Proliferative osteoarthritis and osteoarthrosis in 15 snakes

Fifteen snakes representing seven species with segmental, proliferative ost eoarthritis and osteoarthrosis of the spine were presented for examination. All the snakes were captive, privately owned, and fed domestic rodents. Ph ysical examination, radiography, blood culture, bone culture, necropsy, and histopathology were performed on each snake. All the snakes had similar ph ysical examination, radiologic, and necropsy findings. There were three his tologic types of lesions: active bacterial osteoarthritis, predominantly no ninflammatory osteoarthrosis with multifocal inflammation suggestive of chr onic bacterial osteoarthritis, and noninflammatory lesions consistent with osteoarthrosis without evidence of inflammation or bacteria. These findings suggest that all these snakes represent a single disease process, bacteria l infection of the vertebrae. The different histologic lesions observed in these snakes may be a continuum of lesions. from acute to chronic. Gram-neg ative bacteria were isolated from the blood or bone lesions of 8 of the 15 snakes. In six of these eight snakes, Salmonella species were Isolated. Gra m-positive bacteria (Streptococcus sp.) were isolated from two other snakes . Blood and bone culture results were well correlated, so brood culture may be effective for detecting active bacterial osteoarthritis.