Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am writting this because of the influx of posts I have seen involving fatty liver and reptiles...

Contrary to popular belief, fatty liver disease does not generally come from what they eat. Reptiles have a naturally fatty live because of their way of life. Fatty liver is almost never a cause of death in reptiles. What causes an already fatty liver to become enlarged is what causes death.

When reptiles go off feed for whatever reason, the fats that are stored in the body get mobilized in the bloodstream and deposited into the liver cells to be used up in times when they are not eating. For example, this happens in reptiles every season when they go into brumation. When they brumate, a fatty liver is not an issue because they use their fat reserves in the liver, they come out of brumation, and start feeding regularly again. But when an animal goes off feed for a different reason like sickness, stress, and improper husbandry, and do not start feeding regularly this is where the problem lies and where the confusion kicks in. It may look as if the animal went off feed because of the fatty liver but in actuality, the liver became enlarged because the animal stopped feeding...

A reptile that dies from any type of sickness that causes it not to eat for a long time and becomes anorexic will have an obvious, enlarged, fatty liver, but the fatty liver clearly is not the problem. When a necropsy is done at a vets office, it is easier to blame something you can see right away instead of looking into what the real issue or problem is.

>>I am writting this because of the influx of posts I have seen involving fatty liver and reptiles...
>>
>>Contrary to popular belief, fatty liver disease does not generally come from what they eat. Reptiles have a naturally fatty live because of their way of life. Fatty liver is almost never a cause of death in reptiles. What causes an already fatty liver to become enlarged is what causes death.
>>
>>When reptiles go off feed for whatever reason, the fats that are stored in the body get mobilized in the bloodstream and deposited into the liver cells to be used up in times when they are not eating. For example, this happens in reptiles every season when they go into brumation. When they brumate, a fatty liver is not an issue because they use their fat reserves in the liver, they come out of brumation, and start feeding regularly again. But when an animal goes off feed for a different reason like sickness, stress, and improper husbandry, and do not start feeding regularly this is where the problem lies and where the confusion kicks in. It may look as if the animal went off feed because of the fatty liver but in actuality, the liver became enlarged because the animal stopped feeding...
>>
>>A reptile that dies from any type of sickness that causes it not to eat for a long time and becomes anorexic will have an obvious, enlarged, fatty liver, but the fatty liver clearly is not the problem. When a necropsy is done at a vets office, it is easier to blame something you can see right away instead of looking into what the real issue or problem is.
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Mark

It reminds me of a study we did a few years back here at the museum in conjunction with a few veterinarians.
We were studying amphibian losses en mass at local ponds. Thousands of Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma t. mavortium) could be seen at various times dead in an instance floating in the water.
Of equal interest were the vast groups of Yellow-crowned night heron cleaning up the spoils.
When some of the deceased were sampled, they were found to have pseudomonas and aeromonas bacteria in vast loads. Initially it was thought that the bacteria were culprit in the deaths. However, as one vet pointed out, these bacteria were in every live salamander sampled. Even those in captivity had the bacteria but their numbers were kept in check. As further study occured, and showed that extreme heat would be the culprit. After all the casualties due to the heat and stress by heat, the bacteria would spread and grow to vast proportions.
Just another example of how blame is placed upon one thing that may not indeed be the cause of death.
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Thank you,
Kevin Rhodes

www.spiderhognose.com

http://www.freewebs.com/spreptile/index.htm
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