# Madagascar hissing cockroach prolapse during molt?



## skylark (Nov 2, 2015)

This is going to be gross

Don't say I didn't warn you 





So my female MHC was having issues molting so I separated her and helped her out gently. All was going well until she began wiggling to get the lower part off. This semi opaque sac was hanging from her. It appears to have at least 2 brown masses within it as well as a network of white veiny looking things in the wall. It's been several hours since it began. I assumed it would be similar to what vertebrates go through so I donned gloves and very gently tried to press it in. It didn't budge at all so I don't think I can without injury. It's extremely late so I'm going to leave her be and sleep. 

If anyone could explain what that is, why it happened, or if there's anything I can do I'd be grateful.


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## harbles (Nov 2, 2015)

I'm sorry, I have no idea, but I'm interested to hear what it is. 

*Parent to a cat, rats, mice, hissers, hermit crabs, dubias, crested geckos and some fish!*


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## pannaking22 (Nov 3, 2015)

First guess would be ovaries, but I could be wrong. Not really sure what you'd do about it. She may take whatever that is back into her body.


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## Tenodera (Nov 5, 2015)

This is worse than I've ever seen. An incomplete molt + a major prolapse is unfortunately not recoverable, best to put her down. I'm sorry.

I think this is the brood sac, and in extreme stress or some physical malfunction it can prolapse. Small extrusions of the sac will not significantly hamper the female, and especially if she is in a small colony she can have a normal, albeit sterile, life. This size of prolapse would be severely detrimental to her life and health, though, even if she does survive the bad molt.


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## skylark (Nov 18, 2015)

Tenodera said:


> This is worse than I've ever seen. An incomplete molt + a major prolapse is unfortunately not recoverable, best to put her down. I'm sorry.
> 
> I think this is the brood sac, and in extreme stress or some physical malfunction it can prolapse. Small extrusions of the sac will not significantly hamper the female, and especially if she is in a small colony she can have a normal, albeit sterile, life. This size of prolapse would be severely detrimental to her life and health, though, even if she does survive the bad molt.


Thanks so much for the reply. I've been in the dark with this. Unfortunately before I could even make the decision to put her down she already passed. 

The strange thing though is that another female just did this. Molt stuck on the upper body, prolapse, etc. I've no idea why it happened once let alone twice. 

The second one's prolapse is slightly less, but it's been several days of this without finishing the molt no matter what I try. I've even tried manually clipping away the molt but it's like it didn't separate from the front half. 

I feel awful about it, but I think I'm going to put her down now. It doesn't seem fair to keep her around at this point.


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## Hisserdude (Nov 19, 2015)

Hmm, how hot do you keep your hissers? If its below 60, they are probably having problems molting due to them not being active enough to wriggle out of their skin. Just a thought. Sorry this is happening to your hissers.


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## skylark (Nov 21, 2015)

Hisserdude said:


> Hmm, how hot do you keep your hissers? If its below 60, they are probably having problems molting due to them not being active enough to wriggle out of their skin. Just a thought. Sorry this is happening to your hissers.


Thanks. I keep them at 75F, 70 minimum, so I doubt that would be it. One theory I have is their diet. I've been feeding them greens of course, but tried a small amount of cat food as recommended by some. That's about when I had the two bad molts. I took the dish out to wash after the most recent one and haven't had any others with the problem. Maybe it was just a fluke, I can't be sure.


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