{"topic_id":"exotic_pet_toxicology_turtle","category":"exotic-pet-toxicology","context":"---\ntopic_id: exotic_pet_toxicology_turtle\ncategory: exotic-pet-toxicology\ntitle: \"Turtle & chelonian hazards — Salmonella zoonosis, dietary-protein gout, shell disease, and respiratory infection\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"First-hand veterinary toxicology reference, saved to source_file; every claim is a C1 byte-substring of it. Deepened 2026-08-01.\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/exotic-toxicology/reptile.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-08-01\ntokens_estimated: 321\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 10\n  passed: 10\n  date: 2026-08-01\nrecovered: false\npath: exotic-pet-toxicology/exotic_pet_toxicology_turtle/01_exotic_pet_toxicology_turtle.md\nsource_document: \"Merck Veterinary Manual / first-hand veterinary reference\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Merck Veterinary Manual / first-hand veterinary reference\"\n  title: \"Turtle & chelonian hazards — Salmonella zoonosis, dietary-protein gout, shell disease, and respiratory infection\"\n  url: \"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-08-01\"\n  ref: \"\"\n  doc_type: \"professional veterinary reference\"\n  needs_review: false\n---\n\n# Turtle & chelonian hazards — Salmonella zoonosis, dietary-protein gout, shell disease, and respiratory infection\n\nThe text below is reproduced verbatim from the first-hand source.\n\n## Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)\n\n- `Hypovitaminosis A is common in aquatic turtles and insectivorous lizards fed a diet deficient in preformed vitamin A.`\n- `The commonly used nutritional supplement beta carotene cannot be metabolized by many reptiles.`\n- `Primary visceral gout is the accumulation of urate microcrystals in organs secondary to a chronic hyperuricemia and is generally caused by excessive protein in the diet.`\n- `Classically, septicemic cutaneous ulcerative disease (SCUD) is a shell disease of aquatic turtles caused by Citrobacter freundii`\n- `Mycoplasmosis is a known cause of rhinitis and upper respiratory tract disease in chelonians`\n- `Ear infections occur frequently in turtles, especially box turtles and aquatic turtles.`\n- `Salmonella have been frequently isolated from clinically healthy reptiles and should be considered part of their normal GI flora.`\n- `The zoonotic nature of these commensal organisms must be considered when handling or treating reptiles.`\n- `However, UVB light (290–300 nm) is especially important for most diurnal lizards and chelonians for vitamin D3 synthesis and calcium regulation.`\n- `Species identification is essential to critically appraise captive diets (see the tables Composition of Animal Foods That May Be Offered to Reptiles and Composition of Plant Foods That May Be Offered to Reptiles).`\n\n---\n\n**Source:** `pdf-raw/exotic-toxicology/reptile.txt` · https://www.merckvetmanual.com/\n","sources":["exotic-pet-toxicology — Turtle & chelonian hazards — Salmonella zoonosis, dietary-protein gout, shell disease, and respiratory infection (retrieved 2026-08-01)"],"source":{"authority":"exotic-pet-toxicology","title":"Turtle & chelonian hazards — Salmonella zoonosis, dietary-protein gout, shell disease, and respiratory infection","url":"https://www.merckvetmanual.com/","retrieved":"2026-08-01","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual / first-hand veterinary reference","verification_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-toxicology/reptile.txt"},"source_document":"Merck Veterinary Manual / first-hand veterinary reference","source_file":"pdf-raw/exotic-toxicology/reptile.txt","tokens_estimated":440,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}