Eastern Painted- WIERD appendage?

Question
QUESTION: I have had a beautiful eastern painted turtle for about a year now.  I feed it by hand in a seperate container from his cage (his/her- have never been able to determine; claws are longer but tail is more female-like).  Tonight during his feeding I noticed his back legs kind of, tense up and get really close together and I noticed something underneath him (NOT A LEG).  I am afraid to ask what this might have been if you catch my drift but I have never noticed it in a year and am now a little concerned.  It was about 1 in x 1 in and relatively flat but curvy in the middle (Turtle is about 5 in in length).  I picked him up to get a better look and it retracted this 'appendage' back into it's shell.  I have never seen this before and I have no idea what it was.  Can you help!?!

ANSWER: Was it like this: http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/RES_prolapse.htm

Several organs in a turtle can 'prolapse' or come partially out of the tail's vent. This usually needs a vets care.

About the only other option I can think of might be a leech on the turtle.

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

QUESTION: Thanks for the site.  It really didn't look like that at all...it wasn't red whatsoever, just the color of the turtle's skin and was relatively flat and smooth.  From the austinsturtlecare page you've mentioned on here I read that sometimes a male turtle's penis can come out like that...but not sure if that was it.  Could that be possible?  He doesn't seem to be uncomfortable or in pain, and it didn't seem to be swollen or anything like that...


Answer
It could have been the penis as well, but even that is usually a dark reddish/purple. Usually smoother, and usually retracts it on its own when it wants.

I'm sorry, but the question just before yours was about a female turtle and for some reason I was still thinking 'female' when I read your question.

Males tend to 'flash' when they reach sexual maturity- showing their penis for a while, then retracting it. It is not a problem unless the organ becomes injured (sometimes, a cagemate will attack it).