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regarding the paper - try to keep your topic small and 
focused. Don't try to address too large an issue. 

for example - 
salmonellosis in iguanas - is that too narrow or too broad? well, the 
issue is really salmonellosis, not just iguanas, so maybe that is too 
narrow. 

today: issues of noninfectious diseases - usually husbandry, 
housekeeping issues; parasitic diseases. 

one of the first issues we've 
looked at -

Housing - how the animals are maintained or contained in a 
household. it's often spur-of-the moment when these animals are purchased 
and not much thought goes into it at first. but you should look at 
vertical and horizontal dimensions of the housing - some animals need 
height or depth for burrowing or climbing; some need surface area, etc. 
make sure animal is able to posture normally in the container. without 
freedom to move about it can get fat and lose stamina. a number of 
housing issues may affect the animal

a term used - "maladaptation" - was 
studied some years back, when it was found that some animals in 
captivity, even given all the niceties they'd expect from the best 
enclosure - never adapted to captivity - never ate well, or regurgitated 
a lot, constantly searched for a way out. the whole issue is most notable 
in reptiles. an animal like this - you want to make sure of a few things. 
one, the container should be large enough, so animal can move around in 
various planes, and more than anything else it needs to have a way to 
make the animal feel secluded - hide boxes. these boxes can be simple 
plastic construction items sold in pet shops, cardboard boxes, etc. 
something dark, to make the reptile feel invisible. a place for it to 
relax. a hide box is very important for these animals especially early on 
when first acclimating to the enclosure. 

the substrate is important - 
corncob, mulch, cellulose material, all kinds of stuff are sold in 
stores, all have pros and cons.

the most often seen are plain newspaper 
and bark mulches. the truth is that newspaper or paper toweling is 
probably better at least to start with than going to something like a 
bark mulch that has potential for carrying insect parasites esp mites 
into the enclosure. 

the furnishing beyond that in a cage becomes a 
matter of "decoration" and creativity on the part of the owner. none of 
you probably remember going to zoos back when most snakes or reptiles 
were in pretty much a glass container, or a concrete container, with 
nothing in it. a very sterile atmosphere. the tendency now is for a more 
naturalistic type of exhibit. this is good but it interferes with the 
ability to provide good observation of the animal. so people who want 
naturalistic exhibits should start slowly. don't immediately create a 
fullblown terrarium. wait until the animal is more acclimated to you. 


perhaps the - one caveat on that would be if your owner is dealing with 
chameleons or anoles, because they tend to be on foliage a lot, and if 
they are not on foliage, they feel very vulnerable and naked like a snake 
with no hide box - they really do need branches and stuff early on, to 
avoid this problem. 

just as birds need their exercise, so do reptiles. 
sure they are slow and don't move around that much all the time but in 
the wild they move quite a bit. in confinement if they adapt well and 
feed well you can end up with an obese animal. 

a real key point in 
keeping these animals, reptiles, in general, is temperature. we think of 
them as "cold blooded' and they are poikilotherms, who take on the 
temperature of the environment, but having said that there is that which 
we call POT - preferred optimal temperature, which is characteristic for 
any given species, and which is cyclical depending on season. it's 
important that during any one day, for at least an hour or two, the 
temperature is in the POT range for that animal. if you keep a south 
american boa constrictor, that animal should have exposure to temps of 
78-87 F during the day, from late morning to midafternoon. the problem in 
many areas is the daytime temps in your home are at 68 or 72. a lot of 
the problems you see in your clinic are related to temperature. by 
december, the animal will stop eating. the animal may eat and then 
regurgitate in a day or two. the south american boa constrictor is a 
rainforest animal. it's not a northeastern US animal. it needs warmth. so 
trying to keep these animals in a home around here is not the best thing 
for that animal. 

most reptiles will only feed when they are within the 
POT range. also, much of their digestion and enzymatic processes are very 
dependent on external temperature keeping everything going. they really 
need this ambient temperature. if the snake eats a rat, but can't digest 
it, the rat sits there dead in the stomach or wherever and then it either 
decays and the snake gets toxic or it inspissates there and causes 
obstruction. in either event, that snake's not going to eat again until 
you get the rat out of there. be aware of this - if the owner can't keep 
the temperature up, feeding is a problem. 

