Box Turtle with Large Red Mass extruding from rectum

Question
I have a native NJ Box Turtle that is approximately 1.5 years old, 3 inches long, 2 inches wide.  About an hour ago we noticed a mass coming out of her rectum, approximately 1/4" in size.  It is not a bowel movement, it is attached and extruding out.  I couldn't find any information when i tried to search this issue on the internet.

Turtle is kept in a 30-gallon glass terrarium with Reti-glo 10.0 UVB light and heat source of Zilla Mini Halogen Dome with 50W mini Halogen bulb, Eco-Earth Substrate and Repti-Bark on top.  There is a small log pet refuge, small water bowl, a few low flat rocks.  Right now it is 35% humidity and about 75-80 degrees depending on location in tank.  Diet is a mix of veggie and fruit, box turtle pellets (all given moist) and some pate cat food.  We use fresh strawberries and lettuce but not much gets eaten of that.  

Haven't notice any change in diet or movement around tank.  The extruding piece just showed up.  Thanks for any help you can provide!!

Answer
Hi,

Your box turtle likely has a prolapse, and needs vet treatment ASAP.  This is not something that can be treated at home, and does require immediate care.  In addition, you need to make some changes to how you're keeping your turtle.

Box turtles require quite a bit of room.  A 30 gallon tank is far too small, and tanks in general are not appropriate for box turtles.  They actually do much better living outside, and can hibernate in the winter if there's a properly prepared area for them (soft ground so they can dig in, then covered with a heavy layer of leaf litter or straw).  If you must keep her indoors all year round, she needs an open, airy enclosure that's at least 3 x 5, and preferably more like 4 x 8.  For substrate, use a mix of coir (Ecoearth), playsand, and sphagnum moss (not peat moss).  This must be kept moist--box turtles need quite a bit of moisture in their environment.  It's possible that your turtle has developed a bladder stone due to dehydration, and this is what caused the prolapse.  In a small tank, it's virtually impossible to prevent dehydration because the basking lamp dries the environment out so much.  Keep in mind that air humidity is not what's most important; the substrate itself needs to be moist.  35% humidity would be much too dry in any case, so getting more moisture in there is really vital.

There should be a basking spot of about 90 degrees; however, there also needs to be cooler areas down to 70 or even mid 60s, so that she can regulate her temperature.  If you have a Reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb (tube bulb), that's fine, but does need to be changed every six months.  The only other UVB bulb I recommend right now is the Powersun, which is heat/UVB in one, and needs to be changed yearly.  

Change her diet; this may also have led to the prolapse.  Box turtles are fairly carnivorous, but should not be fed cat or dog food, which contains ingredients that are not appropriate for turtles.  Also avoid any kind of pellets.  Instead, feed whole meat items--worms, snails, superworms, pinky mice, crickets, wax worms, sow bugs, etc.  Mine particularly like superworms (also called king mealworms, but they're not actually mealworms).  In addition to the meat items, feed a variety of fruit, veggies (squash, peppers, mushrooms, etc.), and greens (dandelion, turnip, kale, collards, etc.), but avoid lettuce as it's not very nutritious.  Generally speaking, they will eat 60-70% of the diet as meat, and the rest as fruit/veggies/greens.  

Once your turtle has gotten vet treatment (the vet may need to x-ray her to determine the cause of the prolapse), she should do very well with the changes I outlined above.  For further information, see:  http://aboxturtle.com/.  If you have more questions, please post back and I'll do what I can to help.