like you did everything to keep it at an ideal condition until you got to the vet. Good work there. =]

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Originally Posted by Tavers

I took him to a vet this morning. I have a vet at home, but I'm at school so I had to call around a lot. Finally found one that seems really good. She believed it was due to parasites and is doing a fecal. She said the tissue looked healthy and had stayed moist. She's going to deworm him,sedate him and replace the protrusion and then put in a few sutures. I should get him back later in the day. She also gave him some pain medicine which I was thankful for, and I'm sure he was too. Thanks for all of the help from everyone.

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Sounds perfect. Hopefully everything went okay for you guys.

I get my guy back today! I was going to pick him up after he was finished yesterday, but the vet and I agreed that he should probably stay the night just incase he prolapsed again. He's a very active guy and doesn't understand he needs to rest. The vet has been giving me updates though and everything is going very well. It turns out he had coccidea! I feel so bad because I never thought he would have parasites coming from a breeder. I also feel to blame because I put him directly on shavings and if I had put him on paper towels after first getting him I would've recognized the diarrhea. From now on all my new snakes will be on paper towels for awhile. My other two snakes have been dewormed and I never touch one and then the other without washing my hands in between, but should I get fecals done on my other two just in case? I don't know much about coccidea in reptiles but we have cows and I know it can be a death sentence for them so I'm sure it's fairly similar in reptiles.

I would definitely have them all checked and notify the seller as well. How long have you had the little guy?

I got him September 7th. I'll contact the seller today. I never noticed anything was wrong because he shed well and ate voraciously. And always very curious and active. Will have other two tested. Thank you!