Care of newly acquired reptiles

Any time you get a new reptile they should be quarantined. They should be placed in a cage with the minimum decorations and lined with newspaper so it can be easily cleaned. They should be kept away from any other reptiles in your collection to avoid transmission of parasites or disease. Always wash your hands after handling the new reptile before you go and touch the other reptiles in your collection as well.

Before you get your new reptile understand that at the supplier's facility or pet store, that reptile is exposed to illness, disease and parasites. This is because most of them do not thoroughly clean and disinfect the cages in between housing different reptiles that they have for sale. All wild caught reptiles have parasites and/or other illness. Most reptiles in the pet trade are wild caught. So for example after a wild caught reptile has been in a cage and sold, a captive born one could be placed in there next, it might not have had parasites and/or illness, but guess what? It does now.

Always take a new reptile to your vet for a fecal exam and a health check. If you are very experienced with reptiles you can learn how to do your own fecal exams and watch a reptile closely for signs of illness and take it to the vet if you suspect it's sick. I myself feel better having a vet do it all for me. They have a microscope for the fecal exams and can also take saliva or skin samples and look for bacteria, etc which would signify infection. This way infection is caught early on before it gets bad and could've caused serious harm or death to your reptile. Most reptiles do not show signs of illness until it is serious and often the result is death.

External parasites(ticks and mites):
Before putting your new reptile in it's cage for the first time thoroughly inspect it's skin, in between it's scales, eye lid folds, anywhere the skin folds, vent area, nostrils and folds around the mouth for ticks and mites. Ticks are bigger and easier to spot. Mites are tiny, usually red or brown/black in color. If it has any, pick them ALL off. Then soak the reptile in water to see if any you might have missed float to the surface. You must really try to find them all and get rid of them. A mite infestation is extremely hard to get rid of as the mites crawl off your reptile and go in cracks to hide or climb outside the cage and infect other reptiles. I do not condone using any tick/mite medications (sprays or stuff you rub on the skin) because reptile respiratory systems are very delicate and the reptile could go into respiratory distress and possibly die within weeks after being treated. These medications can be very toxic to reptiles despite what the labels say. After you think you have gotten all the mites off, put it in it's cage and instead of using newspaper for the bottom, use white paper towels. This way it is easier to see the mites crawling around if you missed any. If you see some, get them out immediately. Keep checking your reptile and it's cage for a few weeks to make sure you really got them all.

Treating for internal parasites and/or intestinal protozoa overgrowth:
After you get a fecal exam done and you know what type of parasite or intestinal protozoa infection the reptile has, the vet will prescribe medication and treatment. Different ones require different medicine so it is very important to know which one you are dealing with. Most parasitic worms are treated with Panacur(only a few types don't respond to it and need different medicine). Usually it is given once daily for 1-5 days in a row, 3 times, two weeks apart each time. The 1st dose kills the adult worms, the 2nd dose kills the newly hatched worms from the eggs that didn't die, the 3rd dose is to kill any that might have been missed with the 1st two doses. Wait 2 weeks and start taking in fecal samples every 2 weeks until 3 fecal exams in a row come back clean. This way you know for a fact the reptile is totally parasite free. Sometimes parasites can be missed or the reptile could get reinfected (if you don't clean the cage good enough) so that's why it's important to do 3 fecals in a row.

The most common intestinal protozoa overgrowth in reptiles is Coccidia. This can become deadly! It's most often recognized by very smelly feces. The longer it goes untreated the worse it gets. The feces turn very runny and get more smelly. The reptile eventually becomes lethargic and stops eating and drinking as much or not at all. Then it dies. The medication used for Coccidia is Smz Tmp (sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim). Most other types of protozoa infections are treated with Metronidazole. Both medications are usually given once daily for 7 days. Then start taking in fecal samples every 2 weeks until 3 in a row come back clean so you know for sure the infection is gone.

VERY IMPORTANT...the whole time you are treating for parasites and/or protozoa infections you must clean up feces as soon as you see it! Change the newspaper on the bottom and disinfect the area and/or anything the feces touched. This is to prevent reinfection during treatment and until 3 fecals in a row come back clean. If you don't do this your reptile WILL get reinfected and you will have to treat it again later.

Respiratory illness:
If you notice excess saliva/mucus/bubbling in your reptile's mouth or nose it has a respiratory infection. Other signs are opening the mouth to breath, coughing and sneezing. Sometimes reptiles will also regurgitate food. Have your vet take a swab and look at it under the microscope. Usually it is bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. Sometimes it's a virus, these cannot be treated usually:( or it could be fungal, which is extremely hard to treat and get rid of. Bacterial respiratory infections should be treated with oral antibiotics( Enrofloxacin, the oral form of Baytril). It is much less painful than giving a shot of Baytril and there are no worries of the injection site becoming necrotic. Enrofloxacin is usually given once daily for 14 days. It's also a good idea to bump up the heat in your reptiles cage a few degrees to help the recovery process during treatment.

Skin infections:
Watch your new reptile's skin closely for signs of infection or discoloration. If it has a scrape or cut clean it out with Betadine and apply Silver Sulfadiazine to the area twice a day until healed. Don't use anything else as reptile skin is delicate and could be harmed by other ointments, antiseptics, soaps, etc. If the scrape or cut is deep and is infected the reptile will need antibiotics. Enrofloxacin given orally once a day for 14 days is usually enough to cure the infection along with cleaning the wound daily with Betadine and using the Silver Sulfadiazine ointment.

If you see your reptile's skin start to have gray patches/areas where it looks like it's going to shed, but it doesn't and the area starts to spread, it has fungus. Other signs are: the areas of gray skin are hard(necrotic), blisters, weeping fluids from the skin area, lesions and swelling of spots under the skin. Take your reptile to the vet right away! Do not expose this reptile to any other reptiles at all, not even in the same room! Fungus is not only spread by touch but the fungal spores can travel through the air landing on another reptile and infecting it. Whole reptile collections can be wiped out! Your vet will take a sample of the skin and send it out to be biopsied. Once you know what type of fungus it is, your vet will grow a culture and see what medication it responds to, and then prescribe that one for your reptile. Fungus is very hard to treat and might need to be treated more than once. Each treatment usually lasts for 2 months. The medications used for fungus are very hard on reptile kidney and liver so it's really important to keep the reptile very well hydrated during treatment. Usually the oral medication Itraconazole is used and sometimes also Conofite lotion applied topically to affected areas at the same time during treatment. If the fungus has not affected the internal organs of the reptile and is just affecting the skin, the reptile has a good chance of recovering and not dying. There are a few types of fungus a reptile can get and most are cureable. Beware of the deadly CANV fungus. It's extremely deadly and contagious!

After your new reptile has been in quarantine for around 3 months and has no apparent signs of illness it's usually safe to introduce it to your other reptiles. Usually during the 3 month quarantine period if the reptile had an illness it would've been discovered by you and your vet.