cloacal opening swollen?

[TitoCaliente]

Hi there,

I would like you guys your opinions on a odd looking number of scales "popping" out of one of my boas his/her cloacal opening. It has been like this for two weeks or so now, i waited until "she" shedded as I thought this might be of influence.

a picture says more than a 1000 words...

They're big enough now to be "probed" now in my opinon so if you guys cant tell me 100% certain what it is i will take them to the vet anyway. This is the (not so sexy looking) backside of the boa that just shedded, the other one looks absolutely 100%

[BoaCrazed]

I bet they are male and female. Do you house them together?

[TitoCaliente]

Thanks for your swift response. Yes they are housed together, but they chill out in different spots in the terrarium. Could you eleborate on the reason you bet they are male/female? And which one would be the female?

[BoaCrazed]

They are breeding bud, but I'd take her to the vet anyways just to be safe. I'd hate to say one thing and then something serious happens that I didn't forsee and you hate me for it.

[TitoCaliente]

I guess youre right about taking it to the vet, but breeding? they are hardly a meter long and 3/4 y/o

[JuliusSqueezer]

They aren't breeding. I can see how you would think that but they wouldn't be breeding while out of the cage being handled and photographed. Likely it's just how he laid them down to take the pic and it just happend to somewhat resemble tails locking up. The one with the cloaca swelling looks like a male from the size of the spurs...though that's not by any stretch a reliable sexing method...but a pretty good indicator.

Your snake's swelling can be caused by a few different things...

parasites are the likely suspect

Some other reasons could be infection of some sort, slight prolapse from being constricted by his cage mate, neurological issues causing muscle control loss (There would likely be other noticable symptoms if this were the case)

Get a fecal to your vet and find out what kind of worms your snake has and make sure and treat the cage mate....then you might consider seperating them.

	Spurs A pair of claws on each side of the cloaca which assist in mating. A spur is much more defined on a male

	Cloaca is the posterior opening that serves as the only such opening for the intestinal, urinary, and (usually) genital tracts of certain animal species.All birds, reptiles, and amphibians possess this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces

[TitoCaliente]

Thanks for the input, im taking them to the vet next week.I went to the reptile petstore (a very well reputated one, non-petstore chain) to ask them showing the pics on the digicam but the owner is away for two weeks but they gave me the heads up on the vet. Theres one specialised in reptiles/snakes so that should work out.

Unfortunately? they (the snakes not the vets) dont defecate as much as cuddly pets do so Il ask the vet how to handle that issue. Its amazing how you feed f/t, keep em well contained and they still manage to get some disease isnt it. Makes me wonder how optimal my enclosure is for them.

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[BoaCrazed]

They aren't breeding. I can see how you would think that but they wouldn't be breeding while out of the cage being handled and photographed. Likely it's just how he laid them down to take the pic and it just happend to somewhat resemble tails locking up. The one with the cloaca swelling looks like a male from the size of the spurs...though that's not by any stretch a reliable sexing method...but a pretty good indicator.

For some weird reason I thought that picture was in the cage! Ha, sorry. Wow I feel dumb now.

	Spurs A pair of claws on each side of the cloaca which assist in mating. A spur is much more defined on a male

	Cloaca is the posterior opening that serves as the only such opening for the intestinal, urinary, and (usually) genital tracts of certain animal species.All birds, reptiles, and amphibians possess this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces

[TitoCaliente]

thats quite allright, i took them out to take some pics, and they really seem to hate it if they have nothing to hold on to, so they try to hold on to each other. It would be different though to keep your snakes on a "bedsheet" substrate lol.

[BrentS]

I would also take him to the vet and get a fecal done to be on the safe side. You should post your findings when your done with the vet. I'm kind curious to find out whats going on.

[TitoCaliente]

exiting, tomorrow 0930 cet im taking em to the vet for their first visit!

[TitoCaliente]

yay! theyre both very healthy females! it was just some freak swelling, it was already gone wen i went to the vet.

I will have a fecal done whenever i can sample poo for them to analyze.

im very happy with them being females!