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Female Cloaca Open Permanent

D

D10S

New member
Hi everyone,

My female classic corn snake Lucy is a little over 2 years old and has been in perfect health so far. Today while handling her, I noticed her cloaca was not completely covered and there was a fleshy part exposed (pictures attached, I am not applying any pressure). She seems to respond when that area is touched, so I'm worried she might injure herself slithering around with it exposed.

Does this seem like a serious issue from the pictures posted? I only have one other male snow corn snake, so I'm not really experienced with these things. I hope someone with more expertise can offer me advice. Thanks for reading and for your time!
 

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It's a little hard to tell what I'm looking at in the photos. Is the white part fleshy? Does her cloaca scale appear to be folded under?
 
For now at the very least, you may want to switch her substrate to paper towels so there's nothing rough for it to rub against.
 
hypnoctopus said:
It's a little hard to tell what I'm looking at in the photos. Is the white part fleshy? Does her cloaca scale appear to be folded under?
Click to expand...
I apologize for the pic quality. I tried retaking them but this is the best I can do with my phone while trying to keep her still ��

Yeah, the white part marked with the arrow is fleshy and definitely looks like it should be completely covered up. It’s a little hard to tell, but it does look like the two scales on top of the vent are tucked underneath (have you come across a similar situation before?). I tried gently massaging the base of the vent on either side to see if it would help but no luck.

I’ve gone ahead and moved her out of her tank and into her previous tub with paper towels for now. She seems to be moving around and acting fine, but when I run my fingers underneath her belly and reach the vent, there’s a definite slight reaction, so I suspect something is out of order. Is it possible that a shed or going to the bathroom might fix this? Thank you for your help!
 
hypnoctopus said:
I did one time have a snake get a piece of aspen stuck in his hemipene. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129814

This same snake also one other time got a folded over cloaca scale. I have no idea how it happened, but if I recall correctly, it went back to normal after the next shed.
Click to expand...

That looked quite nasty! Glad he recovered completely. Lucy shed last week, so it'll probably be a month or so till she sheds again. I hope that fixes the issue.
 
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