HELP!!! prolapse??

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teq1

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I think one of my egyptians has a prolapsed penis!! I don't know what to do! He (I thought it was a she) usually sticks it out and back in usually. But this time he hasn't been able to get it back in. And he tries. What do I do???? Plz help!
 

Yvonne G

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Keep it wet and call the vet tomorrow. It's an emergency. You might also add a bit of sugar to the water you soak him in. The sugar helps to shrink the tissue. It won't harm the tortoise to keep him in a small container of water until you can see the vet. Not too deep. Just enough water to keep the penis wet.
 

teq1

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Thanks for the advice. I read about the sugar thing which I did. He retracted it a bit then it went back out. He did this about twice. And he FINALLY was able to bring it all in and it hasn't been out since then. Also, he pood while I had him in a box....and after closely inspecting his poo.....he has what looked like small worms (parasites?) What can I do? Could the prolapse have been caused by these parasites? His penis is now in, but he has the worms :(. Is there a medicine I can buy for him at a store somewhere or would I have to get it from the vet? Any help is appreciated. Thanks! I've never had this happen and I'm just freaked out! :(
 

dmmj

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a prolapse is pretty scary even when you know what it is, I am almost 99% sure that worms do not cause a prolapse,. At least I have never heard of them doing it, a vet would most likely need to do a fecal to see which parasite it is and then prescribe the appropriate meds.
 

teq1

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Thanks guys


I'm definitely going to take him to the vet tomorrow. Any idea on how much a fecal exam is? I know it varies by place, but I just want to know more or less how much it would be. I also have other tortoises in the same enclosure, I'm guessing I should get them all checked as well? For sure what I'm going to do is isolate each tortoise and throw out all the substrate and thoroughly clean the tort table. I read somewhere that parasite eggs can live for a long time...so I rather clean everything very very well to be on the safe side.
 

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Yes, sometimes an overload of parasites will cause the prolapse. Also straining or an infection...there isn't any one thing we can point you to, but I'd be willing to bet that its the parasite load that caused it.

I use the horse de-wormer, Panacur. You can buy the de-wormer (be sure to get Panacur or whatever brand has the drug "fenbendazole" in it) at a feed store. Panacur horse wormer is a 10% paste and this formula is only good for Panacur horse wormer with 10% fenbendazole - .5 ml per pound of body weight. So if your tortoise weighs a half pound, you would give him .25ml. You administer this orally.

DO NOT use any other drug. Not Ivermectin for sure or you'll kill your tortoise.

De-wormers are poison. Do not use them indiscriminately. You could kill your tortoise.
 

teq1

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emysemys said:
Yes, sometimes an overload of parasites will cause the prolapse. Also straining or an infection...there isn't any one thing we can point you to, but I'd be willing to bet that its the parasite load that caused it.

I use the horse de-wormer, Panacur. You can buy the de-wormer (be sure to get Panacur or whatever brand has the drug "fenbendazole" in it) at a feed store. Panacur horse wormer is a 10% paste and this formula is only good for Panacur horse wormer with 10% fenbendazole - .5 ml per pound of body weight. So if your tortoise weighs a half pound, you would give him .25ml. You administer this orally.

DO NOT use any other drug. Not Ivermectin for sure or you'll kill your tortoise.

De-wormers are poison. Do not use them indiscriminately. You could kill your tortoise.


So what would be the best approach for this? Should I separate all the tortoises? I have three others aside from this one and they're all housed together. I've always looked at their poo, but this is the first time I noticed the little worms in there. Maybe I wasn't looking so closely before. I never noticed anything though. I haven't seen a change at all in this tortoise. He's been acting the exact same way this whole time. I don't know what could have caused the worms :(. I try to keep their enclosure as clean as possible. I'm new to this so I'm kinda scared, worried, nervous all at the same time!
 

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You won't necessarily see the worms in their feces. But if one has them, they all probably do. In fact, parasites are a normal fact of life for most animals. It only causes a problem when they get too many. For instance, if you have a herbivore and you start feeding him too much fruit, it might cause the parasites to over-populate the gut.

Some people only de-worm if they have a fecal test done and parasite eggs show up in the feces.

Others routinely de-worm twice a year, spring and fall.

Since you're seeing worms, that means that that particular tortoise has too many of them and he needs to be de-wormed. Your vet might want to de-worm all your tortoises. Probably a good idea.
 

teq1

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emysemys said:
You won't necessarily see the worms in their feces. But if one has them, they all probably do. In fact, parasites are a normal fact of life for most animals. It only causes a problem when they get too many. For instance, if you have a herbivore and you start feeding him too much fruit, it might cause the parasites to over-populate the gut.

Some people only de-worm if they have a fecal test done and parasite eggs show up in the feces.

Others routinely de-worm twice a year, spring and fall.

Since you're seeing worms, that means that that particular tortoise has too many of them and he needs to be de-wormed. Your vet might want to de-worm all your tortoises. Probably a good idea.

Is deworming safe for young torts? I have two that are about 2-3 months old. And these are egyptians so they're super small. I would rather take them all to the vet though just to make sure what is going on. Hopefully I can find a good vet here cuz here where I live I think it's hard to find one that works with reptiles. I'm just scared I'll end up at the wrong vet and they will hurt my torts rather than help them!
 

Yvonne G

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If it were me, and my very young tortoises were eating and acting normal, I wouldn't de-worm them. The wormer is pretty hard on a tortoise's system. They sometimes act very depressed for a while after being de-wormed. No telling what it might do to very young tortoises.
 

teq1

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emysemys said:
If it were me, and my very young tortoises were eating and acting normal, I wouldn't de-worm them. The wormer is pretty hard on a tortoise's system. They sometimes act very depressed for a while after being de-wormed. No telling what it might do to very young tortoises.

Awesome, thank you so much for your help. To everyone, thanks for the help :)

The little ones are acting normal, nothing different at all. And so is the older tort I have. Although yesterday when I soaked the other tort he didn't poo, so I'm not really sure. I'll go ahead and soak him today and see if he poos, and maybe I can take him to the vet as well just to be sure.
 

teq1

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UPDATE:

So I took these two guys to the vet. She gave me Panacur for both of them. Fecal exams weren't done but I did tell her what I had seen. And I told the vet that I wasn't sure whether the other tort had worms. But she gave me a dewormer for both because the other one most likely has them. Should I give them both the dewormer or just the one that has parasites? She recommended I deworm both but just wanted to get some of you guys opinions and make sure :) She also said I should separate these two from the younger torts for a while, which I will do. And I plan on thoroughly cleaning their enclosure and separate each group.
 
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