for any one animal...you may 
have to look up the POT for that species. knowing some of the natural 
history of the animal may give a clue.
 in addition to providing the POT 
there should also be a temperature gradient within the enclosure. there 
might be an incandescent light heating one end of it, and then another 
area with no heater, or another area with a heating pad beneath it, so 
the animal can choose the temperature. but when dealing with hot things 
beneath the animal - there are hot rocks that are put in sometimes - to 
give them a warm spot to sit on - but then they are lying on this heated 
surface, which may not be hot per se, but over time will burn the skin of 
the animal as it lies there. so you don't want animal lying directly on 
the heated surface, but rather put something under the enclosure to 
provide the heat in a dispersed fashion. 

another interesting thing 
about heat is that it's not uncommon for reptiles loose in the house to 
get under radiators or something and then if the radiator is turned on 
the reptile can be badly burned. for some reason these snakes don't come 
out when the radiator heats up. they sit there and get burned in a 
striped pattern. then they come out and have burnt backs. 

so - ventral 
burns - hot rocks; dorsal burn in stripe pattern - radiator

regarding 
substrate - want something you can clean well. sanitation is really 
important. you can have a big python weighing 50 pounds being kept in a 
crappy container that isn't kept clean, and these animals lie in their 
urine and get really bad urine scald, which is generally over a wide 
region of skin. be aware that the enclosure should be cleaned about every 
3-4 days, or spot cleaned as needed with a big cleaning periodically. 
some animals drink out of water bowls - they need heavy bowls they won't 
tip over. many snakes like to go into and soak in their water bowls. 
other species don't use water bowls. they don't drink out of water pools. 
anoles, chameleons, some tropical snakes - they get water in food and 
also via droplet - they need to be sprayed, so droplets form on sides of 
enclosure or on leaves or vegetation, and form hanging droplets. mist the 
cage to get these to form. chameleons will dehydrate if you don't provide 
this humid atmosphere. 

with  other issues with respect to water and 
humidity- 
for some snakes, that like to soak, they do it almost using a 
water bowl like a hide box - they stay in there all the time. too much is 
just as bad in a different way as not enough. those that soak too much, 
or are maintained in an aquarium with too much ambient humidity, tend to 
get "blister disease" where the skin will blister, ventral skin turns 
reddish. if detected early, reducing moisture will make it self limiting. 
if not detected early, these blisters develop, and act as incubators for 
a variety of bacteria. then they get a more serious bacterial problem 
which in time can lead to sepsis. so be aware of this - if owner says it 
is always in the water bowl, get a smaller water bowl. have owner watch 
the skin. occurs not only ventrally but on sides and dorsum as well. 
blisters may be small or coalescing and large. 

those that are kept too 
dry, where there is little or no humidity, and again that isn't uncommon 
in homes in the winter - this can affect how they shed. as snakes try to 
shed, some bands of skin stay on, act as constricting bands, you see 
raggedy strips of skin stuck on there. shedding is really called 
"ecdysis" - problem with shedding is termed "dysecdysis"
there is a 
pattern in snakes that are going to shed-  when the eyes suddenly look 
blue, skin suddenly looks dull, more opaque...the snake is a little more 
cantankerous than usual, more aggressive, b/c not seeing well; usually 
also not eating. those are the signs of impending ecdysis. that goes on 
for about 5 days in most snakes. then, the eye regains normal luster, 
skin looks more normal, and within two days it sheds off the old skin. 
usually starts from the front with it cracking away from the nose, and 
the snake sort of crawls out of the old skin by rubbing against a log or 
rock or something as it goes by. in general, the entire thing occurs in 
one piece. you should not have several pieces. the thing to do then is to 
look at the eye area - are the spectacles shed? those are the eye 
coverings. snakes have no eyelids. there is a protective, cornified 
covering which sheds off the eye. when there isn't enough humidity, this 
won't shed correctly with the rest of the skin. you also may find tags of 
retained skin on the animal. if this occurs repeatedly, the spectacles 
build up on the eyes - you have a few of them on there - eyes will look 
dry, surface will look crinkled or pitted instead of smooth. snakes will 
be cranky and won't eat well. too often., owner knows this is a problem 
and tries to remove the spectacles manually with tweezers. the problem is 
they can take the cornea off with it which also makes the snake 
cantankerous--- obviously there is a point where you have to stop. you 
can use artificial tears, moisturize the eyes for a few hours, then 
carefully with a fine tweezer or moist q tip, start moving the spectacle 
off the cornea. it should come easily. if not, moisturize more. 

