Hello, all,

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that Nagini had a prolapsed cloaca. Fairly minor- went back in by itself, vet put her under, took a look, stitched her up, prescribed some meds, said no food for two weeks. Great recovery, got her meds down her, everything went fine.

Well, now we're back there again... Only this time, it's so much bigger than before. I just started sobbing when I saw it because it looks so freaking bad. Like... Before it was maybe the diameter of my little fingertip and perhaps a quarter of an inch long. Now it's... This nickel-sized sphere of just... red. She seems to not even notice, she prowls around for food and just drags it all through her substrate like it's no big deal, which of course worries me even more but if I keep her in the critter keeper without substrate she'll just flip out and spend the night pressed against the plastic slats trying to escape.

I did finally notice for real, right before I saw her with the prolapse, a mild-to-moderate mite infestation in her bedding. I decided to change it out, then found her. I very carefully took her out, hiding place and all, and put her in a critter keeper while I changed the bedding to something different- Forest Floor to Aspen shavings. I put her back in, sprayed /very/ thoroughly, put her humidifier in and on high. I'm going to spray her again before bed.

Basically, two questions. 1) Were the mites the problem? They weren't excessive- it's not like the bedding was alive. They were just present and the only reason I noticed them was because I was looking for her and happened to see them move. It wasn't a bad infestation at all, I've seen worse with my hermit crabs before while they were alive (minor mite infestations are actually even beneficial to hermit crabs as they cannot hurt the crabs, but consume leftover food and the like from their carapaces).

2) Is she going to make it? I'm taking her to a different vet tomorrow morning, as mine is closed Saturday. I just need to know if she'll be okay. I'm keeping it moist, and I had no sugar (and indeed didn't trust myself touching something that red and bloated anyways) for a sugar wrap as my vet recommended if I saw it again. I just... can't lose her this young. I just lost my crabs to in-molt cannibalism and that was hard enough, but she is so young and gregarious and vibrant and I just cannot lose her this young. She's not even a year old yet.