Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just curious, can you freeze a fecal sample to be tested for parasites or does it need to be fresh? I froze it just to be safe and so I don't have to wait another week or so. Also an observation.... Snakes ingest more than I had thought in the wild. I don't know what it is that makes them more likely to impact in captivity but they sure swallow a lot in nature. I found 2 small twiggs and a small rock in the sample.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Molly"

As we say in Missouri, "I ain't goin back to Missouri!"

i have no clue, but i'd call the vet just to make sure. and it makes since that they swallow more b/c they dont have "feeding boxes" in the wild but i doubt snakes know one way or the other or really care that they swallow sticks....b/c that might be one of the very few meals it will find in a long time.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude)
1. unknown hypo? normal? (Romeo)
.1 Miami Phase (Emily)
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury)
1. Classic het Hypo, poss het Amel, Anery (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy [Emilys babies])
.1 Amel (Pepperoni)
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss het Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Classic het Hypo, Stripe (Gracie Lou)

Rats:
1.1 Black rats (Cecily, Willard)

Cal Kings:
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Skunky, Dweezil)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LEOPARD GECKOS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Normal het Midnight Blizzard (Mr. Spot)
.1 Blizzard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLE~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)

>>I was just curious, can you freeze a fecal sample to be tested for parasites or does it need to be fresh? I froze it just to be safe and so I don't have to wait another week or so. Also an observation.... Snakes ingest more than I had thought in the wild. I don't know what it is that makes them more likely to impact in captivity but they sure swallow a lot in nature. I found 2 small twiggs and a small rock in the sample.

Freezing tends to destroy the sample. It has to be fresh and dropped off to the vet the same day though it's possible to stretch it 48 hours (you can safely store it in a plastic container in the refrigerator). However realize that the longer it takes to get the sample to the vet there is the risk of some parasites desicating in that time and therefore won't be picked up in the testing. I am having this problem with tapeworms. I have a ball python that I know has tapeworms (visible in the fecal to the eye), but can't get meds for it right now, cause the fecal was 'clean' according the vet which means the tapeworms are not shedding eggs as the visible worms had already desicated by the time he got around to testing the sample. The vet was on vacation and didn't get to check the sample until 2 days later. I now have to wait until I get another fecal sample and with ball pythons you never know when they'll "go".. very irregular they are compared to snakes like corns lol. ...been a month and still waiting.
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PHWyvern