Prolapsed Hemipenes

When you start keeping any animal, a prolapse is always possible. When you start breeding animals, that chance rises drastically. As I expect some people may stu

mble across this to figure out how to help your animal and you don't want to read the whole article, here is what we did (by recommendation of our vet and LaFeber Vet's website).

First, we made sure there was blood flow to the area. This is fairly easy to tell because the area should have a pink color. If there is any black or blue coloration, take it to the vet as that's an indication of no blood flow. Assuming it has blood flow, you will want to see if there is anything blocking it from retracting. Sometimes sperm plugs or urates can get stuck and make it difficult for them to pull it back in. You can use your hands (washed) or q-tips with Vaseline to examine the area and remove anything on the hemipenes. Next, set up a sterile bin with a heat gradient for monitoring. Place papertowels down as a substrate and dampen them slightly. Spray the area of the hemipene with water, place them in their quarantine area, and monitor them carefully. If nothing has changed, don't fret, there are still a few things you can do.

Try giving them a soak in dechlorinated water with sugar. The sugar acts as an anti-inflammatory without drying out the area like salt would. You can do this a couple of times. You can also try to put honey on the area. This also acts as an anti-inflammatory and encourages them to lick the area which may push it back into place. If none of these methods have worked within 24 hours, call the vet. You should always call the vet to figure

out when you can get in because it may take some time. You still have sometime before you may run into complications but the sooner you get in, the better.

Now, how did we come across all of this amazing information? From experience, unfortunately

. We were borrowing a male leopard gecko from a friend of ours for breeding and guess what? After his second lock (we think) one of his hemipenes prolapsed.

You may ask, what did you do? Well, let me tell you we have tried everything! We have tried everything a vet recommends and still no luck! I guess he just had a little bit too much fun! That being said, this is fairly common and thankfully not immediately life threatening, unlike some other prolapses that may happen.

Many vets recommend using sugar while soaking them and applying honey to the area to decrease inflammation and to encourage them to lick it back into place. Granted, this boy is pretty hefty (not overweight) and I'm not sure he can even reach that area. These remedy's only work if the area has blood flow. You can tell by the pinkish color of the area. Ours was a little dark but still pink enough that we knew there was blood flow. This is important because if blood flow is restricted, this area may become necrotic more quickly which will cause a lot of other concerns.

In the end, a little over 24 hours later, we decided to take him to the vet. After calling around to places over 4 hours away from us, we finally get an appointment for him, thankfully fairly close to us. But we had to wait over the weekend because we didn't call until Friday (it happened Thursday). We could have gotten him in sooner in a vet further away but a snowstorm was hitting pretty hard and the roads weren't great.

Long story short, if anything prolapses call a vet to get an appointment asap. Otherwise, you may wind up having to hunker down with your pet in your apartment as you wait for a storm to pass.