Ackie Impaction

[u/Prize_Philosopher_15]

Hi there! apologies for the long read!

I recently picked up at 3.5 month old Ackie. As of today I've had them for one week. However I had to run them to my exotic vet today because I noticed them dragging their hind quarters against their substrate and wood/rock. Then I noticed a prolapse. They are currently having an overnight stay with my vet and xray is being done in the morning to let me know what caused this.

I'm reaching out for additional insight as to what may have caused this. I'm thinking it may be my substrate as I was allowing them to chase their prey around the enclosure (maybe they ingested some of the substrate?).

I'm going to give some information, and would love to receive any advice/correction. I've done a fair bit of research and preparing prior to getting my ackie as they are my first monitor. I've got several geckos, frogs, and invertebrates already.

Enclosure:

- 20 gallon long, with pvc backing, and front opening doors.

- 50/50 mix of reptisoil and excavator sand. Bottom layer damp for humidity when burrowing. Top layer dry.

- Basking spot: Flukers 150 watt basking bulb. This is on the hot end, and below it are stacked rocks.

I use a thermometer gun to check heat. On the surface of the top rock it reads at 124F

I have two additional digital thermometers on both hot and cool sides.

Hot ambient temps are around 104F

Cool ambient temps are 85-90F during day, around 75F at night.

- Hot side, I alternate between the basking bulb during the day, and infrared heat emitter at night to keep things warm enough for digesting. (I've seen mixed information on whether or not you should have heat at night if the rooms ambient temperature is above 70F)

- Feeding. I feed 1 week and small crickets, dusted with calcium every day. I feed them as much as they want to eat during a feeding. Yesterday, they ate about 15 small crickets. It's my understanding that they should eat until they're full and that's sufficient as they are growing like weeds at this age. Can they be overfed or risk impaction due to this?

They have a water dish that's shallow but big enough for them to enter if they so choose. I've seen then interact with it so I know they were aware of it. I don't feel like hydration was the issue.

** That all said, they are currently with my vet and the prolapse was mended with additional tests being done tomorrow (whatever they can do since they are a wee little lamb)

Any advice or information from individuals well-versed in Ackie husbandry is welcome, and that includes constructive criticism. I am enamored with this baby and really thought I had everything down to a science. I'm always happy to correct course and admit when I'm wrong. Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read this and lend their thoughts.

[u/optional-prime]

Sounds like scent marking and everted their hemipenis, not impaction. Also a humid substrate to dig in or a dig box can help massively for ensuring the animals stay hydrated. But likely at least from what I read, he was scent marking.

[u/Prize_Philosopher_15 → u/optional-prime]

I'll have to edit to add above as I forgot to mention it.

They weren't really using their back legs as they dragged their cloaca. The back legs were stuck out to the sides. They'd sometimes try and use them to move around, but it seemed like there was a lot of pressure down there. Once we were at the vet, I saw the prolapse myself as the tech picked them up to examine. They ended up being able to correct the prolapse, but are going to do additional testing in the morning.