Reptile Mycotic Infections from the Literature and 55 Cases

As with other animals, mycotic disease is usually secondary to other infections (bacteria, parasitic, viral), or to predisposing factors such as poor husbandry, suboptimal temperatures, prolonged antibiotic use, and poor nutrition. In reptiles, fungal infections of the skin, shell, and subcutis are more common than those of other organ systems. Many fungal infections are caused by saprophytes that have invaded the tissue. In this review, we briefly cover the literature reports on fungal disease in the three reptile groups; chelonians, lizards, and snakes. Tables 1, 2, and 3 are summaries of the cases from our service. Our cases are presented after the literature review. The majority of our cases have no information pertaining to treatment or of culture reports that identify the fungal organisms. Histologically, the microbes are divided into yeast forms (generally with pseudohyphae formation indicating tissue invasion) and fungal hyphae. It is difficult to make an accurate identification of fungal organisms based on fungal hyphae in hematoxylin and eosin sections. It is assumed that most of these microbes are environmental contaminants, such as Fusarium, Absidia, Mucor, Aspergillus, and Rhizopus.