Unknown situation!

fabos

New Member
i just got off the phone with my friend and he told me that his Male vield has a big red bubble hangin out of his vent, said its bleeding and the male keeps draggin it against the screen. i already told him to go to a vet ASAP but what i want to kno is if anyone has ever seen anything like this!
 
Ummmm..... unfortunately yes, I've seen it before. It's a prolapse of some kind (intestinal/hemipenal). You were right in telling him to take the cham to the vet ASAP, time is critical!!


Search some older threads, I know there has been some "prolapse" talk.
 
Ouch ! Since you describe it as a "bubble", my instincts tell me is is cloacal or intestinal, and not a hemipene. A vet is the place to go, but my experience tells me this: 1) if its a hemipene, and does not retract using some simple measures (cold water, powdered sugar) it can be amputated in a relatively safe operation; or 2) if its cloacal etc, save your money, and have the animal put down. Sorry.
 
well what ever it is it already went back in and He is acting alot more normal now.. my friend is keeping a very close eye on him... he was going to take him to the vet but as he was going to get him from his cage is was retracted! ... if he sees it again its off the the vet...
 
Its quite likely it will come out again if you don't solve the reason why. There might be some reason for it happening...possibly nutritional or it may be that he has parasites or a partial blockage. Once the "inards" have come out its possible to pick up a bacterial infection or a fungal one...so if he shows any signs of going down hill get him back to the vets.

I have seen chameleons with intestinal prolapses that were put back by vets with a purse-string suture to keep them in a while survive...so although its usually a no-win situation it isn't always. But you still need to find out what the underlying cause is.

If it comes back out again, make sure that the tissue is kept moist or it will die and get him to a vet ASAP.
Good luck!
 
That it went back in on its own would lean heavily towards it being a hemipenal prolapse. I have seen about 20 cloacal prolapses in the past 4 years, and not one animal survived. I have seen 100 hemipenal, and 90% recovered with no intervention and no further problems. Of those where an amputation was necessary, about 80% recover fine, with internal and topical anibiotics. They just talk in a higher voice after that ;)
 
Here's a site that shows a hemipenal prolapse. If it looked more like a "sausage" then it was an intestinal prolapse...
http://adcham.com/html/veterinary/vet-hemipenal-pare.html

From what I have experienced and learned, with prolapses (intestinal ones in particular) the fact that the tissue has been exposed to the air and often dragged along the branch, etc. there is a good chance that a bacterial or fungal infection will follow the "replacement" of the tissue back into the chameleon. Since, with any prolapses that I have heard of, the chameleon is given a course of antibiotics its often a fungal infection that will cause a decline after an apparent improvement. (Its the same for humans....take antibiotics for something bacterial and you may end up with something fungal afterwards.)

Also, there is another possibility...sometimes a tear can occur in the tissues as they are placed back into the chameleon..the tissues are delicate.

Failure to add a pursestring suture also allows the prolapse to recur before it has had a chance to heal or the reason it prolapsed in the first place has been addressed.

Luckily I have only had one chameleon with a hemipene prolapse and two or maybe three with a rectal prolapse. The one with the hemipene (amputated) prolapse died, but not due to the prolapse/amputation. It also had gout. The first one with the prolapse died from a fungal infection. It appeared to recover from the prolapse, never prolapsed again but died weeks later from a fungal infection that was not detected until the necropsy. The second prolapse occurred in a very old male...it died before treatment could be given...because the death was so quick, I feel that the prolapse may have been partly to him already being near death.

My other experiences with/knowledge of prolapses came to me from word-of-mouth and reading.
 
They just talk in a higher voice after that ;)

LOL, very cute Jim!

I have seen about 20 cloacal prolapses in the past 4 years, and not one animal survived.

I have a male panther that has had two intestinal prolapses and is still with me almost a year later.... Is he a healthy as he could be?......... No. I often times wonder if I did the right thing putting him through 2 surgeries, but at the time it seemed like the best thing to do... and honestly, I can't imagine doing anything else.
Overall he is doing well. He eats, drinks and does the normal cham things. He lost a huge amount of weight following the ordeal, but is very slowly gaining it back. He has permanent abdominal tacks that hold everything in place. On the road to recovery he decided to add a case of "irritable bowel syndrome" and now requires small doses of Metacam on a daily basis to keep things moving right... As much work as he is, I wouldn't do anything any differently if given the chance. He's a special boy!

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He's a stunner ! My reference was to not doing anything, in that I have never seen one recover without surgery, and with surgery is still a difficult decision to make. Is he able to breed ? Thanks in advance !
 
He's a stunner ! My reference was to not doing anything, in that I have never seen one recover without surgery, and with surgery is still a difficult decision to make. Is he able to breed ? Thanks in advance !

Thanks!! I think he's a stunner too! AND, he has a personality to match!

When I got him as a baby sambava I had high hopes of breeding, but as you can tell he is not sambava, so he has never been bred and never will. So, unfortunately I can't answer your question on his ability with any certianty, but if I were to guess I would say yes....going off some isolated "incidents".
 
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