The following are questions your Reptile veterinarian
should be asking you when attempting to diagnose an illness in your Corn Snake.
"While establishing the specific cause of an illness can be difficult, recognizing a reptile with a major health problem is generally not that difficult.
In contrast, recognizing a healthy reptile may not be that easy.
Often reptiles exhibit very subtle signs of illness initially and the ability to pick up on these subtle signs will be dependent upon the observational powers of the owner/investigator.
So "What is a healthy reptile and how are they evaluated?"
To obtain an accurate history of the pet reptile, one must request the following information from the client.
1. What is the species being evaluated? ...
2. What is the origin of the reptile? Was the reptile caught in the wild or bred in captivity? Many of the disease problems we see in reptiles recently collected from the wild are quite distinct from those of reptiles born in captivity.
3. How long has the animal been owned?...
4. What is the cage design, including construction materials, substrate, branches, disinfectants used in cleaning, et cetera?...
Wood shavings containing resins such as cedar shavings should be avoided. Disinfectants such as Lysol and phenolic compounds are potentially toxic. Dilute (2 ppm) sodium hypochlorite is an ideal disinfectant...
5. What is the maintenance temperature of the animal's enclosure and what is the heat source?... Because their entire physiologic processes, including their immune system, are dependent on the preferred body temperature for optimum functioning, it is important to expose captive reptiles to temperature ranges similar to those in the wild...Heat sources should not be placed in the cage itself if there is a chance of direct contact. Commercially available hot rocks and heating pads often result in thermal skin burns...
6. What is the humidity...
7. Is the reptile kept indoors or outdoors?...
8. What is the animal fed, and what is the frequency of feeding? What is the quantity offered and how much is consumed? What is the source of the food? How is the food stored? ...
9. ...water bowl, how large is it and how often is it changed and disinfected?... ideally, water bowls should be changed daily.
10. How often does the reptile defecate (in relation to feeding) and what is the color and consistency of the feces? Has a fecal specimen previously been examined for evidence of parasitism? Direct smears, sediments, and flotation specimens are routinely used for examining stool specimens.
11. Are there cagemates or other animals in the collection and household?
Many infectious disease problems in captive reptiles originate from other reptiles with subclinical illness...
12. Does the client have a quarantine policy?
The average reptile owner often has a poor quarantine policy and introduces new animals immediately into a well-established collection.
Although some people may get away with this for years, this policy will eventually result in a significant
epizootic... (= epidemic).
... Quarantine does not completely eliminate the spread of disease from new animals to long-term captives, but certainly it reduces the chance of introducing a devastating pathogen into a well-established collection.
13. Have there been previous disease problems with this animal or other animals in the collection?
14. For lizards and snakes, how often does the animal shed, when was the last shedding...
15. What is the current attitude and behavior of the reptile?
16. Finally, what is the chief complaint."
http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~iacuc/hlthyrep.htm
Any preliminary diagnostic questions missed here?
Linear Mode
