How to do Fecal Testing on your own Reptiles

To start off, I bought-

Microscope  (on Amazon) ~$85 (free shipping)

From Beautiful Dragons:

a box of microscope cover slips  $8

a box of microscope slides $10

a 8 oz bottle of Fecasol $12

20 fecal testers $20

and the awesome Parasite ID Chart $8

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It costs about $1/test to run a fecal float test. That's WAY cheaper than $45 at my vet's office.

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Note #1- You can buy a microscope from Beautiful Dragons too but it's more expensive.

Note #2- You can probably buy cheaper supplies, but I like supporting Beautiful Dragons.

Note #3- You can also buy a lot of other awesome supplies from her store like meds to treat coccidia & pinworms, calcium supplements, syringes, food, etc. If you are into rescuing reptiles, then check out her store. Her prices are good and she's a quick shipper.

Fecal Testing

I've been checking a lot of poop lately and found a way to take a pic of the slide in my microscope.

The red is circled around pinworm eggs which tend to be green in color. The blue is circled around tiny, clear coccidia eggs.

Here again is another fecal test with a lot of green pinworm eggs (circled in green). Air bubbles are in yellow.

I bought all my fecal testing supplies online through BeautifulDragons.com  I bought my microscope on Amazon to save money. Each test (sample cup, Fecasol, glass slide, and glass cover) costs about $1 each and is well worth the money if you do a lot of rescues.

Fecal Testing

When I get a new beardie in, I don't test for parasites right away. A couple weeks of clean tanks and good food usually clear up any parasite infections on their own.

Lately it seems that all my guys are having stinky, runny poops so I've decided to run a test on everyone. 

I pick up the poop with the float kit and fill it full of a special liquid. Then it sits for 15 minutes with a slide cover on top. 

Then I put the slide cover, with the poopy liquid on it, onto a glass slide. 

Then I look at it under 400 X magnification with my microscope that I got on Amazon. 

Yesterday I tested Dex and have never seen so many pinworms in one test! No wonder her belly is bloated! Flame is being treated for coccidia. 

Then I have a list of treatment dates by the meds so I don't forget. 

If you're interested in doing fecal tests on your own, you can get all your supplies and instructions from 

www.beautifuldragons.com

Read about Do-It-Yourself Fecal Testing HERE