How to perform a fecal float?

[Zach Valois]

Can anyone offer insight on how to perform a proper fecal float? I have numerous microscopes that I use for arachnid taxonomy, they are dissection scopes but some of them go up to 50X. This should be sufficient to see at least coccidia.

Does anyone here perform their own floats. Aside from accurately identifying parasites within a sample, I do not see why this would be possible to do yourself..with some practice.

Not in replace of vet visits mind you, but could be usefull for more frequent precautionary checks.

Thanks

 

[Zach Valois]

Well with a little research, I seem to have answered my own question. It looks like with practice and the proper solution, one could perform their own fecal float/smear. It would just be a matter of confidently identifying the parasites.

Anyone here done this on their own?

 

[Fearaffect]

Talk to the Gesangs(ChameleonsNorthWest.com).
They do their own fecals....

 

[jannb]

You will find this book very helpful and I believe it's for sale here in the book store.
http://www.ivanalfonso.com/?s=Understanding+Reptile+Parasites

 

[bikesforme]

i also have a microscope and would like to just did not know how. i will get that book and do a bit of research. maybe i can do my own to

 

[jdog1027]

An ex-girlfriend of mine told me that you make a solution of water and salt or water and sugar. You create what she called a supersaturation. Drop in the sample and take the debris that floats along the extreme upper surface of the solution after it sits for about 15-30 minutes. Take a surface skim sample and place on a slide and compress between slide and slide specimin cover (little square piece of glass). I tried it, but I had no idea as to what I was looking at. Saw lots of cricket parts for sure. She said coccidia were easy to identify. I googled images of microscope parasies in reptiles and found some good photos to use as a comparison. Dave Weldon is a good one to talk to about this.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

You need the proper specific gravity solution to get the eggs to float, and depending on what eggs you are looking for you may need different solutions as it depends on the weight of the species eggs. Fecasol is a common one used. You can't just add salt and sugar and expect to catch what you're looking for since these solutions are formulated specifically to a certain weight for common parasites. They are not difficult at all to do once you have the right solution and some microscope slide coverslips and something like prescription bottles (the ones that look like tubes). You mix the feces with some solution so that the sample is broken up well (to free up the eggs to float) and fill the container with solution until there is a slight inverted meniscus on the top. Place a coverslip on the meniscus immediately and then let it sit for about 10 minutes. Shorter than that and the eggs won't have time to float up and adhere to the slide. Much longer than that and they can actually fall off and sink back down so you won't get accurate results. Once that time has elapsed remove the coverslip and put it on a microscope slide and take a peek. Word of advice: eggs aren't on the same focus level as bubbles so if your bubbles are in focus you'll miss what you're looking for. Of course the hardest part is identifying what you're seeing!

 

[xanthoman]

fecal floats

Well with a little research, I seem to have answered my own question. It looks like with practice and the proper solution, one could perform their own fecal float/smear. It would just be a matter of confidently identifying the parasites.

BINGO, you hit the nail right on the head. the materials are simple, but you can have all of the materials and still be miles away from being able to interprete your results, without some fairly in depth study of reptile parasitology, they wont do you any good. the exception would be, if you have photographic capabilities with your setup then you could always forward photographic results to a vet or forum member, dave weldon was very gracious and helpful with me when i had some suspicious results.

as an analogy, i like to liken it to learning how to play the guitar. you can have a nice guitar or even several, and a book on how to play them, but that still doesnt make someone a guitar player. it takes practice and study, without it you will get nowhere.
fecal floats are easy to perform and view, but interpreting them takes practice and study in parasitical pathology.

why cant you just compare the results against some kind of chart?, you can, and thats a good starting point for anyone looking to get started, but the interpretation will be far from conclusive without the knowledge needed.

even with a chart to compare to, you have to understand, that there is ALL kinds of stuff floating around in your sample, even after it has been applied to a slide. many parasites look similar in egg form, to complicate matters even further many of those resemble air bubbles that may look quite similar to your target. further, depending on the type of equipment and ones skill in using it. any given object, can look entirely different form one level of focus to the next. to complicate things even more, there is an effect called "brownian motion", essentially even though there is less than a drop of water on your slide, at the microscopic level, it is literally an ocean. you can easily spend an hr, just transversing a single drop of water, to make sure you cover it all. even though once placed under the coverslide, remember at microscopic level, its still an ocean, complete with currents, heat from the stage or other factors will cause the solution to flow freely at the microscopic level, with it will move most of the things suspended in it, giving completely dead and inanimate objects the appearance of swimming. and being alive, when in fact they are not . (not helpful)

as far as materials, you will need;
a microscope suitable for the purpose, preferably with adjustable stage lighting and a mechanically operated stage with x-y movement and preferably fine and coarse tune , and a magnification of around 200-1000x, for anyone interested there have already been several threads on all of these scopes but anyone is free to pm if they have any specific questions.

