Bulging cloaca - Could it be prolapse?

[anne-marie]

I checked out one of my new females today and her cloaca was bulging and looked a little red just at the opening. There was some white (fecal??) matter coming out, just barely. I have just now rechecked and the swelling seems to have gone down. She is hungry though. I have given her a salt bath and put her in the fridge.

What else could this be - other than a prolapse. If it is a prolapse, could it return?

And I'll just point out that it is the albino axy pictured in my profile pic.

(Message edited by waltona on May 19, 2005)

 

[claire]

are you sure it is female? it could be male and laying spermatophores. i dunno. lol . ive never witnessed my male laying spermatophores.

sorry this was no help. :S .

 

[anne-marie]

Well, hesheit is about 8 months old and I'm fairly sure its Female because there's not usually any bulge in the important bit. And you can't call a male Maya.
After looking through Leighton's thread from a while back, it doesn't look like the pic he posted of a prolapse. So now I have a horrible thought - What if she was picking up a spermatophore - Nonononono!

 

[joan]

My female gained a slightly swelled cloaca after picking up spermatophores/laying eggs. Watching a male deposit a spermatophore is kind of horrifying! Their cloaca gets all open and red. and it looks like a koosh ball (if you all remember those).

 

[elisheba]

if she's only 8 months old, it's quite possible that she's... well i guess "she" may not be a maya anymore. watch carefully for signs of disease/infection/distress, but if the cloaca stays bulged you might check out male names i've definitely seen juveniles just "become" male one morning.

fwiw, i once had a "ms. piggy" (hamster) and one day, after "she" was ~1 year old, s/he had very big cohones!

 

[anne-marie]

No everything seems to have gone back to normal now. But the dreaded gravel has made an appearance in the quarantine container overnight. Damn. Now I've gotta cover up the gravel.