Possible Prolapsed Vent

So my bearded dragon Sunny just pooped. He usually goes about every 4 days or so in his bath, and they are usually good sized. Today, however, he expelled two stools at the same time through his vent, and as they came out, I noticed a red, bulbous mass protruding from his vent. It receeded almost immediately and his vent seems closed now. I have him resting in slightly cool water (not cold, just cooler) to help him relax, as his rear end seems sore now. He flinches away when I touch his back legs, which he never does. He seems to be okay for the moment, but I'm posting here because I'm worried I missed something or didn't notice something else that could be a huge problem, and to find out if this is actually a prolapsed vent or not.

Hello,

Poor Sunny, it sounds like he had a rather large stool, well, 2 of them. Did he have any trouble,
like straining, etc?
It is possible that he somewhat prolapsed at that time, but luckily the area went back in. That
can happen sometimes though, when they have unusually large or harder than normal stools.
What types of foods are you feeding him?
Are you using a good UVB light along with calcium supplementation too?
Is he not able to use his back legs?

Tracie

I feed him mostly collard greens with the occasional super worm, usually a few every day. I dust the worms, but I have not tried dusting the greens (sometimes the worms leave behind calcium powder in his dish and he just eats the powder :? )

He did strain quite a bit, which is unusual for him. Ever since his pretty dramatic switch from eating mostly insects to mostly greens, he has had some tough stools, but not much straining if any when pooping.

I use an exoterra solarglo for his main basking light, and the strongest florescent UVB bulb I could find. It works to cover the whole tank in UVB, and I can't afford a full tank-long uvb tube and rig right now.

He uses his back legs just fine, in fact he likes to climb the back of his tank and try to reach the mesh at the top (pretty wide mesh too ) and he swims just fine.

In future, if something like this happens again, I've heard it is best to set them in cool, NOT cold, water for a few minutes to see if you can get the prolapse to recede, and then schedule a vet visit. Is that the right course of action to take if it does not recede?

Photo would have helped us see if you're correct.

A prolapse is a very serious issue for a reptile , I strongly recommend getting Sonny in to see a good reptile vet very urgently if this happens again and it doesn't spontaneously correct itself or retract on soaking in a sugary water bath.
See http://www.anapsid.org/prolapse.html extraCT amended (to refer to dragons) :

You can try soaking the dragon in a cool bath to which sugar has been added.
Heavy concentrations of sugar in the water will act to draw out the fluids engorging the swollen everted tissue; this may reduce it enough to be inverted by the lizard.

The tissue may be rinsed with fresh water and Betadine, and carefully pushed back in with a gloved finger lubricated with KY Jelly (the type without the spermicde). Extreme care must be taken in doing this as, if the colon contains fecal matter and the colon tissue is pierced in the attempt to replace it, severe, even fatal contamination and injury may result.

If the soaking does not work within an hour, and you do not wish to attempt manual replacement, the dragon should be placed on a damp towel and taken to the vet as quickly as possible.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much kingofnobbys. Thankfully, it retracted before I could take a picture. If it was a prolapse, it was only exposed for a very brief moment, but it was enough to be worrying. I didn't realize sugar helped. Is there a certain concentration the sugar should be at in the water?

Also, I plan on taking him in next week on Thursday just to be sure everything is okay. His jaw has also been popping when he yawns, which, from the other forum posts I've read, could be a sign of metabolic bone disease. I want to make sure I address that as well. He seems healthy besides, and he has been active and seemed happy since last night. I'm just really worried about the little guy.

Hello,

Which UVB tube light do you use now? You are using it in combination with the Solar Glo MVB
light also? The combination should be ok, maybe not real strong but decent. The Solar Glo MVB's
are nice & bright but don't have a history of emitting real strong UVB.
Since he has been straining some, that is indicative of low calcium levels, too. The GI tract
operates off of calcium ions primarily & is affected if calcium levels are low.
When you get a chance to, I would recommend increasing to one of the T5 or high output tube
UVB lights. The Reptisun 10 or the Arcadia D3 12% or 14% either one is really terrific.
If his jaw seems to be popping, it's possible he is having a slight calcium problem, but not sure.
You could try some liquid calcium for awhile to see if that remedies the jaw popping. If you do
get a new UVB light, that would help, too.
Sugar water is usually pretty effective. It essentially decreases swelling & allows the tissue to
retract naturally if it isn't too severe. I would dissolve a couple of tablespoons in some warm
water, then add cool water to it once it's dissolved & let him soak in it if he has trouble again.
Hopefully it wont be causing anymore grief for him!
Let us know how Sunny is doing.

