Introduction

• Cause: bleeding into tissues causes local hemorrhagic discoloration. Causes include trauma, thrombocytopenia, vasculitis, septicemia, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy.
• Signs: variable sizes of discoloration to the skin or mucous membranes.
• Diagnosis: clinical appearance, hematology, clotting factors, biopsy, blood culture.
• Treatment: pressure, cold compress, treat underlying cause.
• Prognosis: depends on cause.

Pathogenesis

Etiology

• Trauma Traumatic injuries: physical damage to vessels in area
• Vasculitis with loss of capillary integrity: immune-mediated, infection, heat stroke.
• Septicemia Septicemia / bacteremia: endotoxins, exotoxins cause vascular damage .
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation.
• Coagulation disorders: due to consumption, destruction or lack of production (rare in reptiles).
• Bacterial or fungal shell infection can lead to erythema, petechiae, ecchymoses of the shell or skin in chelonians.
• Skin burns due to inappropriate heat sources Burn injuries.

Predisposing factors

General

• Bacterial infection and sepsis (chelonians).

Pathophysiology

• Traumatic vascular damage.

Timecourse

• Traumatic injuries are acute and take 7-14 days for bruising to resolve.
• Persistent estrus leading to estrogen associated bone marrow suppression may take 4 weeks to be evident clinically.

Epidemiology

• Suboptimal husbandry in reptiles Chelonia husbandry Lizard husbandry Snake husbandry.

Diagnosis

Treatment

Prevention

Outcomes