Fecal tests/parasites

[chas*e]

If in doubt.."panacur"..them out..!!!.....Even after applications of an anti-parasitic like Panacur one could take the sample, if you do not have the tools to check the feces yourself, to a Vet and let him inspect the sample....

[fr0glet]

Originally posted by Alicewave
Froglet:
Crypto is a whole other story. Regular fecals don't test for it. Most vets charge around $100 american for a crypto test. I never bother with that unless there are signs of crypto.

Alicewave, that is very interesting to read. My herp vet is somewhat underexperienced but I have had good service from them anyway and I keep bringing them herps to practice on. They're my only option in this small town. I have a rescued corn snake displaying symptoms of cypto (regurgitating on a semi-regular basis for a year, very skinny) and I have had 2 clean fecals for her. I have been saving up the $$ for a gastric lavage and they are estimating a price of $30 for the service, I was hoping they could ID crypto from that? Any further comments on the crypto test you were referring to?

<p>Panacur is also available at most seed&feed stores, sold in large tubes for horses. My doseage guides quote 50mg/kg. <a href="http://www.leaplizard.com/articles/dosage.html" target="_new">Here's a good article on doseage.</a></p>

[Alicewave]

I'm not exactly sure what the difference is or why a crypto test is so much more expensive. I know it's not detectable in a float so it's another method they use but I don't know what it's called. Another ssnakess member told me once but I forgot. Good luck with your snake.

[eyespy]

Alicewave, it's not exactly true that crypto is only detectable with expensive testing. Crypto is one of the coccidians and you CAN see oocysts in a fecal float and diagnose it that way. However, any of the microscopic parasites are tough to get accurate samples in a float. Affected animals don't always shed the oocysts in their feces, sometimes the colony is high up in the small intestines and the oocysts don't make it downstream. Other times the fecal float isn't mixed well enough (you really need to beat the crap out of that crap!) and the oocysts stay on the bottom of the vial instead of floating up to the top of the prep solution where they can make it to the microscope slide.

A fecal float that is positive for crypto from a microscope slide is considered definitive and no expensive testing needs to be done, but a "none seen" result is not considered diagnostic. So vets do a gastric or epigastric lavage to flush out the entire digestive tract if they have a strong enough suspicion that the animal has been colonized by crypto, and analyze the effluent for parasites. That is an invasive procedure and therefore rather expensive.

Also, lots of vets went to school back before they first started quantifying the various coccidial strains in the mid-1990s. If they see oocysts on a slide they diagnose coccidia, which is accurate, as crypto is one of the coccidians, they just don't have the tools to take it to the next level and diagnose which coccidian is in the slide. So a lot of the coccidia that is diagnosed may be crypto. If treatment with Albon or other sulfa drugs is ineffective, they often send the original slides to a lab for molecular testing to get a fully accurate quantification as to which coccidia you are dealing with, and that can cost around $600-900 USD.

[Sunrunner]

OK where do you get these meds from from your vet? I seen the panacur but what about the others? I ask because what if you have several different species and types of reptiles to take them all to the vet would be astronomical in price.

[Alicewave]

Eyespy you said a mouthful! (Most of which is over my head)
All I know is what I have been told from three different reptile vets that I have been to, it's a different type of test that needs to be done to find crypto, still with a fecal sample but it's treated differently. I don't know all the facts but then I never requested a crypto test because I never had an animal with symptoms. from what I have heard this test is not that much more difficult than a regular fecal, so I'm not really sure why it costs so darn much. Remeber, I am in the states so things may be completely different here.

[eyespy]

I'm in the states too, Alicewave. Unfortunately I've learned more about crypto than I ever wanted to because I was helping folks who got bearded dragons from a large reptile ranch in Central America get accurate diagnoses and treatment for the multiple parasites they got stuck with last summer. It was a nightmare!

Fortunately there were very few Canadians who had to deal with this. Although Toronto did get a few shipments of animals from that ranch there weren't any confirmed crypto cases reported, just other nasty parasites that were resistant to treatment. Canada was also smart enough not to allow that ranch to give live beardies as contest prizes to its citizens which saved them a lot of hassles.