# Did my own fecal test *Pictures



## Horsefly (Sep 28, 2010)

At the request of Freemotion I am starting a new thread about doing my own fecal test.  I got the directions for doing my own fecal from the fiascofarms site here http://fiascofarm.com/goats/fecals.htm.  When I made my flotation solution I thought instead of adding epsom salt over the course of 24 hours I just heated the water and add all the salt it would hold... well that doesn't work out the same.  Aparently too much salt got disolved in the hot water and as the water cooled the salt seperated back out.  Anyway I didn't know this and did the test with my superduper saturated solution.
I had lots of salt crystals on my finished slide but found some of what I think are eggs.  I need to get a better solution and redo the fecal I think thought because I didn't get a count.  Here are some pictures of my slide.


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## ChksontheRun (Sep 28, 2010)

From my limited experience looking at human O and P slides, the first looks like an egg, the second looks like it could be a skin cell as the cell edges are not smooth and round.  Third also looks like it could be some parasite eggs.  I would love to hear what others more experienced think.


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## Beekissed (Sep 28, 2010)

Now....how in the world could you tell what kind of egg that is from that distance?  And how does one determine "load"?


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## Emmetts Dairy (Sep 29, 2010)

Personally, I would never be able to diagnose my animals like this.  I would have no clue what I was looking at?????  

But I guess its always fun doing science experiments!   

I bet a few things in the back of my fridge would have some fun stuff in it to look at under a microscope!!    

Good luck...nice tool to have if you understand microbiology!! Alot people run thier own test...I just have no clue...not my bag...I leave it to my vet..he loves those things!!!


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## patandchickens (Sep 29, 2010)

I have yet to get around to learning to do fecals (have microscopes; never quite get around to getting floatation chambers from vet ), but a significant part of my career as a biologist was spent in front of a microscope. The first and third pics are surely parasite eggs or coccidial cysts. The second photo is harder to interpret but I doubt it is of goat origin and in any case if you only see *one* of something lookin' like that then it obviously doesn't matter a whole lot 

That is the great thing about doing visual bacterial counts, or zooplankton/phytoplankton counts, or fecal floats -- almost invariably, what you care about is the big patterns (are there, overall, a whole big lotta <whatevers> there, or hardly any?) and what the most-common types are. There will often be oddballs that you can't ID or are just not confident about, but that is almost always perfectly okay and does not change what conclusions you draw 

Good pics btw!

Pat


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## glenolam (Sep 29, 2010)

And here I thought they were all from the same dish, just different views! 

That's why I, too, leave this part up to the vets!


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## freemotion (Sep 29, 2010)

With goats, leaving it up to the vets (it will be a tech doing it, most likely) is not an option for a lot of us.  It is amazingly easy to learn if you are persistant.  The only fancy equipment needed is the microscope, slides, and coverslips.  Everything else can be scrounged from what you have available.  I found small containers to do the floats on and never bought the "proper" items.  I just measured to see if they were the right size.  Works fine.  

So get out there and do your own fecals!


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## glenolam (Sep 29, 2010)

freemotion said:
			
		

> So get out there and do your own fecals!






Just kidding.....Gotta love you, free!


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## lilhill (Sep 29, 2010)

I agree, the first and third slide looks like Coccidia.  Have no clue about the second.  Looks a bit like Barberpole worm.


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