I would like to do my own fecal analysis for my sheep. Its too expensive to keep taking samples to the vet to see what our current parasites are.What kind of microscope do I need and are there any good books out there to help me learn all this?

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), October 06, 2000

Answers

Kate, saanendoah.com has some great information on doing your own fecals, also some great pictures by Karin Christensen on what you are looking at. The equipment is very simple, a microscope, and though I purchased a nice one through a pawn shop here in Houston near a teaching hospital, most of the 4H kids who do fecals use the one from Toy-R-Us. The microscope must have its own light source, no reflector types. The kit microscope from Toys'R'Us also has the sodium salt solution (which I just make up in a bucket with stock salt and warm water, you add salt to the bucket till no more is absorbed) you can purchase you McMasters slide from any vet, they are very inexpensive and the only other things you need are, long tweezers to pick up the freshly dropped poop, baggies to put them in, a test tube to put the poop into and something to stir/crush the salt water solution and poop in the test tube, and an eye dropper to move the water/poop solution from the test tube to the slide. You may want to join Goat and Sheep Rancher over at Egroups, I know that Janice who frequents their does her own slides also and just purchased a new parisite book. I know I have said this before, but when you do start doing your own fecals for worms and cocci, you will begin to see just how much erronous information there is out there, mostly alot of guessing, it will also save you an incredible amount of money, my microscope has been paid for many times by not having to worm the whole herd!

http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/images.html

Another site I have used recently. Vicki

Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 06, 2000.