probing problem

[Paleosuchus]

While probing my recently aquired adult female ball, i went to probe her just to be 100% sure. As i went to probe her, her cloaca opened and i saw on her left side what appeared to be a scabby looking area inside her cloaca but it looked as she was tying to invert it out. This made me think, "oh damn" its a male. but it didn't look like any hemipenes i had ever saw or why would an adult male try and invert his hemepenes. I am looking to breed her this season and want to know if this will be a problem, oh and i never got aorund to probing her becuase i was afraid of what this may be. Sound like anything you all ever eard of? Thanks for any help, jason

[snakehunter]

No experience here, but if it is a male it could be sperm plugs those arent too pretty looking and doo look kinda skaby. Other than that I would think a vet trip is in order just to be 100% sure.

[thunder]

are you sure it is a scab? if so, it is probably an injury caused by improper probing, and your only choice would be to wait until it heals to try probing, otherwise you run a risk of reopening it.

[mykee]

I have a female that when I first aquired her, whenever she was touched, she would push her insides out of her cloaca and piss on me. I'm pretty sure that my female was doing this as a knee-jerk stress reaction and I'm pretty sure your's is doing it for the same reason. My advice, is if you know what you're doing with the probe, put on a t-shirt you don't mind smelling like the worst urine you've ever smelled in your life, and do what you have to do. As for the scabby-looking thing, it's not often that people get to see the insides of a ball python, so I wouldn't worry. Good luck and keep us posted.

[mudflats]

I found out what it was, when they shed as most of you know, sometime when the skin comes out from under the anal scale it bleeds alittle that was what i was seeing, dried blood. Vet said the same thing.