Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[casportpony]

Here is one where they found thousands of eggs




-Kathy

 

[paccmanranch]

RE: calculating size - I measured 10 units on the reticle with a stage micrometer.  Does it seem about right to you given the magnification, like you mentioned on the possible strongyle in my earlier post?

Excellent!  I'll make those changes you suggest.

Centrifuge shopping - am I looking for a clinical swinging bucket, or will a fixed rotor do the job?

I've been fighting coccidiosis (I think) in this flock for about year.  I've lost several birds along the way to coccidiosis (bloody poops>near death>cull) or resulting enteritis (bloody poops>really smelly poops/diarrhea>near death>cull).  

Not finding things...those poops look pathological to me - am I just being a nervous Nellie?  Kathy??                                                                                                                                                                                                                       When I start seeing poops like this I worm them (albendazole, hydromycin B, fenbendazole in rotation - need another class I know), then treat with a coccidiocide and probiotics. The poops will look OK for 2-3 weeks, then start looking bad again - foamy or with bright blood or intestinal bits in them. 

This is a young flock of Ameraucanas that lay gorgeous blue eggs.  The Splash and Blue colors are most susceptible, followed by the Blacks. The Lavenders don't seem to be affected.  Weird.

Thanks for all your help and advice!  Let me know when I owe you for a consult   

The mag seems high from your earlier description (the egg size you described is bigger than I would expect).

A swinging bucket would be awesome but most of us use a fixed rotor. Don't fill the tube all the way (you will make a mess) just barely under the top then proceed with the directions above.

Bloody poop can also be an early sign of bacterial overgrowth (unhealthy gut) with Ecolu and salmonella (sub clinical). I have found that increasing greens helps a lot. Whether you add more salad or fodder to their diet to improve the gut health along with probiotics. I would still want to rule out parasites but if your having that difficult of a time then you have a genetic problem or a sanitation problem (they are re-exposing themselves). You may even have a viral issue that is decreasing their immune system.

 

[KsKingBee]

I have been burning through my box of prepared slides playing with poo. Over half of my pens are clear, no eggs or cocci at all.

Some had a few cecal eggs, not many, which is why I asked about the economic threshold. I asked my vet and her reply was that if you only see five on a slide not to worry, however if you see that many in multiple fields under low power you have a problem.

I am not so sure that haveing my broody chickens running with my peas is a good idea. That pen had 35 cecal eggs on the slide, the broody hen by herself had over 250 on her slide. I did a two day treatment of Safeguard in that pen and am now waiting to do another exam. A one day treatment should kill the cecal worms, but I am not sure how soon to do a float. I guess I will do one today and see what I can find.

I have to tell you that having the right equipment really makes a difference.

 

[zeppley]

Excellent!

My centrifuge comes Thursday.

I found a finch site that gives great instructions on doing fecal smears. http://www.finchaviary.com/Maintenance/FecalSmear.htm

With the smears, it's harder to see eggs and cysts. In theory, though, you can detect giardia and similar by their swimming motion, often see yeasts, and with staining can identify Gram positive and negative bacteria.

Sounds like a good idea to separate the broody hen. Immune function is reduced in broodies and molting birds - not enough energy to go around. This happens in lactating ewes, their parasite load builds up until their immune system revs up after weaning.

How's the ordeal with the camera going?

 

[paccmanranch]

Thanks Kathy, I'll see if I can.  Short on time today and this weekend.  We spent a lot of time on-line with the tech help, I don't think that the camera software is compatible with Windows 10.     

Interesting results from yesterday, I did nine FF's and found some very different results from pen to pen.  Most of the pens were absolutely clean, no worm eggs or cocci.  One slide had two Cecal eggs and five cocci, another had five cecal eggs and no cocci, and another pen had 35 cecal eggs, only one slide showed cocci only, about ten if I remember right.  The free range chickens had a few cecal worm eggs only.

My process this time was a bit different as I would use paper cups to mix the sample with Fecasol then strain through a tea strainer into the centrifuge tube.  Spin for 12 to 15 minutes, top off the tube and set the cover glass on and wait for five minutes.

The use of the tea strainer made the slide very easy to read, but also made me wonder if I was not getting false negatives.  The last two I did without the strainer, one of those was clear and the other was the one I found cocci only.

My vet as told me before that it is normal to find a couple of eggs and to not worry about it.  My question is what is the economic threshold?  How many does it take to bring concern and signal time to do something?  I feel like the pen with the 35 cecal worms is in much need of treatment, but what about the pen with only five cecal, or the one with ten or so cocci?

My main takeaway is that I need to keep better notes and maintain records so I can reference the results.

Economic threshold isn't going to be a definitive number. For each animal that will be different - basically at what point does production decrease? Broody hens and other animals under stress will have a lower threshold.

In a normal environment 20% of your animals will have 80% of your worms. If you can find that 20% and only breed the other 80% - then over time you will be selecting a stronger more naturally resistant population. Some breeds are more susceptible than others. Some lines are more susceptible than others. I would def deworm any broody when she starts so that she is not shedding so bad when the babies hatch. It takes 7-10 days for them to stop shedding after deworming (if your dewormer worked).

 

[KsKingBee]

Economic threshold isn't going to be a definitive number. For each animal that will be different - basically at what point does production decrease? Broody hens and other animals under stress will have a lower threshold.

In a normal environment 20% of your animals will have 80% of your worms. If you can find that 20% and only breed the other 80% - then over time you will be selecting a stronger more naturally resistant population. Some breeds are more susceptible than others. Some lines are more susceptible than others. I would def deworm any broody when she starts so that she is not shedding so bad when the babies hatch. It takes 7-10 days for them to stop shedding after deworming (if your dewormer worked).

Thank you for that response. Selective breeding is what we do on a regular basis with our honey bees, I think it will be harder with the birds and our setup.

So, after dosing for worms the dead worms will take seven to ten days to clear from the bird. Good to know! Any idea how long after dosing I would not see any eggs in the stool? I dosed on Sunday and Monday, one day should have been enough for cecal worms, I collected a sample this morning and will run it later today and see what I can find.

 

[KsKingBee]

It is taking some time, but I think I am getting it. I performed another exam on the yearling pen two days after dosing with Safeguard. The first FF showed 35 Cecal eggs, this one had only 14 and one cocci as seen in the bottom right corner. I was lucky to get both in the same pic as the cocci was swimming away.

 

[casportpony]

Amazing pictures!

-Kathy

 

[KsKingBee]

Amazing pictures!

-Kathy

Thanks! That broody chicken that had the >250 cecal eggs last weekend also got dosed for two days with Safeguard. Today when feeding she came out and took a dump right in front of me and lo and behold it was chalk full of round worms! I am somewhat confused why I did not see any round worm eggs before. I have a slide to look at here in a few minutes, in the meantime hereis a direct smear from the leavings in the tea strainer. Little baby roundworms...

 

[casportpony]

Dang! So when was she dosed with Safeguard?

-Kathy