Here is our recommendations for microscope and materials for doing fecals in your own lab or home:
Microscope from Amscope. Model M200-P Magification of 40x, 100x, and 400x. digital camera (640x480resolution) works with computer. Add the optional mechanical slide control. Here are the links
Amscope Homepage http://www.amscope.com/DigitalHP.html
Microscope we recommend: http://store.amscope.com/m200-usb.html
Mechanical slide: http://store.amscope.com/msa.html
Feca-med solution for fecal tests: http://www.petsupplies4less.com/sbsite.php?search_query=feca-med
Slides and coverslips: You can get these on Ebay of course but here is a website that sells both the slides and coverslips, and also the vials for doing the fecal floats.
Slides: http://www.onlinesciencemall.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1920519/vpcsid/0/SFV/30852
3.5 dram vials This is much cheaper and just as effective as a fecalyzer vial that the vet uses:
http://www.onlinesciencemall.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1787189/vpcsid/0/SFV/30852
The best book I know of to learn about parasites is "Understanding Reptile Parasites" by Roger Klingenberg, DVM. It is available on beanfarm at http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=1745342.13760&p_id=12158&xm=on or maybe Amazon.
They also sell a plastic covered chart for helping to identify the parasites
http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=1745342.13760&p_id=12162&xm=on
You also need toothpicks for stirring the poop in the fecamed, vinyl gloves, and disinfecting wipes for cleaning up around your work and microscope.
Here is the guidelines for doing fecal tests for parasites.
This is the float method.
1. Put on your vinyl gloves.
2. Collect a fresh specimen for testing, about the size of a raisin, and put it into the 3.5 dram plastic vial
3. Label the lid of the vial with the name of the animal if you are doing more than one sample.
4. Put the vial on your work surface with a paper towel or tissue underneath to catch the spills.
5. Fill the vial up half way with fecamed.
6. Smash up the specimen in the fecamed solution until it is all broken up and suspended in the solution.
7. Now fill up the vial until the liquid is a bit higher than the rim and if you put any more in it would overflow.
8. Place a coverslip, which is the little very thin piece of glass that come with the slide, right on top of the vial.
9. Some of the solution will overflow now if you had enough in the vial for it to work. You have to have direct contact between the coverslip and the liquid.
10. Allow this to sit for a minimum of 10 minutes for the parasites to float to the surface and they will collect on the underside of the coverslip.
11. Now pick the coverslip up and very quickly put it down onto the glass slide, with the wet side down. This is tricky because if you have a chunk of cricket shell or a leg part it will be too big between the two glasses to allow you accurately see what is in the liquid. So you can kind of scrape the larger pieces off the edge of the slide without losing all the liquid. The parasites will be in the liquid if there are any. There will always be chucks of unidentified floating debris and you can smash down the coverslip to crush some stuff. But the big chunky stuff won’t smash so you try to keep it out.
12. Now you place the slide in the microscope and begin to focus and look for parasites. Check what you suspect may be a parasite against the chart in Dr. K’s book or his parasite id chart.
13. You will basically work at 100x magnification all the time. You only go to 400x if you find a parasite and want to closely examine it to identify it correctly. Some coccidia is clearer at 400x. But once you get experienced with this, you can spot them right off and know what kind they are without going to 400x. Some parasites are only visible at 1000x with special stains like crypto but we are not testing for that with this method.
14. The other method of doing fecal tests is a smear. You just take some fresh material, just a tiny bit and put it on the slide. Mix it with some distilled water using a toothpick and apply a dry coverslip. This way the parasites are alive. You can also use a drop of Lugol’s iodine (hard to find) or merthiolate (any drug store) to stain the parasites and make them more visible. But of course the stains kill the parasite.
15. If you find parasites, shoot a picture with your digital microscope for the record.
16. To be thorough, check a lot of the slide, not just a view or two.
17. Keep a record of how many parasites you see per VIEW. Not per slide. Use a range. Like <1/100x means one parasite but not in every view as you move around the slide. 5-10/100x means you see between 5 and 10 per view at 100x magnification.