in 
addition to heat, you need to be aware of light. light has a definite 
effect on these animals. light sort of does a couple of things. it acts 
as a stimulus for activity; it affects the appetite (they're more active, 
more likely to be active, during the daylight) (talking about tropical 
arboreal snakes, really - not about crotalids or rattlesnakes who do 
hunting at night with vomeronasal communication to pick up heat of prey). 
also with light the UV range is important. if anyone is looking for a 
paper topic, this is good - look at issue of UV light effect on health of 
reptiles, and whether UVA or UVB is most important component of the UV 
spectrum. we know that = it appears that UVB has a big role to play. 
there are many lights out there being sold by pet shops. they are 
supposed to handle UV spectrum. pick up any common reptile book for the 
layperson, it will have ads for these lights in it. but is the light 
delivering what it claims to, and what does the reptile need anyway? we 
think UVB is what they need most, because that spectrum can promote 
vitamin D3 formation. 

there can be very complex systems for animals who 
require very high humidity - misters with motors and such. 

Feeding - 
what, how often, etc.
take boa constrictors and pythons. those are the 
most commonly kept as pets. the tendency is to overfeed. also to use food 
too large for animal to handle. a Ball Python that's 2-3 feet in length 
should eat maybe 3 times a week, probably a good sized white mouse or a 
small juvenile rat. it's always better to keep them a bit hungry then 
have them satiated all the time. it's more important they feed quickly 
when the prey is introduced. do you feed killed or live prey? well, if 
you feed killed are they frozen, defrosted, stunned, fresh killed, or 
what? that's a whole other paper topic. 

Dr A thinks live prey is best. 
it has a downside in that it requires supervision. you can't throw a rat 
in there with a boa as you run out the door. sometimes the predator 
becomes the prey - if snake isn't hungry, or temperature is too low, the 
rat can attack the snake and it will invariably bite the dorsum, right 
over the spinous processes, and rat may actually bare the spinal cord of 
the snake. why does the snake allow the rat to do this? well, why does 
the snake stay under the radiator? we do not know but they do. so this 
live prey thing requires supervision. any hungry, acclimated snake, will 
feed within 15 minutes - usually less. after that, take the rat out if 
snake hasn't eaten. try again in a couple of days. reptiles getting 
hungry will move around more - they engage in seeking behavior. so 
monitor behavior. you don't want to have to treat those bite wounds b/c 
they are really hard to tx. it's bad enough wehn the skin is damaged. 
worse when muscle is removed. impossible when the bone is gone and cord 
is exposed. if just skin/muscle, can try to close skin defect. skin of 
reptiles isn't like bird/mammal skin. it's pretty immobile - you can not 
usually move it around. to close defect, you'd have to make lateral 
incisions in good areas, so you can move it over. usually you do get 
scarring, some severe scarring can occur in area of rat bite.

so many 
people suggest feeding killed prey.  you get frozen mice, then thaw and 
feed. or take a live one, stun it, and feed it. Dr A doesn't feel that 
this gives the reptile a real sense of accomplishment. also it creates a 
problem in that you may have to teach the reptile to feed in that way - 
this means holding the rodent by a pair of forceps and wiggling it 
around. this makes you vulnerable to injury. after a few times though you 
may be able to just drop them in. one problem with dead prey - snake can 
miss mouse and strike the forcep, and injure its mouth, too. 

commercial 
products being developed - people - some people do not like to feed mice 
and rats (although maybe those peopel should not own animals that eat 
mice and rats...)

