Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Someone posted a while back about being able to do a fecal smear that was much easier than a fecal float because you don't have to get the saline solution and the float equipment. Does anyone know how to do a smear?

Thanks!

Veronica
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Beautiful Dragons

hi, i have never done a smear but to do so you still need to buy a certain solution called or refered as stains like mayer's hematoxyln and lugol's iodine. im not sure where to obtain these because i use the flotation method. all you have to do is go to your vet, you probably been there asking him/her to check your fecals already and if you ask him/her for some feca-mix and fecatector float cups. its very easy to use. the tricky part is locating but with practice you should have no problem. but a word this can make you crazy. if your animal is eating well and has normal behavior and shows coccidia in the fecal. dont worry too much the fight against coccidia is a long fustrating fight. and if you are feeding crickets or worms you are submitting coccidia to your animal.they can live with coccidia when in a stress free environment. but stress due to another draon picking on it or incorrect tempeture and other factors can make the coccidia become harmful. other parisites like hookworms, or other flagellates can be harmful. but treat those first and do not gice more than one medication at a time. and you then have to steralize your tank everyday 1 to 2 times get rid of wood furniture sand, anything pourous which the paristite get intouse plastic furnature and newspaper. i can go on and on any questions just ask, if done many fecals, my vet calls me the mad scientist

Just take a small amount of feces and smear on the slide, add a couple of drops of normal saline solution (0.9% NaCl), mix and add a coverslip. The most common mistake when doing direct smears is to make them too thick and then it is difficult to see any of the parasites. Fecal floats are easier to read because the ova float to the top and stick to the cover slip and you do not need to look through all the "amorphous crap" as I call when I teach techs how to do wet mounts . Since you have so many animals and do rescue, I would imagine you have a pretty good relationship with your vet. He/she may be willing to give/sell you a couple of fecalizers (the containers you use for fecal floats) and some Fecasol or Ovassay (my personal preference for solutions) to get you started. If you get the materials I can teach you how to set them up (very easy).
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Stacey