A little confused

Question
QUESTION: My brown aquatic turtle is about 5in long, and I've been taking care of her for 5 years. Something brown & jelly-like came out of her tail & it was enormous, then it sucked back in!! Whatever it is it doesn't seem to be bothering her. But it's really bothering me, I don't know if it's hurting her, and by the size of it I can't see how it doesn't.

ANSWER: LOL! I hate to say this, but this is a 'prolapse'- an internal organ that pops out. These are a real concern when they do not pop back in.

The funny part is that the organ you most described is the penis, which make me really hope the turtle's name is not 'Sally' or something.

I would recommend that you do a little research- describing it as a 'brown aquatic turtle' really does not tell me much about it.

Give http://www.austinsturtlepage.com for other ideas!

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My turtle is a brown slider aquatic turtle, that's all I was told,I was also told it was a female because it has a flat shell on the bottom, is this true?

Answer
'Brown slider aquatic turtle' is more of a description than a name. Most sliders are mostly green, all sliders are semi-aquatic, and so on. Knowing the real species would make it easier for you to be offering the right cares. For example. if your turtle was really a 'Red-ear Slider' it would like one sort of cares. If it was a 'Common Snapping Turtle' or a 'Three-striped Mud Turtle' it would want different cares.

You can try to match your turtle with the photos at http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/world_of_turtles/, or post a photo in a photo-sharing site and I will try to help ID it  (If you do this choice, include a top view, bottom view, and side of the head.)

Now- for some turtles, flat bellies mean females, but this only counts for turtles that are sexually mature, and does not really help with a lot of species. In this situation, for example, if the brown jelly mass really was the penis, it was obviously not too helpful.

Please understand, a LOT of people get turtles one way or another and are not given the right info about them- what 'they' say about what species they are, what they eat, etc. is very often very wrong.

If we can figure out the species, we can then figure out the best care for it.

Good luck again!