Doing Fecal Floats at Home

[Bkaye]

So we did our first floats this weekend. so far I’m very impressed, obviously a lot I need to learn. I havent figured out yet how to put the measurements on the pics so I will be looking over the manual this week.

We have had a couple young birds under the weather we assumed had coccidiosis. I saw blood in the stool of one a few weeks ago so they went of sulfa that had the coccidiostat in it. Did that for a week which was finished up last week. A couple started acting off again a couple days ago so started on Friday morning. One of the cockerals seemed to be in a bad way this morning so we did a fecal float on him. I couldn’t believe all the coccidia present. Some of the eggs look damage which I’m assuming is from the Corid.

First pic amongst all the coccidia there’s a oblong egg with green in the middle (this is zoomed in). Anyone have any ideas what it? I’ve looked in the books I have and can’t really find anything that looks like it.

The next 2 imagines is using 10x. These are a couple of the clusters on the slide.

the last pic I really don’t know what the long thing is…maybe trash? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[KsKingBee]

My vet used to tell me cocci looked like a circle in a circle but really it looks like a chicken egg shape when laying on its side. None of the worm eggs we worry about in peas are perfectly round, the closest would be roundworm eggs. I am not sure what those are in your pics. Nice job with the clean slides.

 

[Bkaye]

Ugh now I’m confused and back to not knowing what’s going on with my little boy.

This was what I was going by. IMO it looked like some were egg shape, oval and a few diff types round. Below is a better pic of just a small group.

 

[KsKingBee]

If you are on FaceBook post the pics to The Floaters Club. There are a couple of people there that identify odd stuff that are not usually not found in peas.

 

[Bkaye]

If you are on FaceBook post the pics to The Floaters Club. There are a couple of people there that identify odd stuff that are not usually not found in peas.

I do not have Facebook. Thank you for the suggestion though.

 

[Bkaye]

Here’s a pic I found online from the university of New Hampshire. It looks very similar to me but I’m new to this. This is coccidia in poultry.

 

[KsKingBee]

Here’s a pic I found online from the university of New Hampshire. It looks very similar to me but I’m new to this. This is coccidia in poultry.

View attachment 3390721

I would agree, that is the 'circle in a circle' and many are egg-shaped, your first pic is more solid, round, and not defined like this example. There are nine different types of cocci and only one that is found in peafowl. I believe the type found in chickens may be different and rarely affects chickens as badly as cocci in peafowl.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

These are coccidia. They have that characteristic iridescent sheen.

 

[Bkaye]

These are coccidia. They have that characteristic iridescent sheen.

Thank you! That’s what we were thinking and have been treating with Corid. We will be doing another float maybe today and see how it’s working.

 

[KsKingBee]

When in doubt, treat for the most likely cause asap.

Thank you! That’s what we were thinking and have been treating with Corid. We will be doing another float maybe today and see how it’s working.

Corid is an inhibitor only and does not kill cocci, just reducing its growth. To kill cocci you will have to use Toltrazuril which is not approved in the US. It can be bought online and will knock out cocci in two days. Sulfadimethoxine is available here and works better than Corid but is hard on birds.