Infectious gastrointestinal pathology in Indian python

Abstract

Keeping exotic animals in private collections requires of the owner to maintain the conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat. Indian pythons whose diseases may be dangerous to other animals and humans are increasingly being found in private terrariums. Therefore, every case of an Indian python death in captivity should be analyzed to improve the housing conditions. The research goal is to study pathological changes in the gastrointestinal tract of Indian pythons with infectious etiology. The objectives were as following: 1) to describe pathological changes in the esophagus, stomach, and intestines in the studied pythons; 2) to identify the etiology of the inflammatory process in the gastrointestinal tract; 3) to analyze the obtained results. The research targets were the esophagus, stomach and intestines of 3 Indian pythons of the age 6-8 years, males and a female, which died naturally with signs of depression, without any manifestations of clinical symptoms of diseases; they did not receive any therapy, and were kept in the same terrarium according to generally accepted rules. The following research methods were used: 1) analysis of legal information for conducting studies of Indian pythons kept in a private collection; 2) registration of animals; 3) conducting a pathological autopsy according to Shor with a description of the findings; 4) laboratory (bacteriological) diagnostics carried out in the laboratory of the Altai Regional Veterinary Center (the City of Barnaul); 5) analysis of the findings. The following was found: the body length of the studied pythons did not exceed the standard established by the law. The changes in pythons described during pathological examination corresponded to the following diagnoses: acute croupous hemorrhagic esophagitis, acute croupous hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the bacterial nature of the inflammatory process was confirmed by laboratory - non-plasma coagulating staphylococci.