Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have known and been told for a long time that when you get a new herp you should take some fresh dropings to the vet to be looked at. Is this somthing I can keep an eye on at home? I have a 200X computer microscope so I should be able to see anythign the vet could see. If this is somthign I can do can somone explain what I am looking for? I would not use this as a source for my herps helth I will still take them to the vet as I always have but It would be nioce to know so as I can catch things early. Thanks in advance
RR

I doubt you could catch it any earlier. My vet, when I take the fecal samples in, examines it right away and gives me treatment and correct dosages. This would be quicker than just looking yourself and then taking them to the vet. Andy
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Andy Maddox
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains

You would have to learn how to do a proper fecal flotation (not difficult) and then how to identify the various potential parasites (not difficult) and their eggs (difficult).

It would certainly be educational but I doubt you could find everything a qualified parasitologist/veterinarian could find. Then again, I wouldn't take the snake to the vet unless there is a problem. If you take that approach, there is no harm doing a fecal for yourself. You should be able to see most parasites/eggs with 200X power magnification (assuming you scope has adequate resolution).

Search online for how to do a fecal flotation.
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Chris Harrison

As Chris said, doing the float is not difficult. The best thing to do is use a Fecalyzer fecal test kit, some Fecasol flotation medium and properly stain it. If all this is not available to you, you can use an empty pill bottle or 35mm film cannister or a test tube. For a flotation medium, you simply need a solution with a specific gravity higher than water, such as a saturated sugar solution or a salt solution (salt can damage some parasite eggs making identification difficult). Fecasol is a Sodium Nitrate solution with a specific gravity of 1.200. Take whatever container you are going to use for you float and fill it about 1/3 with your solution. Drop a fecal sample about the size of a green pea in the solution and agitate it to dissolve the sample in the solution. Add 5 or 6 drops of an Iodine preparation (Lugol's is best, but Tincture of Iodine will work). You can actually use almost any sort of stain, such as Crystal Violet or Methylene Blue, but Iodine is more readily available. Now slowly fill the container to the very top being very careful not to overflow it...use an eydropper and fill it a drop at the time. Allow it to form a meniscus, then float a cover slip on top. This is where Fecalyzer kits work very well. They are the perfect size (by design) to lay a 18x18mm coverslip on top so that the corners are supported. Let it sit for about a half hour, then lay the cover slip wet-side-down on a clean slide and examine it at 100x. That's the easy part. To properly examine a float, you need some background in Parasitology. You need to be able to pick out which items are significant, which are artifact and then specifically identify the significant ones. Adult parasites, such as Strongyloids and even their embryonated eggs are relatively easy to identify. Eggs of others, such as acarids are not always easy. Taenia may not even show up in a float, which will necessitate doing a direct smear examination. To find things like Entamoeba cysts, Trichomonads, and Cryptosporidium, you need to be able to examine at a power of at least 400x and you need to be familiar with more advanced staining techniques. But, to do a simple 100x or 200x examination for whatever you can see, start at one upper corner of the cover slip and move down to the bottom, then shift left or right to move to the edge of your field of view and go the other way (up or down). Keep indexing the slide like this until you have covered the entire cover slip. A mechanical stage is almost essential for this.

The microscopy techniques for this are not particularly difficult, but as you move up in power, you have to be able to control the amount of light and the shape and direction of the light. When you switch from 100x to 400x, even if you have a parfocal and parcentric microscope, your specimen can "disappear" due to the change in light transmission from one objective to the other. Phase differential lighting and darkfield illumination are helpful, but with a simple light microscope with an Abbe condenser you can come very close to these techniques with some practice and experimentation and still get good resolution. If you shift powers and your specimen "disappears", don't touch the focus yet, start playing with the condenser and find a setting that allows you to at least see the image again, then use the fine focus.

Proper slide mounting techniques are critical, especially at higher powers. When you start getting into using oil immersion lenses (1,000x and up), even things like the thickness of your coverslip are critical. You only have critical focal length (or depth of field) of .17mm with an oil lens, so if the coverslip is, say, .19mm thick, you are already out of business.

Now...once you have identified whatever critters are there, you need to know what to treat with and be able to calculate the dose. Plus, you need to have access to the meds you need. Some of the drugs used to treat parasites are dangerous to the animal you are treating if overdosed, and if underdosed, the parasites can start to build tolerance to the drugs. You need a formulary for this.