Urgent Care :: Black tissue mass being pushed out of one of my turtle's

[C.]

My turtle (twice now that I've seen today) pushes this black mass of tissue (it's rather bubblish) of of its rectum and then sucks it back in.....what is this? What is going on?

[JessicaTS]

Your turtle is a boy
It's his penis. If he has other tank mates, make sure they don't try to nip at it.

Welcome to Turtle Talk

[da sAUCE!]

unless he digs that kinda thing....

[da sAUCE!]

btw, that was a joke.

[C.]

How long will he do this?

[steve]

Is he constipated and do you have pebbles/gravel in your tank? Though it sounds like fanning it might be impaction... if its fanning then there is nothing to worry about.

[sonyj]

Everything I've read says fanning is a natural thing for male turtles to do. As long as it goes back in by itself everything is fine. I am concluding from what I've read about this it will occur when ever he feels like it and he'll continue doing this when he wants to.

But Steve has a great point, if there is gravel in his tank smaller than his head he could have ate that and become impacted, requiring surgery if the stones don't pass.

What size is your turtle (SCL: shell from tip to tip not including curve) and how old is he?

[marisa]

Have you noticed him doing it frequently since you first posted about it? (Or did you just catch him those few times?)

[C.]

No small stones in my tank....he's about 10 cm /4in. Nope haven't seen him do it again. Thanks all for your input and putting me at ease. It so nice to have support.

[tini]

makes you want to blush huh?