homemade faecal egg count slide

rick

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Just to prove that Marigold was right and I have got a screw loose I've made a worm egg count slide.
I was amazed at the £100 price tag on these and thought - a bit of glass and some work - easy!
Just to let you know I now think they're pretty reasonable for the effort!
Going to borrow a microscope from school and have a go
 
Interesting one this Rick. We have a microscope with magnification at three levels up to 300x. I've always found getting light to the plate difficult and wouldn't have a clue what to look for anyway!
 
Have a look at
http://www.rvc.ac.uk/review/Parasitology/EggCount/Principle.htm

Gold mine!
 
Rick, you never cease to amaze me.
I bet your classes are the kind your pupils will long remember.
And all the best teachers have a screw loose, it's essential to aid their lateral thinking and combat the dead hand of OFSTED.
Well done! I'm looking forward to your results.
 
Thanks Marigold. I'm married to a teacher.
Unfortunatly OCD = failing your exam due to disassembling your pen to its smallest parts :)
Need a few other things (beakers, pippette, suspension medium) but hope to try it out next week
 
Get yourself a cheap hydrometer from Wilkos to measure the SG of your solution too. I think it is great you have made your own Rick, for those of a less practical bent check out McMaster slide on eBay, they come in a lot cheaper than via uk retail outlets.
 
Well the school microscope was a non-starter as it is a old Russian stereoscope with only 8.25 magnification. I then ordered something cheap but suitable from Brunel but it was out of stock and discontinued. I cannot sing their praises enough because after discussing what it was for and what was most suitable they sent me a much better one for the same price and it arrived the next day!
My first attempt was an anticlimax as there were no worm eggs to be seen (I am about 3 months past worming due date so this seemed rather unlikely)
I suspect I was too aggressive with my stirring of the solution though because this morning I got a more credible result:

Ascaridia galli - 550 eggs/g
Capillaria - none

It's possible that I have misidentified Heterakis for Ascaridia but as I understand it so far Heterakis is a cecal worm so I will have a look at some cecal droppings next.
A Vet Times article from 2011 'Worm control in backyard poultry' gives reccomendations on maximum acceptable levels:

Ascaridia 5000
Heterakis 1000
Capillaria 0

So I am going to keep monitoring once a week and not worm just yet.

I got a hydrometer from Halfords dinosaw - It's the type with floating discs and I wasn't going to buy it at first but then noticed that the highest SG disk floated at exactly the reccomended value for salt/sugar solution of 1.26.
 
Bit confused about magnification required Rick. The article about eggs says 10x10. Does that convert to 100 times? What magnification are you viewing the eggs at and what microscope did you end up buying?
 
Hi Chris. The magnification is usually the product of the eyepiece (x10) and the objective (often x10, x40 or x100). So those would give magnifications of x100, x400 and x1000.)
X100 total is ideal because you can see the eggs well enough but also see a wide enough field to be sure your not missing any.
I ended up with the Brunel SP30. The SP27 was going to be fine (a big table and specimen driver so that you don't have to turn the McMaster slide round half way through the count, but you could, just less convenient) - but the 27 was out of stock as well! (so lucky! :)
 
Perfect it and you could set up a little sideline doing faecal counts Rick. Apparently you can view two columns at once with a x40 magnification but need to already be familiar with what the worms look like.
 
Thanks Rick. I've just found my old microscope which is perhaps 50 years old now. Called a 'sky bolt' it has a x100 magnification (and a x200 and x300). Problem is I have tried to focus on a pencil and it won't adjust up that far because it is designed to focus on glass slides and a pencil is as thick an object that will fit on the table. How thick is a McMaster slide and how deep is the point of focus, so where are the eggs relative to the base?
 
Well, I'm not sure. I made mine from 1.5mm glass in 3 layers (base, separators to form the 1.5mm chamber, and top) so 4.5mm in all and focusing on the underside of the top at 3mm. Commercial ones seem similar, maybe a little thinner for the top and base.
Are you sure the tube won't go any higher?

P.s. I'm a bit puzzled - x40 total has a couple of cm clearance from the slide and so there should be loads of room for focus. I've realised I was looking at the slide at x40 not x100. X40 is fine.

