Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[Leihamarie]

Wow!

Your vet charges almost triple what mine does.


Great photos.

Yeah, it's a little frustrating. The exam alone is $68 and is required to run a fecal if the bird hasn't already been seen in the last year. They're "exotic" vets that see $5000 parrots, among other exotic pets. The benefit is that they really know birds and the main vet actually has chickens himself. They're the only vets that I'd trust with my flock, and they happen to be a few miles from my house, but I rarely walk out of there for under $400. Hence my enthusiasm for quality at-home diagnostic and medical care for my ladies.

 

[Leihamarie]

A different kind of 'Chicken TV'

TOTALLY!!!

 

[Kiki]

Yeah, it's a little frustrating. The exam alone is $68 and is required to run a fecal if the bird hasn't already been seen in the last year. They're "exotic" vets that see $5000 parrots, among other exotic pets. The benefit is that they really know birds and the main vet actually has chickens himself. They're the only vets that I'd trust with my flock, and they happen to be a few miles from my house, but I rarely walk out of there for under $400. Hence my enthusiasm for quality at-home diagnostic and medical care for my ladies.

I'm lucky. My vet will test poop brought in a dish by itself.

With out seeing the birds.

 

[Leihamarie]

I'm lucky. My vet will test poop brought in a dish by itself.

With out seeing the birds.

I'm envious!

 

[KsKingBee]

Wow!

Your vet charges almost triple what mine does.


Great photos.

Mine only charges $16 but the inconvenience of having to go to town takes two or more hours by the time I get home.

 

[h2oratt]

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, I am very interested in setting up my own mini lab. What equipment do I need?

 

[KsKingBee]

Wow, I am very interested in setting up my own mini lab. What equipment do I need?

Start reading this thread from the beginning and you will know.

 

[Leihamarie]

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.

I looked up and requested to join the floaters club, thanks for the recommendation! Looks like a great group!

 

[aart]

If you are on FaceBook check out 'The Floaters Club' it is a small group but very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[KsKingBee]

I looked up and requested to join the floaters club, thanks for the recommendation! Looks like a great group!

It is a bit slow as most clubs are when those that are in the know don't ask questions or start many conversations, so consider it a 'learning group'. New people in the group that are there to learn need to ask questions to keep up the conversations so we can all learn from each other.