Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[Leihamarie]

Hey all, I did some fecals today to determine whether to de-worm or not. I got some decent pictures of what I think are roundworms. Also, I found a pretty good example of poultry endoparasite images. https://www.rvc.ac.uk/Review/Parasitology/poultrEggs/Common.htm

My little home mini-lab. My centrifuge isn't in the picture but I have one and use it for my fecals.

the edges on this seem distorted and not like a classic example of a roundworm egg. There were a LOT of them. More than I've ever seen in a fecal exam. I ran 3 fecals on this particular chicken. I did a direct smear, a McMaster modified (the count was 1300epg) and a fecal float by centrifuge.

 

[Leihamarie]

Have you started doing g your own fecsls yet?

Santa should be bringing my equipment soon.

Hi @Texas Kiki Sorry, I didn't see your question. I have been doing fecals for several years now, but not very often. I'm still learning to recognize and identify egg types. Did santa bring you your equipment and have you started doing yours???

 

[aart]

(the count was 1300epg)

What does EPG mean?
What are magnifications of pics?

 

[Kiki]

Hi @Texas Kiki Sorry, I didn't see your question. I have been doing fecals for several years now, but not very often. I'm still learning to recognize and identify egg types. Did santa bring you your equipment and have you started doing yours???

No Santa forgot.
I need to bite the bullet and just get my own equipment soon.

 

[KsKingBee]

Hey all, I did some fecals today to determine whether to de-worm or not. I got some decent pictures of what I think are roundworms. Also, I found a pretty good example of poultry endoparasite images. https://www.rvc.ac.uk/Review/Parasitology/poultrEggs/Common.htm

My little home mini-lab. My centrifuge isn't in the picture but I have one and use it for my fecals.
View attachment 1747542


the edges on this seem distorted and not like a classic example of a roundworm egg. There were a LOT of them. More than I've ever seen in a fecal exam. I ran 3 fecals on this particular chicken. I did a direct smear, a McMaster modified (the count was 1300epg) and a fecal float by centrifuge.

View attachment 1747540

View attachment 1747541

View attachment 1747555

Welcome to the club! Yes those are roundworm eggs. If you are on FaceBook check out 'The Floaters Club' it is a small group but very helpful. I think the 'distorted' edges you are seeing is from the extreme magnification or the way you prepared the slide. Either way it is a good example of roundworm eggs.

 

[KsKingBee]

What does EPG mean?
What are magnifications of pics?

All I can think of is Eggs Per Glass. We usually refer to eggs per slide or eggs per field of view. Depending on the amount being prepared you should set an economic threshold to ascertain the level at which you need to treat. More than 20 cocci per slide and I will treat, more than 5 worm eggs and again I will treat. That is when I use 2ml of fecal material in prep solution.

 

[Leihamarie]

What does EPG mean?
What are magnifications of pics?

Epg means eggs per gram of feces. It's what determines the parasite load and when to treat.

The magnification on the smaller pictures is 100x and the larger is 400x

 

[Leihamarie]

Here's another great reason to do fecals at home. I did 12 fecals yesterday on both regular & cecal eliminations and found that one of my 3 year old hens has coccidiosis. It's not e. tenella so there was no bloody stool. Poor baby has had watery eliminations for nearly a year that the vet attributed to a reproductive issue. The vet ran a fecal over 6 months ago and either it wasn't significant then or they somehow missed it.

Each fecal is $58 at the vet. It would have cost nearly $700 to run all the fecals and at home I can run them all again in a couple weeks to confirm the effectiveness of fenbendazole (and amprolium for my cocci hen).

My equipment cost has WELLLLLLL paid for itself!

Several coccidia at 400x

eight coccidia eggs at 100x

Plant debris with 3 roundworm eggs next to it at 100x. 2 look like possibly cecal worms. The other is a smaller roundworm.

Doing fecals at home is quite addictive, lol! I have a pretty intense headache from staring into a microscope for so long and have to take a break for a while now, hahaha!

 

[aart]

Doing fecals at home is quite addictive, lol! I have a pretty intense headache from staring into a microscope for so long and have to take a break for a while now, hahaha!

A different kind of 'Chicken TV'

 

[Kiki]

Here's another great reason to do fecals at home. I did 12 fecals yesterday on both regular & cecal eliminations and found that one of my 3 year old hens has coccidiosis. It's not e. tenella so there was no bloody stool. Poor baby has had watery eliminations for nearly a year that the vet attributed to a reproductive issue. The vet ran a fecal over 6 months ago and either it wasn't significant then or they somehow missed it.

Each fecal is $58 at the vet. It would have cost nearly $700 to run all the fecals and at home I can run them all again in a couple weeks to confirm the effectiveness of fenbendazole (and amprolium for my cocci hen).

My equipment cost has WELLLLLLL paid for itself!

Several coccidia at 400x
View attachment 1749339 eight coccidia eggs at 100x
View attachment 1749341

Plant debris with 3 roundworm eggs next to it at 100x. 2 look like possibly cecal worms. The other is a smaller roundworm.
View attachment 1749340

Doing fecals at home is quite addictive, lol! I have a pretty intense headache from staring into a microscope for so long and have to take a break for a while now, hahaha!

Wow!

Your vet charges almost triple what mine does.


Great photos.