Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[KsKingBee]

Congratulations! Your birds will be the healthiest they can be with you keeping an eye on the little critters.

 

[Kiki]

Well, I ran my first few fecals and I'm addicted, LOL!!! I'm trying all the different methods (ie: Direct Smear, McMaster, float by centrifuge) and so far McMaster has been the winner but that's mainly because my grid reticle won't be here for about another week. Oh! Tomorrow I'm also gonna try a fecal gram stain, cause... why not?!?

I have to figure out the 14mp camera on the microscope and I'll contribute to the image gallery. I'm still a newbie at differentiating between parisite eggs and everything else, hahaha. I did a McMaster coccidia (or... what I thought was coccidia) count on one of my Pullets tonight and according to the formula for EPG, she's got 7500 coccidia EPG. I'm pretty sure she'd be dead if that were the case since anything over 1000 EPG is a severe infection, requiring immediate treatment. I'm sure I'll get better with practice. The centrifuge/ meniscus float is still eluding me for some reason.

So... that's how I've spent my Friday night Totally normal, right???

HOW EXCITING!!

Congrats.

 

[Leihamarie]

Well, here are my first photos! I'll have to get better at focusing the camera but I think these are Eimeria Tenella (view at 100x oil immersion). I calibrated the measurement but the image didn't save with the scale bar. These are about 18-19µm tall and about 16-17µm across



here's another (I think) eimeria.



I didn't see any other eggs in the McMaster slide but I did the fecal today on my young Pullets who have had coccidiosis. I did find this weird thing though. Maybe it's a random plant cell??? what do you guys think?



Oh my poor animals! I spent a solid hour stalking my girls today to get a clean specimin, lol! I tried gram staining a wet smear to see if there were any gram negative bacteria, but I think there was an technician error (doh!) cause it DID NOT look right under the scope.

 

[Kiki]

Well, here are my first photos! I'll have to get better at focusing the camera but I think these are Eimeria Tenella (view at 100x oil immersion). I calibrated the measurement but the image didn't save with the scale bar. These are about 18-19µm tall and about 16-17µm across

View attachment 1149420

here's another (I think) eimeria.

View attachment 1149422

I didn't see any other eggs in the McMaster slide but I did the fecal today on my young Pullets who have had coccidiosis. I did find this weird thing though. Maybe it's a random plant cell??? what do you guys think?

View attachment 1149423

Oh my poor animals! I spent a solid hour stalking my girls today to get a clean specimin, lol! I tried gram staining a wet smear to see if there were any gram negative bacteria, but I think there was an technician error (doh!) cause it DID NOT look right under the scope.

This is so neat.
I'm going to be asking Santa for a 'set up' this year!

 

[casportpony]

Well, I ran my first few fecals and I'm addicted, LOL!!! I'm trying all the different methods (ie: Direct Smear, McMaster, float by centrifuge) and so far McMaster has been the winner but that's mainly because my grid reticle won't be here for about another week. Oh! Tomorrow I'm also gonna try a fecal gram stain, cause... why not?!?

I have to figure out the 14mp camera on the microscope and I'll contribute to the image gallery. I'm still a newbie at differentiating between parisite eggs and everything else, hahaha. I did a McMaster coccidia (or... what I thought was coccidia) count on one of my Pullets tonight and according to the formula for EPG, she's got 7500 coccidia EPG. I'm pretty sure she'd be dead if that were the case since anything over 1000 EPG is a severe infection, requiring immediate treatment. I'm sure I'll get better with practice. The centrifuge/ meniscus float is still eluding me for some reason.

So... that's how I've spent my Friday night Totally normal, right???

Well, here are my first photos! I'll have to get better at focusing the camera but I think these are Eimeria Tenella (view at 100x oil immersion). I calibrated the measurement but the image didn't save with the scale bar. These are about 18-19µm tall and about 16-17µm across



here's another (I think) eimeria.



I didn't see any other eggs in the McMaster slide but I did the fecal today on my young Pullets who have had coccidiosis. I did find this weird thing though. Maybe it's a random plant cell??? what do you guys think?



Oh my poor animals! I spent a solid hour stalking my girls today to get a clean specimin, lol! I tried gram staining a wet smear to see if there were any gram negative bacteria, but I think there was an technician error (doh!) cause it DID NOT look right under the scope.

FYI @aart and @Folly's place

 

[Kiki]

@rjohns39 You might like this thread.

 

[casportpony]

@rjohns39 You might like this thread.

x2!

 

[casportpony]

@KsKingBee , how did your fecal demonstration at the UPA convention go? And were you able to do a tube feeding demo?

 

[KsKingBee]

@KsKingBee , how did your fecal demonstration at the UPA convention go? And were you able to do a tube feeding demo?

@KsKingBee , how did your fecal demonstration at the UPA convention go? And were you able to do a tube feeding demo?

Oh we had a great time! I had about seven or eight people bring their microscopes and we spun samples from different sources and found all kinds of things. One of the most common problems is buying a scope that did not have high enough magnification, (I did the same thing too with my first scope), so a couple of people did not have very good results. Those under-powered scopes also did not have a moving platform so they really had a hard time finding anything.

The previous year I gave a PowerPoint presentation and this year we followed it up with a workshop and it went splendidly. I do wonder how we can follow this next year, it never ceases to amaze me how we peabrains can stay so interested in poo. I guess that knowing the level of health in our birds is paramount.

We also gave a quick demonstration on tube feeding. I took an assortment of tubes I use and @lorretta Smith had a bird we tubed water. The bird did not need anything special so we did not get into preparing feed or medications.

 

[aart]

Well, here are my first photos! I'll have to get better at focusing the camera but I think these are Eimeria Tenella (view at 100x oil immersion). I calibrated the measurement but the image didn't save with the scale bar. These are about 18-19µm tall and about 16-17µm across

Oh my poor animals! I spent a solid hour stalking my girls today to get a clean specimin, lol! I tried gram staining a wet smear to see if there were any gram negative bacteria, but I think there was an technician error (doh!) cause it DID NOT look right under the scope.

Scale would be nice, but triple KUDOS for noting the magnification...that's the most important thing when posting/using photos for reference, IMO.

Might think about crating them at night to collect specimens.
I've rigged a small crate with 1x2 wire on the bottom,
then can put the tray under the crate so poops don't get stepped on.
Just crate off roost after dark, let bird out in morning and collect your specimens.