reptile x-rays?

[ollieham]

my bros female bluey got an ultra sound to see if she was pregnant, turns out it was a phantom pregnancy

[expansa1]

Originally Posted by dragons75

Would Laparoscopies. work on all reptiles or is it solely for turtles ?

Yes Laparoscopy would work for all animals but it does involve a small incision.

[Inkslinger]

They were lace monitors and I had several xrayed and assisted so the price was quiet resonable, I would expect it would vary from vet to vet.
The animals ranged from 2-7 years

[expansa1]

Originally Posted by timthevet

So because one animal had xrays - it must have been them that caused the eggs to be sterile? I think you need to collect a bit more data - no statistical significance with that. I have heard of many turtle eggs that have been xrayed and were fine.

We advised the Bronx Zoo in 2000 against using X-ray to determine pregnancy in their turtles as every clutch they produced was "sterilised" because they were x-rayed every season!! The first year they used palpation instead, they had 100% success.

It may only be turtles because higher factors are necessary to penetrate the bony shell. Also, every turtle we have heard of that was x-rayed and produced 'infertile' clutches was in the later stages of the pregnancy and this may have some relevance!

Craig

[HerpDoc]

Xrays do not cause sterilisation of eggs. I have used this method of pregnancy diagnosis in many species of reptiles including chelonians without problems. The amount of radiation that an animal is exposed to as a once off is minimal it would require multiple exposures to high radiation levels to cause problems and even still this is unlikely to be manifest as sterilisation but rather systemic illness.
Out of interest Craig who are you doing the laparoscopy with as there are only a handful of vets in the world that are skilled enough to do this that I know of.