feeding lizards and turtles is perhaps more civilized 
- iguanas eat mostly a herbivorous diet. that is a change. we used to 
think they were omnivorous, and fed them hamburger and stuff. but newer 
studies of these animals have shown us that there is little animal 
protein intake normally and these iguanas are really mostly herbivorous. 
so we feed fruits, veggies, etc. that doesn't mean feed iceberg lettuce. 
iceberg lettuce and grapes are not a complete diet. these animals come in 
with misshapen heads, mandibles enlarged, bulbous forelimbs - fibrous 
osteodystrophy (nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism). it's really 
easy to create metabolic bone disease in these animals. multiple 
pathological and folding fractures occur. feed string beans, snap peas, 
fruits, melons, dark green leafy veggies. sometimes different colors 
stimulate them to eat. dandelions, hibiscus (red), etc. 

turtles - same 
way. define turtle and tortoise - turtles are aquatic, tortoises live on 
land. mostly. you'll probably see some of both. red-eared sliders, box 
turtles, that type of thing. box turtles are partly aquatic, partly 
terrestrial. but early, turtles are more carnivorous - when small and in 
the water. as they age, they become more herbivorous to omnivorous. with 
tortoises they are almost totally herbivorous in nature.

oral damage - 
there is another thing that when they are talking about this aquarium, 
you have to have a top on it - often that will be fine screening, or it 
could be a plate of glass. if it is glass, it is usually elevated 
slightly for ventilation. consider the screen - if the aquarium is too 
small for the aniaml or the animal isn't adapted to the container, animal 
may press head against lid and try to get out, and move back and forth - 
and get severe abrasions on the tip of the nose or mouth. can scrape to 
bone. even if the lid is glass, similar things can occur from the 
pressure. this is bad news. when it affects too much of the maxilla or 
mandible, dentition can be involved, serious problems can ensue. with 
snakes striking the forceps, it's just as bad. use rubber things over the 
ends of the forceps so at least if snake hits it it isn't metal. there 
are a lot of these sorts of husbandry issues that have significant 
disease ramifications. 

we were talking about hibernation before class. 
in winter, some reptiles enter a dormant state; tortoises or box turtles, 
mainly. there are two big groups - one says yes, they should hibernate, 
and one says no. in the UK they are in favor of having tortoises 
hibernate, in the US, we are not. for a box turtle, you need a constantly 
cool, dry area for hibernation to occur. we're talking about below 50 F 
and above 35 F. it should be in good health going in. have to maintain it 
like this for some time. should be at good weight prior to hibernation. 
we don't have the greatest facilities for this. people end up with the 
animal sort of too warm to hibernate and too cold to eat and metabolize 
well (below POT). that's not good either. that's very bad, in fact. they 
sort of stop eating, do poorly, you start seeing this in december, jan, 
feb - they come in with hypovitaminosis A, ocular problems, they can get 
pneumonia. a number of things happen to these animals. so if you aren't 
going to have them hibernate, you need to keep temps up in the mid 70s, 
not down in the 60s, and keep them feeding. and maintain a light period 
that is appropriate. give them some UV. all that good stuff is important. 


---break---

Parsitic diseases of reptiles:

fairly common. clinically 
important? not sure.
in general, those parasites with a direct life cycle 
are more likely to be problematic - those with no intermediate host 
needed. in captivity, there usually aren't the needed intermediate hosts 
around. 

problems worsen when the enclosure is crowded. 
remember - 
cockroaches can be intermediate hosts for some things, so be aware of 
that. the simple stress of captivity, maladaptation, crowding, all those 
issues, can only exacerbate a parasitic condition that is silent or 
subclinical for some period of time.

External parasites that may be of 
some importance:

mites: the most prevalent one to be concerned about. 
100s of spp have been found on reptiles (snakes). most important, 
perhaps, is ofianyssus, which potentially can be the vector or vehicle by 
which bacterial dz is started in some of these snakes. the mites will 
bite the host, and those open lesions can be colonized by bacteria. i'm 
not sure if i spelled that mite name right. anyway, gram negative 
bacteria are fairly ubiquitous in the the snake's environment, 
specifically aeromonas, and that can colonize the mite bites, and cause 
problems. mites are found around eye margins, under the scales. sometimes 
seen moving around on there. owner might see the mites, or find them on 
his hands after handling the snakes. they are fairly spp specific so not 
a huge problem for us, but can make the snakes really restless, make them 
stop eating. 
tx - soak snake in garbage can of water for 1/2 hr to 1 hr. 
or give ivermectin.

