Lizards, snakes, and crocodiles Flashcards
Common conditions of leopard geckos (10)
- lack of UV light
- poor nutrition
- hypovitaminosis A (swollen eyes)
- metabolic bone disease
- endoparasites
- follicular/ocistasis (give Ca and oxytocin or surgery)
- obesity/lipomata (tail should be semi fat)
- poor shedding/loss of digits (need moist shedding box)
- autonomy
- wounds
Common conditions of bearded dragons (10)
- metabolic bone disease (random broken bones)
- endoparasites (worms and coccidia)
- hypovitaminosis A/mouth rot
- bromation (slow due to temp, 4-6wks)
- tumours (soft tissue/SCC)
- CANV (fungus, canesten/triconazole)
- follicular/ovistasis/phallus prolapse (Ca high if follicularly active)
- hepatic disease/lipidosis (common)
- tailrot (if necrotic amputate, control infection)
- constipation/diarrhoea/adenovirus
Common conditions of crested geckos
- Retained shed
- Ocular disease
- Fungal/bacterial infections
- Parasites
- Inappetance
○ Fruit based diet but will take insects
○ Can get put off food or if diet is changed
○ Can be difficult to get them started again - Very fine skin so can get infections and other skin problems
Common conditions of water geckos (5)
Tail trauma
○ Whip with their tail, can cause both them and you injuries
○ Often coincidental breaks, usually resolves itself
Facial trauma
○ Run into things, esp glass in vivarium
○ Have wooden panel at their level so they don’t run into it
Mouth rot
○ Infections, hypovitaminosis A
Parasites
Occasionally broken toes, amputate
Common conditions of iguanas
Trauma (fights)
○ Can be aggressive (each other, owner, dogs etc.)
○ Damage to toes, tail etc.
○ Dont get facial injuries as much
○ Bite is contaminated
Mouth rot
○ Hypovitaminosis A
Egg and follicular stasis
○ Often don’t have the right environment to lay eggs in
○ Quite common in females
Parasites
○ Herbivores so not from live prey
○ Infected when young
○ Lifecycle can be controlled more easily
○ Occasionally see skin mites
Common conditions of chameleons
Husbandry related issues
○ Humidity
○ Space
○ Temperature
○ Need dripping water
Hypocalcaemia
Ovi and follicular stasis
○ Can see follicular stasis (6mo in captivity), when should be about 1 yr
Mouth rot
Parasites
Skin lesions/tumours
○ Melanophores make them more prone
○ Can get weird skin lesions a bit like papillomas that are not malignant but can cause over different areas of body, problem if on feet or eyes
Ocular disease
Columbridae snakes
○ Constrictors
○ Not poisonous
○ Include:
§ Rat snakes
§ King snakes
§ Corn snakes
○ Colour morphs - bred
§ Ghosts/greys tend to be more aggressive
Pythons and boas
○ Royal or ball python (Python regius)
§ Very handleable
§ Defence mechanism is to curl up into a ball
○ Boa constrictor
§ Classic line going through their eye
○ Burmese python (Python bivittatus)
○ Carpet/reticulated/rainbow/tree python
§ Anything that lives in a tree, treat with caution, will be aggressive
Water snakes
○ Garter snakes
§ Lots of very different colour combinations
§ Very specific husbandry requirements
§ Live in water
§ Diet may need amphibians and fish etc
Common conditions of snakes (9)
- anorexia (stress disease etc.)
- stomatitis (during/after hibernation)
- enteritis (endoparasites)
- snake mite (elevated scales, dots, fipronil spray)
- poor shedding/sloughing, retained spectacles (increase humidity, don’t damage cornea)
- burns (analgesia, may cause issues with shedding)
- respiratory disease (anorexia, bubbles, leaning on side of tank)
- IBD (inclusion body disease) (syncytial viruses, euthanase)
- pentastomiasis (worm like arthropods, zoonotic, difficult to eliminate)
Where to take blood from crocodilians
ventral tail vein if small
occipital condyle if large
Common diseases in crocodilians
○ Inappropriate husbandry
§ Need warm water, heat and UV light
○ Foreign body ingestion
§ Especially in zoos
§ If coins or other metal stuff they will get heavy metal toxicosis
○ Heavy metal toxicosis
○ Fungal and bacterial infections
