• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Western Hognose Prolapse... Help please

ddodge

ddodge

New member
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
87
Reaction score
1
Points
0
Location
Raymond NH. USA
I have a male Western Hognose with his butt hole sticking out, basically. I was feeding when I saw him cruising his tub and noticed a very small amount of blood and he had a red/pink bubble sticking out his vent. There is no vet open until monday and I could use some help until then. He is about 18" and girthy, eats an appropriate size mouse once a week, although until 2 weeks ago it was twice weekly to fatten up after brumation. He may also have been bred this season, but I didn't witness it to know for sure.

As far as housing goes, he is in an Animal Plastics 1754 rack with Helix set at 88 for a hot spot.

I've bathed him in sugar water for about a .5 hour, then gave him a bath in a novlasan mix to disinfect any possable wounds. Now I've put a paste of sugar/water on the area and left him in a 6qt tub with a small amount of water/ky for the night.

Is there anything I've done wrong/right? Is there anything besides the obvious vet visit that I should or could do for this little guy?

Thank you in advance for the advice. Dustin
 
I have seen them look like that here in Florida, in the wild when they do the whole 'playing dead' game. We caught one that went through the motions of all that, then when it was done, everything went back where it was supposed to be.
Is it still like that?
I don't know much about them, but can you tell me the purpose of sugar water?
 
I have read in a few forums that sugar can help swelling decrese enough for the muscles to retract the tissue. One of my Hoggies has played dead before, but this is much worse than what I've seen. I have a vet visit for tomorrow. Thanks for the reply.
 
The idea behind the sugar/water soaks is that the mixture retains the fluid that causes the swelling in the prolapsed organ. When the osmotic pressure in the solution is lower than the pressure in the organ, it makes it easier for the organ to retract to where it's supposed to go. The idea is to make the solution pretty dense with sugar.

I have several clients who use Preparation-H in addition to the soaks and have had successful results.

The KY is a great idea, but I wouldn't leave him in the water overnight. Instead, you can use some damp paper towels as a temporary substrate.

There's always a reason behind a prolapse, and that's where your vet comes in...most likely, you don't have a fresh stool sample now considering the circumstances, but when he produces one, I would have it analyzed, as parasites are one of many reasons behind prolapse. Good luck, Dustin.
 
Dustin--time for an update on the vet visit. How did it go; all better yet?

Maia--you lost me at "osmotic." I picked back up on it after that, though, and learned that parasites can contribute to prolapse. Can you break down "osmotic pressure?"
 
Osmotic pressure is where one substance has the ability to hold more or less water than another. Kind of like taking two paper towels, one wet and one dry, you can put the dry one on top of the wet one and it will still get wet. Kind of like why you salt a steak before you cook it.

A super simple explanation.
 
Last edited:
Sadly it was bad enough by that time that euthenasia was our only option.. I am having fecals of the others checked to rule out parasites to hopefully prevent this from ever happening again. Thanks for your advice, Dustin.
 
Back
Top