Could be from dehydration as Julie suggests, but you say you found sand. In the past I have resolved very minor prolapses of the hemipenes or definitely improved them by using common vegetable oil to the area with a q-tip. You might need to give a gentle poke with something rounded though.
You say you found sand: Sounds like your gecko passed the sand when the prolapse occurred. I have experienced significant prolapses twice with the same 6" Northern Velvet gecko. The first time the sand showed up on x-ray. About six weeks ago it happened the second time, always quite late at night. Off to the vet ER we went. Resolving the issue was a two-person job and the vet let me assist. (I found this problem immediately. I then placed the gecko in a 50% dextrose solution. We waited at the vet's over an hour.) Then as I gently restrained this lovely gecko, the vet applied Artificial Tears Ointment which you may be able to find at your local Fred Meyer's for $3.45 a tube. (When I mentioned to her about K-Y jelly, the vet said that she thought that it would be too drying because of the alcohol content.) Well, with me gently restraining this beautiful animal, the vet generously applied the Artificial Tears Ointment and with two long q-tips exerted pressure on either side of the vent directly upon the tissues with the q-tips angled about 90 degrees to the vent. Suddenly the tissues popped into place. That was on June 14. The vet recommended that I feed this gecko only Gerber's chicken baby food for three weeks and administer CatLax once a day to her lips in order to keep her stools easy to pass. 17 days later, as I fed her the baby food she passed a very small stool which was totally Jurassic Reptile Playsand, a very fine sand with smooth granules. That is the substrate I'd been keeping her on, a combination of Jurassic sand and peat moss. Now she could have been dehydrated, but I always have water available and she had been eating her dusted crickets regularly! And there was the sand in her stool similar to her August 2002 experience.
Hope these details help you with your animal.
Elizabeth
In a message dated 7/22/03 7:59:51 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I came home from work this evening and I found rivulets of blood on the basking rock for my spider geckos. Here is a link to the pic.
http://members.rogers.com/spidermikey/bloodyrock.jpg
It was accompanied by a healthy male gecko and a very large blob of feces (little urates). I melted the feces in a glass ash tray and it was mostly pure sand.
I've soaked him in a sugar solution in the sink and he looked decent. After cleaning his cloacal area it turns out there are 2 slightly protuding red blobs. I assume these are hemipenes.
If it wasn't for the blood I wouldn't worry too much but is this a common thing? I know everted hemipenes happens but with so much blood? Anyway, I'll head to the vet tomorrow.
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lappert robert hubert
14.9 yo r.i.p. r.i.p.
(All Lepidodactylus lugubris!)