Tracie

So it happened again. He passed two stools simultaneously and had a minor prolapse. It receded immediately just like last time, but now, the prolapsed tissue had a small amount of something white on it before it receded. Once again, too fast to get a picture of it, and he seems okay after the bath itself.

I'm taking him to the vet this week to have him looked at. I will try to keep more calcium in his diet as well, and replace the lights when I can. Thank you all for the information and recommendations!

As far as foods go, what are some good ways to add calcium to his diet naturally? I can dust insects and greens, but anything that has high calcium content to begin with would be good. I am aware of calciworms, but the last time I bought them, they were mostly dead, so I'm a little hesitant to buy more at this point.

Is this something that you have never seen happen before or this is just beginning to happen + you have noticed a difference ? If it's not staying out it's not really a prolapse. Just increase hydration, avoid very large prey items and include soft veggies in his diet, even some baby food squash.

A heavy parasite load may at times contribute to a prolapse, but it's usually something else.

This just started happening last week, and now it seems different.

He usually drinks water from his dish, and occasionally the bath. He doesn't seem to show any other signs of dehydration. His skin seems healthy, and he doesn't have sunken in eyes or a dry-looking mouth or toung. His urate is soft as well, so I'm not sure if it's dehydration. He could probably do with more water, but I'm not sure that's the main problem, but it's still worth looking into.

You may have a few possible issues going on here. First of all, if his fecal matter or urates are hard they can cause a prolapse (I didn't see whether this was a hemipenes prolapse, or an actual intestinal prolapse?). So the idea of adding more hydration to his daily routine isn't so much because he's dehydrated, but to listen his stools up. The other thing you can do to make his stools softer and more regular, since this seems to be the only time he's prolapsing, when he poops, is to put him on a daily dose of probiotics. It's the same idea behind Activia, you know, the yogurt that Jamie Lee Curtis advertises that is supposed to make people more regular and going to the bathroom easier? Activia is just yogurt with extra probiotics added in. So if you were to be very strict about giving him the probiotics daily, along with dripping unflavored Pedialyte on his snout for him to lick off a few times a day (or add unflavored Pedialyte to his water bowl if he actually drink out of it in addition to giving him extra Pedialyte by dripping it on his snout a few times daily), this should result in both his urates and fecal matter becoming softer and passing much more easily.

Also, another thing that happens is that the more he does actually prolapse, the weaker the muscles in that area become. They stretch out a little bit each time it happens, and eventually it will not go back in afterwards, but have to be put back in manually. I'm assuming this is an intestinal prolapse, so if this keeps happening then eventually you'll be faced with the prolapse actually staying outside his vent, and this is when it becomes dangerous because it will dry out and become necrotic. Infections can also occur the longer the tissue is outside his body. If this ever happens you must keep the tissue moist AT ALL TIMES and get him to an emergency vet ASAP, no matter what time of day it is, because the tissue can and will die. I'm glad you're taking him to a vet, I'd take a fresh poop sample with you so they can do a fecal test for parasites. The reptile vet, if it's a reptile vet, should discuss the options for him, but what I've seen with a lot of beardies that have this problem keep happening is they actually put a suture or two in the prolapsing tissue to keep it inside.

I've found having some silkworms in the daily BTs and beardies' diets makes the poos nice and moist and helps increase regularily.

Hello,

So sorry he continues to have some trouble. Are you going to get him to the vet this thursday for
a check up?
I hope you are able to keep the tissue in so he doesn't suffer from an infection. It could be due to
worms or parasites, or weak intestinal muscles, or perhaps a genetic issue.
Let us know how he is doing.

Tracie