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appears to be coccidia - Eimeria sp. rather than Isospora sp. ? Sample from fecal check done on a long-term captive copperhead. only symptoms is a very very strong musty-dusty nose twitching smelling stool...kinda hard to describe.

bad photos I know, had to take pictures with the digital camera from the TV as I couldn't get the microscope camera to work with the computer directly.

First photo is at 40x magnification. Other 3 photos magnification with 100x oil immersion lens.

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PHWyvern

It's been a while since I've seen coccidia but they look a little big to me.

If this is part of a larger collection, remember that bleach does not kill coccidia's, use quatsyl and let it sit for 10 minutes.

For taking pictures, just put the lens of your digital camera up to the eyepeice of the microscope. A little manuevering and you'll figure out how to centre the image in the black background. It's worked well for me.

Ian

>>It's been a while since I've seen coccidia but they look a little big to me.
>>
>>If this is part of a larger collection, remember that bleach does not kill coccidia's, use quatsyl and let it sit for 10 minutes.
>>

Looks large because I was taking pics with the macro setting on the 8x optical digital camera from a 27 inch television screen. You kinda lose a lot of the quality doing that. Trying to get the camera to pick up from the eye piece didn't work well at all. Wish the computer was compatible with the mircoscope's own camera so I could have gotten better pics, but the TV had to do.

Out of the entire reptile collection this snake is the only one with them. We've had the copperhead since 1984 and he was pretty much full grown when we got him (wild caught). When viewing the slide, the parasites were much much smaller than the normal stuff I might see such as pinworm eggs...actually small enough I had to go up to the 100x oil immersion lens to try to get a better view to see what I might be dealing with and even then the focus wasn't the best. Closest match I could make was some type of coccidia.
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PHWyvern

ya, that sounds more like it, coccidia are pretty small. Envious about your camera, perhaps mine works on the microscope because it is itself not that good a camera :/

Ian

ooh, back to the copperhead, how long has the stool been abnormal? I wouldn't pin it on the coccidia, as it's probably had them since the wild. They usually arn't much of a problem.

How many did you find in a hpf (40x). If numerous, I would suspect a new stress on the snake allowing the coccidia to numerate. Alot of coccidia parasites have a direct cycle, this would be the case if it's had them since prior to 1984. A healthy animal will intermittantly shed oocysts so you may not see them on every stool.

What does this snake eat? If nothing different from your other negative snakes, then this reiterates that the coccidia have been everpresent.

Is there anything else going on with this copperhead? Perhaps senility changes are taking place.

Ian