Supplies you'll need:

• A good microscope - one that has a 40x lens is bare minimum. In this document, I'll be referring to the 40x lens as the "high dry" and the 10x lens as the "medium" lens. I hope this doesn't cause any confusion.
• Flotation Media - Most clinics use Fecasol which is a Sodium Nitrate mixture. The purpose of this solution is to make the ova float to the top of the container and the "junk" to float to the bottom. Any commercial float media will do.
• Saline Solution - 0.9% saline is ideal. Common saline you would use in your eyes works fine.
• Timer - the one you use for cooking is fine
• Slides and Cover Slips
• Lugol's Solution a.k.a. "strong iodine" - helpful but not absolutely necessary - "tincture of iodine" is not concentrated enough for our needs. A 1 oz bottle will likely last you for several years as you will only use a drop or two at a time. You may have to go to a chemical supply house for it as I am unsure if you can find it in a pharmacy. In my clinic, we have a 750mL bottle of it that is probably older than I am.
• A small cylindrical container about the width of a microscope slide - a small pill bottle is ideal.

Now, go and collect a sample that is as fresh as possible. The low humidity environment Beardies live in is hard on flagellates and will dry them up pretty quickly. Retrieve your sample from the middle of the poop as this will be the least dried out. I'd take about a cubic centimeter or so (1/4") of material.

From here, I'm going to explain how I suggest you folks do it, not necessarily how I do it. The difference is that the fecal float has a time limit before it goes bad. I set up the direct, glance at it through the scope to make sure I have the correct amount of sample, then set up the float. I then read the direct while the float is "cooking". By the time my timer goes off, I'm finished with my direct and ready to read the float. Most of you will take a while to read your direct smears so, I would advise you finish the direct before setting up the float.

Direct Smear Procedure- Take out a slide and place 1 drop of saline on it. Then take a tiny bit of the sample and mix it in with the saline. When I say tiny, I mean it... Less than 1 cubic millimeter. You'll have to practice to get the mix just right. You want enough sample on the slide to make the read valid but not so much that the sample becomes opaque. Place a cover slip over the sample.

Take your slide and place it on the scope. Start with the lowest power and focus the image. Then go up lens by lens, focusing each time, until you get to the 40x, or "high dry" lens. Start your scanning at one corner of the cover slip and move in a methodical way to scan the entire slide.

The above diagram shows how I scan. I start at the "s" and read until I reach the edge of the cover slip then go up just a bit, slightly overlapping my last field and go back the way I came. I continue this process until I've scanned the entire slide.

Remember this is a three dimensional "world" you are looking at. Move the focus up and down as you scan so you see all depths. If you are scanning at one level all the time, you will likely miss something. The main thing to look for in a direct smear is movement. You may see ova but the float will concentrate them making the ova much more visible there than on the direct. Note them, but the primary focus of a direct is to look for flagellates. If you see something moving, stop. Some of these guys move pretty quick so be alert.

If you see something moving, focus your scope in on him. He'll likely keep moving so stay with him! Note how he swims and movement around him. You can tell how many flagella (if any) he has and their location by the movement created when he swims. Also look for anything else on his edges. Some have pseudopods they use for swimming, others have a "sail" that undulates. Many have a combination of the above. A flagellated protozoan will usually swim relatively straight while amoeboid organisms often swim rather randomly. Giardia absolutely zooms across the field... they're the speed demons of parasitology.

Identification is difficult, if not impossible, when they won't sit still. Yell all you want but, they won't listen to you. I'm sorry but, you'll have to kill 'em. To do this, take the iodine and place a small drop just on the outside edge of the cover slip. Capillary action will draw the iodine across the slip and kill everything. Now you can grab your reference book and see if you can identify the lil' bugger. The flagella will now be nearly invisible which is why its important to watch him closely while he swims.

Now, here are a couple of tips. Giardia looks like a flounder. He is rounded on one end and tapered on the other. He also has two "eyes". These are actually the suckers he uses to attach to the intestinal wall. Trichomonas will have a strange rippling around him usually on one edge. This is his "sail" he uses to get around. He also has flagella. The best way to describe this rippling is to think about how a flag moves in the breeze. Identifying the specific genus and species if fun and challenging but not necessary. The treatment for flagellates is the same, regardless of the parasite's specific species.

Now it is time to do the float. Take your remaining sample and place it in the pill bottle. Fill the bottle about half way up with your fecal float solution. Take a stick and mix it thoroughly. Break up all the big chunks until you get a good consistency. Don't be too picky as you DO have a time limit. Fill the bottle the rest of the way up with float solution to where it is just about to overflow. If you did it right, when you put the slide on top it will spill just a bit. Put a slide on the bottle and wait for 8-10 minutes. I wouldn't wait any longer than 15 as the float solution is a salt and it will draw the water out of the ova (eggs) causing them to crenate (implode).

After 10 minutes, gently lift the slide straight up, keeping it parallel to the ground. There will be a drop of solution stuck to the underside of the slide. Gently but quickly turn over the slide and place a cover slip on the sample. Place the slide on the scope and read at 10x. Keep your light level relatively low as you want a good contrast. Scan the slide as described above. What you are looking for now is regular shapes. Debris is randomly shaped and doesn't generally have distinct edges. You will eventually learn to scan a slide like you scan the page of a book looking for a certain word. If you relax your eyes you'll be able to go quickly and still not miss anything. If you see something suspicious, stop and investigate. Grab your book and start attempting to identify it.

Here are some tips for identification.

• Ascarids are huge, very round and have a very large, dark nucleus.
• Hooks have a thin shell and are oval-shaped. Their nucleus looks a lot like a cluster of grapes.
• Tapes look a lot like hooks at first but their shell is not as uniform and the nuclei have a slight prismatic effect.
• Coccidia resembles an ascarid but is, at most, 1/4 the size. The nucleus is much smaller in relation to the shell as well. Think of how a fried egg looks and that's about the right ratio.
• Pinworms have a shape that is somewhere between an oval and a banana. The nucleus is very dark and takes up most of the area inside the egg.

Now, here are a few that may mess with your heads but they are harmless - welcome to the world of pseudoparasites.

• Air bubbles - they have a very thick "shell" and will be spherical. They have no nucleus.
• Yeast - looks tiny and will be oblong. You will rarely see yeast in a float but may see it in a direct smear. In herps, it is harmless. In avians, it is a pathogen.
• Crystals - if you see crystals, likely they are either urate crystals (from the urine) or crystals from the float media.
• Mites - they look like tiny ticks - you will often see these when feeding a pelleted food - unless it is moving, don't worry. If it is moving, identify him. It may be a problem. Sometimes skin mites are seen in fecal examinations but more often than not it will be a harmless mite living on the veggies.
• Pollen - this is the most common thing to misidentify as an ova. Unfortunately there are so many pollens I can't give you a good rule of thumb here except that many of them have a spiky appearance. You will likely only see this in the spring and early summer. Look at it very carefully and check your photos. As they are usually opaque, a nucleus will likely not be noted.
• Tiny pinworm eggs - you may see a very tiny pinworm egg, often less than 1/10th the size you are used to seeing. This is harmless. It IS a pinworm egg but it is of a species that will only infest insects. It is harmless to your Beardie.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact the author or Herps & Habitats.

© 2002, by Ed Barnes, RVT.

Reprinted here by the kind permission of the author.

Note: Please be aware that neither the author nor I endorse medicating or diagnosing your own lizards. All beardies should have regular check-ups and preventative medicines prescibed by a vet. This page is simply provided for your enrichment, detailing the processes that are entailed when your vet begins talking about conducting fecal floats and smears.