spur tortoise

Question
my guy is acting fine up till Friday afternoon when he started making noises and the other 1 stayed far away i picked him up and did not see anything at 1st then when i turned him over he has what looks like a part of him hanging out of him i tryed our herb vet all weekend with no answer my reg vet does not deal that much and recommend we get a special vet no is around until monday or Tuesday what should i do he likes being in warm water 1/2 deep he is big 10-12 lbs i also have him on cloth now not his hay and bedding hes been on for years.we never changed his living way when we got them . everything is exactly the same food bedding everything did not want to change a thing  

Answer
Hi Nancy,

I'm sorry I didn't answer this earlier; for some reason I didn't get an email notification of your question.

It sounds like your tortoise may have a prolapsed penis.  This is pretty common with male sulcata, and it does need vet attention from your herp vet as soon as you can get him in.  Keep him on newspaper or towels, and try to keep the area moist.  *If* the tissue still looks healthy, you can try soaking him in lukewarm water with sugar added to see if he's able to retract the penis on his own (the sugar helps shrink the tissue).  Normally the vet will retract the prolapse and then stitch it in while it heals, but unfortunately at this point since he's been prolapsed so long the vet may have to amputate his penis.  This won't affect him at all, so don't worry if that happens.  Just get him into the vet as soon as you can.