Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Microscope came in today. Took one fresh sample from a healthier male dragon.

Poo cocktail elixir...

I put the poo in a glass beaker and stirred it vigorously. (Nearly puked got a small whiff)

Then I let the poo sit for about 5mins.

I then took a cover slip and wearing rubber surgical gloves with a small tweezer I dipped it onto the top layer of the poo float.

I used a fully saturated epson salt solution.

I looked at the slide in great detail at 400X and 1000X resolution and could find no coccidia oocysts or coccidea. I have seen coccidia when looking at floats at my vets office.

The coccidea themselves move quickly and will scoot out of the field of view alomst instantly... also... the parasites have obvious internal structures where as the nomal gut flora and bacteria do not.

Im not sure how you could ever say that coccidia are part of their normal gutload or that coccidia "you will always find some of them relatively speaking. In the fecal exams." This is a falacy.

These are parasites that rapidly multiply and infest. They are ravenous and not innocuous (harmless) gut flora. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

In bigger grazing animals/mammals you might be able to say this to a limited extent... not with dragons however.

I did see gut flora and bacteria moving around everywhere. These are distinctly different and have no internal structures whatsoever.

This is a good site with images:

http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/fecal-float.html

Im going to get a more expensive microscope. This one doesnt impress me.

A word of caution...

Be aware of the effects of salty fecal float solutions on the shapes of parasites. These hypertonic solutions suck water from the bodies of larval parasites and free-swimming parasitic protozoa (e.g. Giardia and Trichomonas), killing them (such that they stop moving) and also distorting and shrivelling up their outlines (such that they do not look like typical worms or protozoans anymore). This can make these organisms difficult to identify. For this reason, it is important that fecal float tests are examined as soon as they are performed, so as to reduce the amount of time the parasite spends exposed to the distorting medium.

Good post. Thanks.

Awesome wayne, i can't wait to do mine this weekend. I actually bought the fecasol though. I would surely love if mine were as clean as yours was.

haha... Im already wanting for a nicer microscope Robb.

Did several more fecal floats today. Tested four more dragons.

Found coccidia oocycts in a female. The rest were negative. Did two on the same dragon because it seems the fresher the better. But I found coccidia eggs...

She is in a separate enclosure. All my dragons are in their own separate enclosures.

Anyway she is super fat and healthy you would never think that she would have coccidia. That is why the microscope is invaluable.

When you wait until they show outward symptoms... it is typically too late and damage has already been done internally typically.

I proceeded to treat her for parasites. Gave her a warm bath... tooth brush scrub style, and disinfected everything in her enclosure.

I will keep you posted as I continue to test her, and as I treat her etc.

Here is a picture of her from yesterday:

The other dragons I tested were def negative. Have done 4 dragons total so far. One out of four was positive for coccidia oocysts. Saw lots of gut flora and bacteria swishing around.

The coccidia oocysts were easy to find and were rife in the tested float I did.

I used 400X and it was fairly well loaded with them.

I have prescription medication from my vet to use with her.