swollen tortoise rectum ???

Question
Hi. I have a California desert tortoise that looks like his/ her rectum is about to explode. It sleeps outside in a dog "tortoise" house. It eats grass,romaine lettuce,grape leaves,occasionally strawberries,watermelon,corn on the cob...... It's shell is about 10 inches from front to back. About once a week we see a "purple flower" coming out the backside of our tortoise. When we pick the tortoise up the "purple flower" goes back in. We remember this happening a few years ago with another tortoise but it only happened a couple of times so we basically forgot about it. We have many tortoise and hope this is nothing serious or contagious. Vet bills are high and we don't want to pay to have someone say our tortoise is constipated. Have you heard of this happening before? We love our tortoise and want it to be okay. Thank you.

Answer
This is probably 'fanning'- showing its penis, then retracting it again. This is also called a 'penile prolapse'. There are several other organs that can prolapse as well.

As long as it can self-retract, things are basically OK but you should revisit the basic cares, especially space, temps, humidity, and diet.

For example- none of the references I use for Desert's recommend much lettuce, watermelon, or corn- far too 'wet', which can cause prolapse.

I have gotten a lot of questions about Desert's lately, which kind of worry me as Deserts are so tightly protected, and it is incredibly illegal to own one without proper documentation. I hope you have the proper documentation for yours.

The other thing that concerns me in all of these questions is that the Desert Tortoise really is not that great of a pet tortoise with their space and environment needs.

Regardless- good luck!