Introduction

• Cause: most reptile injuries are trauma related. These often happen because of inappropriate handling by inexperienced keepers or children and lack of supervision. Dropped animals will be prone to fractures and dislocations. All animals will be prone to attack from predators, whether outdoor or not.
• Signs: injury, internal or external, following obvious trauma if witnessed. If the animal has been left unsupervised, eg outside, then exact cause or when it occurred may be unknown.
• Diagnosis: exact injury will be diagnosed on clinical exam, but may be obvious from history, eg dragging of legs following leaping out of the enclosure. Clinical examination and diagnostic imaging are needed following triage and emergency stabilization. All animals with injuries should be administered immediate analgesia.
• Treatment: dependent on trauma.
• Prognosis: good to guarded depending on severity of injury.

Pathogenesis

Etiology

• Most common injuries:
  • Dropping from a height.
  • Jumping off furniture, owner’s shoulder, out of vivarium, tail getting trapped in vivarium door.
  • Lawnmower injuries are common with chelonia.
  • Dog and fox bites are common in outdoor kept chelonia, but dog bites may happen even with the most well-behaved family dog       .

Predisposing factors

General

• Inappropriate enclosure.
• Lack of supervision when handling animals by inexperienced persons.

Specific

• Free ranging garden animals left unsupervised.

Timecourse

• Acute.
• Reptiles may not show obvious signs of closed fractures and early detection depends on frequency of animals being checked and familiarity with normal mobility.
• Chronic fractures are often detected on routine examination.

Diagnosis

Treatment

Prevention

Outcomes