Chronic cloacal prolapse in young female

[CydaLuva83]

Hi, my 1 year old female has now prolapsed for the fourth time. The first time (Around this time last year) was a small prolapse and she was able to retract it, the second time (November of last year) required a trip to the vet and a stitch, and the third time (A couple weeks ago) I was able to massage it back down and bandage it.
But now she's done it again. I returned home from school and went to check on the snakes and I saw she was out and about in her tank. Upon closer inspection, I saw she had prolapse again.
She's a year and a few months old; is eating small, adult mice; tested negative for mites; and is getting her hide misted several times daily.

I'm not sure what else to do, and was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to stop this? I'm worried if there is an underlying issue that could be causing this, and I'd like to get it resolved as soon as possible.

I apologize if this is the wrong board to post in.

[dr del]

I think the vet will need to examine it to see if it may be a recurring problem.

I would try and fix the humidity in the whole enclosure rather than having to spray every day and possibly feed smaller meals more regularly as a reasonable start.

I would definitely be wary of breeding her in the future unless this can be resolved.

I hope she is ok.

[CydaLuva83]

Thank you for the response! Do you have any suggestions on how to keep the humidity more stable? She is in a 44 gallon tank with a mesh top and aspen substrate. There's a large, stone water dish, and a stone hide, as well as a ledge to rest on. There's foil covering one half of the mesh top to try and help with humidity and heat retention.

[SRMD]

You could get a substrate that holds humidity better:
Orchid bark,cypress mulch,eco earth.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[DVirginiana]

If the prolapse isn't going back in, maybe temporarily replace bedding with paper towels and use moss to keep humidity right? (I'm thinking about a serious prolapse here where you have to worry bout things sticking to it or damaging the tissue. Not sure if what you're dealing with need that drastic of treatment).

[kylearmbar]

Dehydration might be playing a role here as well. Small adult mice isn't nearly enough for her at that age if she's only getting one. Ball pythons don't drink a lot. They get most of their liquids from their prey. Try multiple mice or a rat the widest part of her body or even a hair larger. For humidity, I have one snake in a glass enclosure and I have a water bowl almost 1/3 the size of the tank to help . The humidity usually never drops below 50%.

[CydaLuva83]

Thank you all for replying. I really do appreciate the feedback.

-I will look into getting new bedding that better retains moisture. I'll get a picture of her tank up here soon to show how it's set up, as well. When I next go to the store, I'll look into getting a broader water dish.
-Sometimes the mice make her bulge a bit near the middle. She's not very big nor does she readily accept food most weeks; I have to try again the next few days to make sure she eats.
-Her prolapse retracts if her tail is massaged against the way her scales run, but the past few times it's happened during classes so I've been unable to do this until quite a few hours later. However, it takes a while to get the prolapse moist again, and these last few times it's been as long as the length from the middle knuckle to the tip of my thumb.

Is there something I can feed her in addition to mice to help her get more fluids?

[CydaLuva83]

I realized I owe you kind people an update on what all happened.

The enclosure was a 44 gallon glass tank with partial mesh top to allow circulation. There were two dome 150 watt heat lamps on alternating sides of the tank for different temperatures during different times of the day and so one side wouldn't be dried out compared to the other side. The substrate was about two inches of cyprus mulch with moss placed throughout the tank to help retain moisture. A large, plastic waterdish took up one third of the tank and was always filled with water. A rock hide was at one end, and a dark plastic hide was at the other, and I had removed unnecessary decor like plastic flowers. The habitat was misted several times a day.

We took the female to a reptile specialist not too far from us, and she ended up having to be euthanized. As it turns out, the ball python contracted blood-sucking parasites that nearly completely dehydrated her, which is why no attempts to hydrate her were working. She was compacted with undigested fur, bones, and bits of substrate from her vent all the way up into her stomach, which was the part of the cause of the repeated prolapses. Her scales had become wrinkled and shedding had also become incredibly difficult for her. Her blood pressure was severely low, too low for surgery to remove the compaction, and the vet also explained why rehydrating her and operating still wouldn't save her: When a snake prolapses, they have a 25% chance to prolapse ever subsequent time they defecate. That second time they prolapse, it's a 50% to prolapse every time they defecate, third time = 75%, and so on due to the breaking down of the muscles around the vent as well as the soft tissue of the vent healing wrong and likely sealing up the anus itself.
My girl had prolapsed a total of nine times before we were able to take her to this specialist, as we did not know that prolapsing was so serious, as well as medical bills that had prevented large spending amounts for quite a time.




This is what she looked like a month before her condition severely degraded. Her scales become wrinkled, her feeding response was nonexistent, she was lethargic, and her abdomen become swollen with air.
All I can say is make sure you go to a specialist who knows their stuff. The vet we took her to was amazing. She came in on a Saturday night at 11 PM to see us and the snake, talked us through everything she was doing, explained every option we had, what would happen if we took those options, the different kind of parasites and internal dangers for reptiles, and was very calm and patient. She talked with me about the physiology of crocodilians while we waited for the euthanasia to complete, and later recommended several shows/breeders and people to go to for reptile education and responsibly-bred animals. Thanks to her, I now volunteer at Repticon and our local Exotic Pet Expo.
And in case you're near and would like to check it out. She is Dr. Tonnie Ray of Avians and Exotics of Nashville in Nashville, Tennessee.

[anicatgirl]

My condolences friend...

[M.P.C]

For screen tops its best to cover the whole entire thing leaving only an opening for the heat lamp if your using one and a small opening at the oposite end of the tank, this helps alot with humidity controll, its what i did and i mist once in a while