Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone supply me with a shopping list of what I will need to perform fecal floats?
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Emily
"His will was set, and only death would break it."

Basically you will need:

1. A microscope of reasonable quality with magnifications of at least 40x, 100x and 400x.

2. Clean slides and cover slips

3. A medium for the flotation. Different people use different things, I prefer Fecasol. It is a prepared solution for that purpose and is available through veterinary supply houses.

4. Some sort of small container to do the float in. It needs to be relatively small and should be of a diameter that you can lay a cover slip on top of it. A test tube will work. I prefer Fecalyzer kits. They are self contained flotation kits with a built in screen (to keep large artifact items from floating to the top), an agitator, container, and a cover.

5. Some sort of stain. Lugol's solution works well. Lugol's can be ordered by your Pharmacy.

6. Some sort of an identification guide that you can use to identify the little eggs and critters you find. A good one to get started with is Understanding Reptile Parasites and it's companion chart Reptile Parasite Identification Chart and Formulary, by Roger J. Klingenberg DVM. They are available from the Bean Farm Link to the Bean Farm

>>Basically you will need:
>>
>>1. A microscope of reasonable quality with magnifications of at least 40x, 100x and 400x.
>>
>>2. Clean slides and cover slips
>>
>>3. A medium for the flotation. Different people use different things, I prefer Fecasol. It is a prepared solution for that purpose and is available through veterinary supply houses.
>>
>>4. Some sort of small container to do the float in. It needs to be relatively small and should be of a diameter that you can lay a cover slip on top of it. A test tube will work. I prefer Fecalyzer kits. They are self contained flotation kits with a built in screen (to keep large artifact items from floating to the top), an agitator, container, and a cover.
>>
>>5. Some sort of stain. Lugol's solution works well. Lugol's can be ordered by your Pharmacy.
>>
>>6. Some sort of an identification guide that you can use to identify the little eggs and critters you find. A good one to get started with is Understanding Reptile Parasites and it's companion chart Reptile Parasite Identification Chart and Formulary, by Roger J. Klingenberg DVM. They are available from the Bean Farm Link to the Bean Farm
-----
Emily
"His will was set, and only death would break it."