P.p.s. Thanks dinosaw. That's a good idea - might be a good way of making contact with local chicken keepers out there. I know they're there as I hear the hens (and the odd cockerel) but don't run into them.
 
Thanks Rick. I've put some slides onto my table and 4.5mm will fit and I can just focus on 3mm, but can't at 3.2mm.
 
Had a suprise result this morning. Ive been getting better at preparing the sample and results had settled on about 1200 Ascaridia eggs/gram and nothing else. I decided that if the count went above 2000 I would worm.
I have been collecting samples from the top perch because it's easier to get one that isnt full of bedding bits. That means it must be one of the youngsters. I collected one from the lower perch this morning which will be from one of the older sisters and found no ascaridia eggs but 2 cappallaria (100 e/g)
I had assumed, obviously wrongly, that they would all have roughly the same worms in the same quantities.
Flubenvet time I think!

...same result today. Immunity I guess is the only explanation. Maybe the cappallaria have come from earth worms at the allotment.
But it does make me think that a single sample sent off to a lab would be pretty hit and miss.

Oh, and 1 dog worm egg (yes, I'm looking at you Scooby!)
 
For those of us less keen on delving into chicken poo, or not in possession of the necessary equipment, there's a new article by Tim on Poultrykeeper about worm count kits for £15.

https://poultrykeeper.com/equipment-reviews/worm-count-kit/

I've just completely removed all the old Aubiose litter from my run, and cleaned the permeable membrane carefully, before replacing with 4" of clean Aubiose. The hens can't dig down into earth because of the membrane, so presumably any worm eggs have now gone with the old litter. My hens were thoroughly wormed with Flubenvet one month ago. I accept that I should have changed the litter at this point, but am now wondering when I should either do a worm count or use Flubenvet again?
 
From what I've seen Marigold one sample only may be misleading. If I was only sending one sample I think I would take it from several (at least 2) places/chickens and send no more than 5 grams total per count (4 grams needed) to be sure that it's representative.

I presume that somewhere between 3 and 6 months it would be impossible for worms to become a serious burden to an individual.
 
A couple of years ago, a student asked on here for poo samples to help with a project on chicken worms, and she subsequently sent me a report on the samples I supplied. I was able to send a separate sample from each of my hens as I had looked in the coop after dark and mapped out where each was perching, so then I could get a sample from a 'named' pile. At the time, the hens had last been wormed about 4 months previously, so some worms might have been expected but not too many. Actually the only bird who had any worms was Marigold, who had a few, all one type, can't remember which. I thought it was interesting that she should have developed the worms when the others apparently were immune.
I do wonder whether a deep litter, roofed run with no access to wild birds really helps prevent worm infestation, not only because the hens don't get to eat any earthworms or peck around in soil, but because they don't get wild bird droppings in the litter. And of course, the roof must be the reason why I've never encountered red mite either, as even if wild birds perch on the roof and shake their feathers, no mites can get in to the run or coop. Yes, free ranging on grass is lovely if you have enough space and proper grass, but they seem to do just as well in a large enough run, kept clean, and given grass or fresh greens every day.
 
Well done for getting named samples! I had wondered about trying and thought I could bring one hen in at a time and await production. It wouldn't make me popular though so I didn't do that.
I wouldn't mind doing the odd count for people, you could pm me an email and I'll send a post address. With some reservation - if several kg of guano started dropping through the letterbox each week that would defiantly get me in the doghouse!
 
Last update on this one I promise!
After a week of Flubenvet I noted roosting positions as Marigold had done and counted them all individually:

Only Ascaridia eggs found
Brownie 200
Blaze 150
Teabag 350
Aerial 150
Betty 0

No Capillaria now so that's a relief but it looks like my immunity theory is toast! Betty, bless her, is always the one dutifully tucking into crumble when the rest have got bored with it and are rooting around so maybe that's why she's done so well (not that there was anything else to have of course.)
Obviously Flubenvet has had a marked impact on the Ascaridia but not cleared it completely. Still, well within acceptable levels now so won't worm again this time.
 
Very interesting, Rick.
Any idea why Teabag has so many, compared with the others, and also, can you explain what might be considered low, medium or high worm numbers?
Is there any agreed level of infection which would necessitate worming?
 
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