Sea turtles have always been considered a sentinel animal in our world’s oceans—the canaries in the coal mine, if you will. These present-day dinosaurs have remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of time. There are many challenges to their existence…
Causes Herpesvirus. There are many different kinds of herpesvirus and not all of them cause overt signs of illness. Species At-Risk Testudo species, particularly Russian tortoises, are most commonly seen with oral plaques due to herpesvirus and may rapidly die…
Causes Dysecdysis means an abnormal shedding of the dead outer skin of a reptile. It often indicates suboptimal husbandry, however it may be a sign of certain infectious diseases, such as external or internal parasites, septicemia, inclusion body disease of…
Causes A spectacle is the fused eyelid of a squamate reptile. A retained spectacle is when this fused eyelid does not come off with the rest of the reptile’s shed skin. Species At-Risk Snakes and those lizards that lack eyelids…
Causes Ophionyssus natricis is very common in snakes and occasionally infests lizards. Trombiculid mites (chiggers). Ophionyssus acertinus is the “lizard mite” which is rare on snakes. There are more than 200 mites and ticks that parasitize reptiles. KEVIN WRIGHT, DVM,…
Yellow fungus, Chrysosporium anamorph of Nannizziopsis vriesii, CANV Causes CANV is likely the underlying cause of many infections in older literature which attributed the disease to other fungi. Advances in fungal culture and identification helped distinguish CANV as a cause…