Reptile Rounds with Dr. Los Kamp

Covering everything you need to know about reptiles

Eric Los Kamp, DVM is an exotic animal and wildlife veterinarian at Winter Park Veterinary Hospital in Winter Park, Florida who has aspirations to board certify in reptile/amphibian medicine. In addition to being a member of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians (ARAV), he is an avid Ackie Monitor keeper.

Story of My Pet Tyranitar

Sometimes treating diseases in reptiles is pretty straightforward. Some diseases may require only one diagnostic test to be officially diagnosed, and some conditions can be diagnosed simply based off reviewing the husbandry and looking at the animal. However, there are instances where reptiles present with more non-specific signs of illness, and a more through work up is required to understand what is going on. This case study is of my personal pet Ackie Monitor (Varanus acanthurus) Tyranitar and the recent health issues I’ve been facing with him.

November 24^th, 2022 is when I first noticed Tyranitar had blood in his poop. I started him on an herbal medication called Yunan Bayo, which helps promote clotting in the body and reduce bleeding while I waited to get more information. I ran several fecal examinations looking for parasites, as Tyranitar was previously infected with coccidia earlier in September 2022, yet all the tests were negative. From there, with some baseline diagnostics performed and not providing me any answers, I decided to go more aggressive in my diagnostic approach.

I brought Tyranitar into my clinic for a CT scan and ultrasound to evaluate his gastrointestinal tract. The main purpose of this was to look for any foreign bodies, masses, or other abnormalities that could be causing the bleeding. Unfortunately, since Tyranitar was so small (only 53 grams), I was not able to get good detail on any of the imaging modalities. From here, I consulted with my mentors at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and started Tyranitar on a trial of Metronidazole, better known as Flaggel. I injected this medication into Tyranitar s food, as I wanted to ensure he received the medication in the least stressful way possible. Unfortunately, I still did not see any resolution from this treatment. To add another wrinkle to the issue, I noticed fungi in his substrate, so I cleaned everything and replaced all the dirt in the enclosure. To prevent this from happening again, I added Mundo Grass, Springtails, Dwarf White Isopods, and Superworms to the soil to make the enclosure fully bioactive.

With this in mind and after further consultation with colleagues, I brought Tyranitar back to my clinic to collect blood and brought his poop for a fecal cytology with culture and electron microscopy review. A fecal cytology is different from a fecal floatation because the cytology looks for bacteria rather than parasites. The electron microscopy was used to evaluate whether there were any viruses such as adenovirus that could cause chronic irritation in the intestines. The blood smear showed signs of infection, likely from his gastrointestinal tract. The fecal cytology showed a disproportionate amount of bacteria, and the culture grew three bacteria- E.coli, Klebsiella, and Citrobacter. While these all are normal GI bacteria, Citrobacter is known to cause disease in turtles, so treatment for Citrobacter with Enrofloxacin (Baytril) and Metronidazole was started. Thankfully, the electron microscopy was negative for viruses, and Tyranitar seems to be responding, and through all of this he has remained active and eating well.

It is important to pursue further diagnostics in these reptiles with non-specific signs of illness as while reptiles are incredibly hardy, they hide signs of illness extremely well. They can tolerate levels of disease that would put us mammals into an ICU ward. Finding the inciting cause of illness and pursuing the correct treatment can help increase chances for animals to recover. – Eric Los Kamp, DVM