18. Discard the slide and slip, clean everything with disinfecting wipes and be sure to scrub your hands!
Microscope from Amscope. Model M200-P Magification of 40x, 100x, and 400x. digital camera (640x480resolution) works with computer. Add the optional mechanical slide control. Here are the links
Amscope Homepage http://www.amscope.com/DigitalHP.html
Microscope we recommend: http://store.amscope.com/m200-usb.html
Mechanical slide: http://store.amscope.com/msa.html
Feca-med solution for fecal tests: http://www.petsupplies4less.com/sbsite.php?search_query=feca-med
Slides and coverslips: You can get these on Ebay of course but here is a website that sells both the slides and coverslips, and also the vials for doing the fecal floats.
Slides: http://www.onlinesciencemall.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1920519/vpcsid/0/SFV/30852
3.5 dram vials This is much cheaper and just as effective as a fecalyzer vial that the vet uses:
http://www.onlinesciencemall.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1787189/vpcsid/0/SFV/30852
The best book I know of to learn about parasites is "Understanding Reptile Parasites" by Roger Klingenberg, DVM. It is available on beanfarm at http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=1745342.13760&p_id=12158&xm=on or maybe Amazon.
They also sell a plastic covered chart for helping to identify the parasites
http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=1745342.13760&p_id=12162&xm=on
You also need toothpicks for stirring the poop in the fecamed, vinyl gloves, and disinfecting wipes for cleaning up around your work and microscope.
Here is the guidelines for doing fecal tests for parasites.
This is the float method.
1. Put on your vinyl gloves.
2. Collect a fresh specimen for testing, about the size of a raisin, and put it into the 3.5 dram plastic vial
3. Label the lid of the vial with the name of the animal if you are doing more than one sample.
4. Put the vial on your work surface with a paper towel or tissue underneath to catch the spills.
5. Fill the vial up half way with fecamed.
6. Smash up the specimen in the fecamed solution until it is all broken up and suspended in the solution.
7. Now fill up the vial until the liquid is a bit higher than the rim and if you put any more in it would overflow.
8. Place a coverslip, which is the little very thin piece of glass that come with the slide, right on top of the vial.
9. Some of the solution will overflow now if you had enough in the vial for it to work. You have to have direct contact between the coverslip and the liquid.
10. Allow this to sit for a minimum of 10 minutes for the parasites to float to the surface and they will collect on the underside of the coverslip.
11. Now pick the coverslip up and very quickly put it down onto the glass slide, with the wet side down. This is tricky because if you have a chunk of cricket shell or a leg part it will be too big between the two glasses to allow you accurately see what is in the liquid. So you can kind of scrape the larger pieces off the edge of the slide without losing all the liquid. The parasites will be in the liquid if there are any. There will always be chucks of unidentified floating debris and you can smash down the coverslip to crush some stuff. But the big chunky stuff won’t smash so you try to keep it out.
12. Now you place the slide in the microscope and begin to focus and look for parasites. Check what you suspect may be a parasite against the chart in Dr. K’s book or his parasite id chart.
13. You will basically work at 100x magnification all the time. You only go to 400x if you find a parasite and want to closely examine it to identify it correctly. Some coccidia is clearer at 400x. But once you get experienced with this, you can spot them right off and know what kind they are without going to 400x. Some parasites are only visible at 1000x with special stains like crypto but we are not testing for that with this method.
14. The other method of doing fecal tests is a smear. You just take some fresh material, just a tiny bit and put it on the slide. Mix it with some distilled water using a toothpick and apply a dry coverslip. This way the parasites are alive. You can also use a drop of Lugol’s iodine (hard to find) or merthiolate (any drug store) to stain the parasites and make them more visible. But of course the stains kill the parasite.
15. If you find parasites, shoot a picture with your digital microscope for the record.
16. To be thorough, check a lot of the slide, not just a view or two.
17. Keep a record of how many parasites you see per VIEW. Not per slide. Use a range. Like <1/100x means one parasite but not in every view as you move around the slide. 5-10/100x means you see between 5 and 10 per view at 100x magnification.
18. Discard the slide and slip, clean everything with disinfecting wipes and be sure to scrub your hands!