i did the fiasco farms fecal float test. I have pics but honestly i didnt think it would be so hard. I have a year old goat with scours - not bad but enough. almost lost her to barber pole worms this summer. can anyone help me. we homeschool & biology microscope is wonderful. i still have no clue what im looking at. Any help would be appreciated.
I am nowhere near an expert, but have done fecals since last summer. From what I see, there are no parasite eggs in your pictures. When eggs show up, they are really obvious. This is a good chart:
This was my first egg I saw on a fecal slide (Nematodirus): This was the second one (Barber Pole), the egg shaped one. The circles are air bubbles.
I see lots of air bubbles. You may need a higher magnification? I know there are several here who dontheir own fecals. I studied the eggs but have not done many of my own.
Thank you for your response. Im going to do it again tomorrow with a better solution. I know the microscope is for sure strong enough..I just dont know what Im doing I guess. Im trying to learn. I know this little goat is still having an issue. Maybe her rumen got off and is getting back on track but I lost her sister to barber pole early summer 2020 & I almost lost her. I am trying to do what I can. After 15 years of goats Im still learning!
Man that's a great chart! I'll be copying that to my file. @Wendy Simmons I would recommend a McMaster slide for doing a fecal. You can get them pretty cheaply at amazon. They help you to be able to count the eggs easily. Also, if you are feeling like doing fecals is challenging and you don't quite have the technique down, this video really helped me to understand how it's done. There's even an identification section at the end.
I definitely did a better job today & I think my floating solution was much better. I definitely found 1 Coccidia egg. I think I found tapeworms but otherwise nothing else. So her dewormer needs to be tailored to fight the tapeworm if that is truly a tapeworm. I know she probably had too much grain so Ive been backing them all off of it for a week or so to straight hay and make sure all poops are pellets. All of my goats pass the eyelid test for worm load ...nice & pink eyelids & gums with Shiny thick coats for winter. This little doe just makes me nervous.
The first one is an egg (not sure which parasite), the other things look like plant matter to my brain.
What magnification is that egg in the first picture under? One coccidia egg really isn't much to be concerned about, but if you aren't doing the McMaster method, I'm not sure how EPG is calculated.
honestly I have no clue about the magnification. it was the 40/0.65 lens & also says 160/0.17. then the rotating light holes disc (i have no clue what it is called) under the slide holder was on 1 which seems to be directing the light to make it better viewing . (this is a $200 microscope we used with homeschooling - well we were suppose to. lol.) So I don’t think she has tons of wormload. I am going to get the McMaster slides & continue to learn. Thanks for your help!
I believe that's your 40x lens. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but doing a quick google makes me think that's probably the case. That's very zoomed in. I only use a 10x lens and that's really all you need. You'll probably find the using a McMaster slide easier.