I am at a loss for words.

[Leighanne]

Remember No Toes with the prolapsed hempimene? Its been about two weeks. First week it would come out, I would treat it, it would go back in and then he'd pooh and it would come out again. Past three or four days its stayed out.

I was giving him sugar baths and then putting A&D ointment on it and Vitamin E Oil and keeping his tank nice and moist. The tank would still be moist when I came home but his hempimene would be dried out, frustrating! I don't know if he'd lick off the Oils, rub them off on the paper towel? I would proceed with the sugar baths and ointment. I come home last night and pick him up and look and after four days it appears to be back in! HOORAY! I sit down, eat dinner and motivate myself to get up off my tired bum and proceed to clean animals. No Toes is last with all of the treatments. I take him out and put him in a regular warm just water bath and bring his tub out to the other room and show Jeff what I found. Theres poop in one corner that looks normal and in the middle of the tub is his hempimene!!!!!!

It actually IS his hempimene! I did a double spin and checked him again and theres a flat spot where the ball buldge would be. I put the hempimene in a baggie and saved it. There was no blood and I touched it and hes not in major pain anymore, but WHAT does this mean?? What signs should I proceed to look for?? Has this ever happened to anyone?? PLEASE HELP!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Well, it sounds like his hemipenis became necrotic and shriveled up and fell off. This does occur when the gecko doesn't get to a vet for surgical removal, and you are lucky this happened instead of it getting infected... the necrosis could have spread and killed him. If this ever happens again, use the aloe vera type of Preparation H instead of the A&D ointment. The sugar water soaks work great in most cases. If the hemipenis starts to turn black or goes for more than 3-5 days without inverting, you should seek veterinary care.

 

[Leighanne]

Marcia you are my God!

Well, I feel REALLY bad with the Vet statements but this won't happen again. I read about some kid trying to run his own "Rescue" facility on our News board and he over did it, not enough room help or money and ending up hurting his Rescues more then saving. That ain't me, thats for sure! So heres the plan and the info I've been withholding. I am downsizing, Rescues, Turtle, and Pet Mice are going. No more animals! Some T's but no more animals. I am letting my Finances recover this year and have to focus on a car and better job right now. My money situation is unfortunate for not only Rescues, my Critters, but ME! It sucks.

I am SO very happy that he got lucky! I was talking about him at work all day and my minds been so jumbled I couldn't even think of what was going on but none Reptile co workers all said it sounded like Mother Nature castrated him. I didn't know if that was good or bad? He is less pain now, more comfortable, no blood. I didn't feed him last night because of the whole mess but will tonite and will monitor him closely, especially his poohs and that area.

I wanted to keep ONE of my seven and it will be emaciated boy. Hes a freaking cutie and my pride and joy seeing as how he came to us emaciated and within a month with Pin Worms we got him to 45 grams. I'm kind of scared to keep him because his hempimenes swollen. An whats this hempimene, hemipenis? Am I spelling it wrong? It was his Testicle, whats that called? His right ball is now missing, no buldge, all flat, he still has his left one though.

There is a very great person on Fauna who is taking these Rescues. I can not tell only they can tell but I am VERY picky about who I send Rescues to. More so then just any Leo, these are Rescues and DESERVE good lives so by the power invested in me I've picked only the best home! No Toes is going first with this new problem, and then everybody else as soon as I get the scales and they are done with medication. I can visibly tell No Toes is fat enough, hes the fattest little Leo I have except for Gex and Squee. I've been pretty good with this visible stuff and come to learn our first Leo is OBESE! I wonder how that happened.

I wanted to keep No Toes and have been whining to Jeff all day and hes been saying no, of course. No Toes is also the cutest and I am VERY attached! I am an adult and have to take responsibility and like any good Mother if you can't afford the Vet and somebody else can the responsible thing to do is give him up. On the bright side they are through Fauna so I'll have to constantly badger for pictures I guess! lol I now understand the depression Breeders go through though. How do you guys do it???? Like any good Breeder they stay with you for at least two months right, enough to absolutely fall in love! I know I'm going to have post partum depression and everything. Jeff is right though and I'll just look at the bright side, besides I got all my balling out two days ago.

I am going to give him a warm bath and put some peroxide in it and stand over top of him and make sure he doesn't drink any and then put Neosporin on the area. Its not red or anything but just to sanitize the area and hopefully prevent infection. To be on the safe side ya know.

His ball wasn't black, it wasn't bloody, it was pink, it just fell off and now its flat and hes fine so far. It may sound cruel but until my Income gets better NO MORE Rescues! I swear the next "Andy" that comes up to me telling me they'll die I'm going to say its not my problem, I don't have the money to "save" anybody and I WON'T let my conscious suffer. Hows about THEIRS suffer. If these stupid people even care. Andy just couldn't go through the "hassle" of shipping. I went through the "hassle" 100 times over. I managed to heat them, feed them, keep them clean, and get them to the Vet for the Panacur. No Toes prolapsed the very next day to, go figure.

BY the WAY! I got the Crypto and G whatever Tests back. NEGATIVE! Thank GOD! The diarrhea was from environmental issues which went away because I fixed those issues.

So No Toes goes next week hopefully. I'm having heating pack issues! I'm gonna cry!

 

[Leighanne]

ALSO....

I kind of get the image you might think I'm "bad" or something or wasn't trying so to clarify my situation here. A. God only knows he could of died while I was trying to find a RIDE to the Vet because remember I don't have car. B. I had NO clue the time line was 3-5 days. I tried to call the Vet consistently for the past like week, didn't get ahold of her except for once and that was before everything got "worse" and her Secretary person...I'm gonna smack that Lady, she freakin hung up on me today. I talked with my Rattie friend about it because she goes there to and she gets a different Lady and has no problems, well BLAH! I was polite. GEESH! C. I ordered a credit card and was prepared to max it out for him IF necessary causing drama between Jeff and I.

Last night I went to bed without doing Research and Jeff and his friends highjacked the computer and I've had very little sleep in the past six days with No Toes and being in Retail and it being Easter. I'm usually a closer and have nothing but mornings. I was worried but saw and still see no bad signs. I DO realize I am lucky. I don't know how or why but everybody thats came to this house has been NOTHING but "lucky." You figure a Corn Snake with a dent in his back, a Ball that wouldn't eat, Rescues. I have magical dust over my house or something. I HAVE taken animals to the Vet and WILL continue to do so. At the least I am dedicated and hardworking, Researching and try positively everything, but we all just got lucky and I'll run with that. As stated they all have a great home they are going to. Not trying to argue just making some points so you guys know I'm not the monster.

 

[Ssthisto]

I'm kind of scared to keep him because his hempimenes swollen. An whats this hempimene, hemipenis? Am I spelling it wrong? It was his Testicle, whats that called? His right ball is now missing, no buldge, all flat, he still has his left one though.

Hemipenes: Both halves of the male reproductive organ in lizards.
Hemipenis: One half of the male reproductive organ in lizards.

The bulges at the base of his tail are not his testicles, they are his hemipenes - he keeps them inside-out at the base of his tail like that. His testicles are up inside his body cavity near his kidneys - it's a much more sensible place to keep them, if you know your rivals are likely to bite your tail.

The bulge would disappear if one hemipenis went necrotic and came off - because then there's nothing to have stored inside-out there.

I'd still do what you could to get him to a vet - or make sure a new owner does - just to make sure he doesn't have any internal infection. Prolapses are nasty and can be fatal.