Coccidia

Good luck with the total score of a microscope.

I've got a decent monocular scope, but I feel a bit clueless on determining what the heck it is that I'm looking at. I've seen plenty of little swimming parasites that could be deadly or healthy... Don't know. Frankly, I quit worrying.

Doug T

First time post here. hello all.

undoubtedly too late for this, but... you don't have to use epsom salt and you don't have to make so much. you can use almost anything that will dissolve in water. all that you need to do is make a very dense (high specific gravity) solution. i have used table sugar (sucrose), table salt, zinc sulfate, etc.

make a saturated solution by adding the solute (salt, sugar, etc) to a glass of room temp water (more will dissolve in warmer water) and stir until you can't dissolve anymore. this solution will be far more dense than the parasites or their eggs -- and thus will float to the top.

hope this helps,

matt

Well, I finaly got busy, and made some saline, and started checking fecal samples. So far, Iv'e found nothing. What a relief! I think they are all just fine and dandy, but I like to keep a close eye on things around here, and will continue to do so. Thanks for the advice to all who offered! I'll post again if I find anything unusual.
T.

There are several ways of preforming a "fecal", I will not list all of them here but the two most common way are a "Direct" and a "Float". A "Direct" is taking a small amount of poop and mixing it in a small amount of saline on a slide. (A VERY SMALL AMOUNT) The problem with this method here is coccidia is harder to find..
The BEST method for detecting coccidia is the "Float" method

The "Float" you need more poop. 1 to 2 grams for best results, of course if it is a smaller snake or reptile this is kind of hard to get. The poop is mixed up throughly in a "sugar" solution. Pour the contents into a test tube...then place a slip cover on top of the test tube..make sure the "poop soup" is touching the slip cover
It then should sit for at least 10 minutes..try not to let it sit longer because the solution will start to crystalize..but it must sit! That way, what happens is, the specific gravity of the solution makes the eggs float to the top and they will stick on the slip cover..

then plop the slip cover on the slide..you want to look for it on a "Low" to "High" power.. not the "Oil Lens" and basically you want to look for a "Fried Egg"..they are pretty easy to find...

you can buy fecal soultion at most of the onlline vet supply places..if you need one let me know.. the stuff is cheap and this is worth having..you can also use it to find other parasites as well..

Here are some pretty good pictures of what they look like..

Originally Posted by thesnakeman

I am in the process of acquiring my own microscope, and this book gives some good pictures of all the bad bugs.

The pictures in that book are actually pretty bad quality. I do hope you've got other books at your disposal if you're going to be doing fecal tests on your own. I suggest buying a vet manual or two, or even better, some prepared slides that already have different parasites on them. Protozoans are very easy to miss if you've never seen what they look like under the microscope. Depending on what magnification you use (sometimes 400x is too small in my opinion), that little speck you pass by might be the parasite you're looking for.

Coccidiosis isn't just restricted to reptiles. Any cat or dog vet should be able to do a fecal test for you to confirm coccidia. It's the treatment I wouldn't really trust them to do for reptiles.

I got all the above info. already, but thanks to all who are offering help! Keep it coming! I am always eager to learn! What are some better books?
T.

There's a book called <u>Veterinary Clinical Parasitology</u> by Sloss. I like this one because it's not too technical to understand. It also has a section about parasites in birds and rodents (in case you ever use those for feeders). Other than that, grab whatever books you can find that has pictures of parasites under a microscope. Just like how you have to look at lots of lots of pictures of reptile morphs to differentiate between them, you have to look at lots of lots of pictures of parasites.

Having a microscope that has at least 1000x magnification (with immersion oil) is tremenously useful, especially for really small protozoans like giardia and amoebae.

Good luck.

My scope has an oil lense, but now I need to find some oil. What kind, and where? Thanks again to all!
T.

Try the Microscope Store, as they should have just about everything you need at good prices..

http://www.microscope-store.com/prod...FUjAJAod1SqcJw

Best regards,

Jeff

I stopped in a local veteranarian's office the other day, and asked a few questions about what I'm trying to do here. He said I probably won't need to use the oil lens, but if I do, plain old mineral oil, which is readily available at Walmart, will work just fine.
Now all my saline went bad. After having sat for too long, stuff started growing in it. So I reccomend mixing up small quantities at a time,...instead of mixing up a full gallon like I did. Just remember to use distilled water, in a sterile container. Then add epsom salt until the water has absorbed all the salt it can hold. And you have saline.
On the original note,...Flea is eating and processing everything I give him. And he appears in perfect condition. He is also growing at a phenomenal rate! Not quite 2 years old now, and nearly 5' long! So I'm not as concerned as I was origionally. Although I still plan to do fecal floats at least a couple times per year on all my critters.
I will post here if I ever find anything. I can't believe that more than 1000 people have read this. Amazing!
T.