Actually, prolapses are a pretty serious issue. There's the whole bacterial infections thing... For prolapses we usually put a sugar paste to make the swelling go down, and then stitch everything back up so the muscles can tighten again. That isn't too high of a price considering your snake could have died from a bacterial infection or septicemia if that hadn't been taken care of. They probably anesthetised him, gave him an injection to make the swelling go down or did the sugar solution, and then pushed everything back in and put a few stitches in.

He might have parasites, and prolapses can usually occur from having so much diarrhea and the bowel straining so hard against nothing. Has he had runny feces lately?

mlededee, a cat spay is invasive, but the outside is very sterile before the invasive surgery. It doesn't usually require antibiotics and the cat is under for a very short time. Animal birth control clinics have very low prices so more people can afford to come in and get their animals fixed. Prolapses are very different, since the area isn't sterile to begin with, and you are pushing the non-sterile bowels back into the fairly sterile body.

I hope your snake isn't sick, parasites are easily gotten rid of, and hopefully there isn't an underlying issue other than parasites. Hope everything goes well