examples of lower priced scopes that are well up to the task would be a celestron 44340 or an amscope t400 or t490 (both can be seen on ebay, but if you already have access, most scopes with the above features are suitable for the purpose

also, you also need a rock solid table /platform to do it on, as the slightest jiggling will render most efforts useless.

the float supplies themselves are simple, you will need;
the fecal float solution itself , goes by many tradenames, the most common of which is "FECASOL" usually about $15-40 a gal plus shipping

several fecalizers (the little 2 pc plastic gismo you actually put and float the sample in) $20-25 is a common price for about 50 units if i remember correctly.

a box of slides, $10 and a box of coverslides, also<$10

another thing that would come in immensely handy, would be an etched measuring slide, essentially a microscopic ruler for measuring items in the field of view.

and of course you will need several notes to compare your results to so you will need at least a quick reference chart and a good book on reptile parasitology. ill post some links if i make it back to this thread.

dont get me wrong, im not trying to discourage anyone from doing their own fecal float/smear analysis, i think its something that every serious long term cham keeper should eventually get into. preferably before suspicions arise, because it will take many hrs of serious study and and many attempts before one is likely to be able to interprete the results with any accuracy, but with a fair amount of practice and study, its possible to be relatively proficient at it in a reasonably short time.

many recommend fecals every year, and many post who need fecals but dont want to spend the cash
if you have 5 chams at an average fecal float price of say $50, and many vets wont do fecals until they have had an office visit, that can add up to a substantial expenditure, if one is proficient at doing their own floats they can do one at the slightest sign of trouble or just for the heck of it for just a couple of $ per try, to me its a no brainer, the cost of just 2 fecal floats and 2 office visits is going to be more than the expense of everything you need to do it yourself including microscope (based on celestron 44340 and fecal supplies = total cost of around $250)
for anyone that already has the scope, it doesnt make any sense not to do it. all of the stuff mentioned is readily available on the web and probably locally if you know where to look. but if you just want pics so you can check the materials out ebay is probably the place to go for fecalizer pics and such. jmo

ps edit; you can use small 2-3ml test tubes on a stand instead of fecalizers, but even though fecalizers leave a lot to be desired, they have a filter function (inner basket) that is helpful
its easy enough to make your own fecal solution, there are recipies all over the web, usually involving epsom salts and sugar, but without knowing for sure if it was the desired specific gravity of 1.2, then the solution is worthless. the cost of a lab quality hydrometer is probably about the same as a gallon of fecasol . a gallon of fecalizer will do hundreds of floats so its pointless to make, economically speaking.
also fecal floats require a fair amount of sample, the recommended i think is a gram, but you can get away with far less, but even a 1/3 of a gram is impossible when you are talking about neonate samples, so in that case a smear would be required.

 

[xanthoman]

follow up

another thing to consider is there is sort of an aha moment when you have positively identified a parasite for the first time, its sort of like learning to ride a bike, once you have learned, you may get a little rusty, but you never really forget entirely. the point i am trying to get at is, you may be able to speed the learning process considerably if you have somebody who can show you first hand. once you have identified confidently, and been verified by somebody who actually knows, then identifying that particular parasite/stage will be easy from then on. check reptile forums from your area, search past cf forum threads to see if any cf members from your area have posted on performing fecal floats

most major universities have depts of veterinary medicine/pathology. and ime they are often glad to help, if you could find somebody to go through several floats with you, then you could probably cut your learning curve dramatically (assuming the floats were positive)

you could also try craigslist, you never know when you might hook up with somebody studying pathology or similar interest that might even be anxious to look at your samples. just a thought.

in theory 50x should be enough, but i usually found myself around 400x when trying to view a specific target, you might find this of interest;
http://fiascofarm.com/goats/fecals.htm#test

this is a great reptile site that also sells fecal float supplies, plus some of the $ goes to a good cause. for $5 they also have a laminated double sided quick reference chart with decent photos of the most common parasites, very handy, same chart i used. its also a good place to get some of the harder to find otc reptile drugs/supps

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Reptilestore.html jmo

 

[Alexl]

BINGO, you hit the nail right on the head. the materials are simple, but you can have all of the materials and still be miles away from being able to interprete your results, without some fairly in depth study of reptile parasitology, they wont do you any good.

That's exactly the point!

If you want to take a look at fecals on your own, always be sure to bring a fecal to the vet, too. I remember my first lessons in parasitology - it was annoying asking one hundred times whether I found a parasite or just some new kind of dirt . But you'll learn it if you got someone to teach you and enough time/fecals to learn. I can recommend this small book especially to owners who are interested in reptiles' parasites. It's a good summary of all common found parasites and has lots of pictures to compare with.

By the way, you can often already find coccidia, oxyures and some others in a native sample (just a drop of feces and a drop of saline solution smoothed out on a glass slide and put a cover slip on top). Fecal float is the next step to find more.