ticks: there are a whole variety of these, too. 
ixodes, amblyoma. just recently the USDA has started to get concerned 
about these on imported reptiles... could bring in diseases that might 
affect our livestock. we know there are birds coming from the caribbean, 
cattle egrets with ticks on them engorged with blood contaminated with 
some diseases they have down there that we do not have here yet- could 
bring diseases in easily. so soon probably there will be more attention 
given by importers/exporters to the parasite problems of reptiles. 

a 
heavy infestation of mites, ticks, can lead to anemia of the reptile, 
generalized weakness, increased susceptibility to other diseases.

some 
imported reptiles have carried leeches with them. 

one thing of interest 
is that flies, even the diptera in this country, not uncommonly will 
attack open wounds on things like turtles, and lay eggs and cause fly 
strike like you'd see in sheep, cats, rabbits. one area to be aware of in 
turtles is if the turtle comes in with bulges beneath the auricular 
plate, on the sides of the head, there can be fly larva in there. or, it 
could be infected and there could be inspissated pus in there. 

with 
respect to internal parasites - not too different from those in other spp 
- roundworms, hookworms. tx are built around what we know in dog/cat. no 
need to belabor trying to speciate what you have - if you know it's 
ascarid, strongyle, whatever, you can deal with it. 

oral parasite: 
trematodes - usually part of the renifer group, several genuses within 
that group. the owner may not even know they are there; may cause little 
to no problem. these parasites generally require intermediate hosts to 
maintain themselves. - they then often migrate into the lungs. they are 
small black flukes. can dx by finding eggs with polar plug on fecal 
smear. probably not really that pathogenic in small numbers; in large 
numbers can cause problems in lung leading to pneumonia or obstructive 
lung disease. owners don't like knowing they are there. try to tx with 
droncit. 

tongue worms - parasite has a tongue shaped appearance - 
primarily a respiratory tract parasite though sometimes seen in oral 
cavity - stimulate a lot of thick viscous mucuous in oral cavity. adult 
forms localize in lung and mature ther e- can cause considerable damage. 
this one requires an intermediate host - and man can be one - so could be 
zoonotic. pathogenic in reptile and man

intestines:

flagellates - 
trichomonads, giardia, and <mumble>amita. are these really parasitic in 
nature? most animals have some of these but aren't sick.

some other 
thing - can cause severe diarrhea in tortoises - oops, i wasn't 
listening. sorry.

entameoba - serious problem. e.invadens (not the same 
as e.histolytica of man) - a primary disease in snakes  - colonizes colon 
- these animals have bloody, mucoid, fetid stool and develop anorexia, wt 
loss, ultimately death.  pattern is interesting in that it tends to skip 
an impact on small intestine. goes from large intestine to stomach to 
liver. 

hookworms - kalicephalus - these have a direct life cycle so are 
found in high numbers.

ascarids - 
spirurids - stomach worms found in 
herpefauna
lungworms such as rhabdea (?)
tapeworms occasionally seen


kidney trematode - boas
coccidia that have predilection for kidney - boas


thorny-headed worms - enkecephala (?) - indirect life cycle, but 
cockroach can be intermediate host. 

hemoparasites- mostly just 
incidental findings.
plasmodia, hemoproteus, trypanosomes. we make note 
of them when found, but there isn't much to do about them. 


cryptosporidia: small coccidian like organism that in snakes tends to 
focus on stomach wall. early signs - snake will occasionally regurgitate. 
no tx works. is it contagious to other snakes? well, it may be of some 
significance - if found within a collection of snakes, perhaps that 
animal should be removed and the snakes in contact with it monitored. is 
it zoonotic? not sure. immunosuppressed people should take it under 
serious advisement. 

the CDC came out and said all reptiles shed 
salmonella and can potentially spread it to any human. That is arguable 
b/c it has not been shown that all reptiles carry salmonella. most of the 
ones we've looked at do. but you can't say that for sure. you should 
certainly be very careful, though.


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