Urinary Tract Diseases of Reptiles

This article will provide an overview of diseases that affect the urinary system of reptiles. Although this information does not offer a comprehensive review of these disease conditions, more in-depth disease descriptions can be found in the articles and books listed in the references. After a brief summary of the normal gross appearance of the reptile urinary system, the article is divided into etiologic disease categories. A short discussion of the disease conditions of reptiles may be found in each section. For the purposes of this article, chelonian will refer to all of the shelled reptiles. The term “tortoise” will be used to describe the large land animals that have stout elephantine feet. Few references to marine turtle, caecilian, and crocodilian species are included, because these species are rarely presented to companion animal veterinary hospitals.