ABSTRACT
Mycoses occur regularly in reptiles and are likely underdiagnosed. Because deep or systemic mycoses often follow a clinically silent, slow, and progressive course, they are difficult to recognize and are therefore overlooked unless imaging or laparoscopic diagnostic modalities are used, or a necropsy is performed. Dermatomycotic lesions are easier to notice but are indistinguishable grossly from those caused by bacterial infections and are often misdiagnosed as such. In the literature, fungal infections in reptiles were typically unsuspected clinically and merely diagnosed serendipitously at necropsy, often only after histopathology was performed (Austwick and Keymer, 1981; Frank, 1976; Migaki et al., 1984; Schildger et al., 1991b). Herpetological medicine has evolved to provide heightened standards of care. Reptile clinicians now have access to an arsenal of increasingly sophisticated diagnostic devices, such as ultrasound machines, computed tomography and laparoscopes, which enables them to detect and locate internal lesions. Reptile owners are both more educated and more amenable to assuming the costs of diagnostic procedures. Biopsies of cutaneous and deep lesions, essential for a diagnosis of mycosis to be established but seldom performed in the past, are now routinely part of a diagnostic workup in reptile patients so that mycoses are increasingly identified antemortem.
