Cloaca swelling

Hello! I am new on the forum and new to corn snakes as well. I've had this hatchling for about a week now and for the past 3 days its cloaca area seems to be swollen. I'm afraid that it could be the start of a prolapse. It had its last meal thursday (in a plastic container with no substrate) and I dont know if it has deficated. I thought maybe it could be constipated so I put it in the tub with warm water, hoping that it would help it poo if it hasnt already done so. It didnt. Then I put it in a plastic container with cool, wet paper towels hoping that it would reduce some of the swelling. It didnt. I was hoping this could be resolved without the need to see a vet. Is there anyone that can tell me what could possibly be causing the swelling?

Here is a pic. Sorry about it being blurry. Apparently my camera doesnt do well with closeups.

He looks like he is about to poop! I would see if it goes away after a poo

Actually, I just got done giving it another warm bath and it pooped this time. I immediately check its cloaca and it still looks the same as it did before. Hopefully it will go down and wont turn out to be anything serious. I read about snake prolapse the other day and now it has me freaked out. lol.

interesting, I would definitely keep an eye on it if she did go poo. Every time I have had this happen it was just a BM hanging out there.. hopefully some one else will chime in :shrugs:

I'll check on it in the morning to see if it looks any better. Lol, I wish corns were easy to visually sex so I can give it a name... or call it a he or she atleast.

I actually just had this happen with a baby here. I am not sure why it was still swollen looking after the bowel movement but I can tell you when I checked on the snake the next day he was fine.

Awesome. Well, I have high hopes for tomorrow morning then.

ana8769 said:

I'll check on it in the morning to see if it looks any better. Lol, I wish corns were easy to visually sex so I can give it a name... or call it a he or she atleast.

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The video I will link about popping is a good way to sex your snake. I would have someone show you how to do it in person, but it is very simple. I had seen a friend do it several times, but I didn't really know how he was doing it until I watched the video.

http://www.cornutopia.com/Corn Utopia on the Web/- Sexing corn snakes - intro to vid clips.htm

There is also a method called "candling" that you can try.. I'm not sure how light/dark your baby is, but it's worth a shot. All you do is take a high powered flashlight to the tail tip, if you see one line (spine) it's a female, three (spine and hemipenes) it's a male.

I wouldn't be popping a hatchling if you're concerned about an unexplained swelling at the cloaca. Probably one for when s/he has recovered fully and you're confident that it won't happen again.

I woke up and check on the snake and its vent still looks the same. The swelling doesnt seem to bother it any, though. As far as the popping goes, no I wouldnt do it while its swollen, and I dont think I would attempt to do it myself anyways. My luck, I would probably break the poor thing in half or something. I did however try candling and I could see through the belly of my snake, just couldnt see anything in the tail near the cloaca. It just looked reddish and empty inside from what I could hardly make out. Its tail is just too small to really see anything. I'll just have to wait until it gets old enough to be probed to be sure.