Any Cheap Fecal Tests In The California Bay Area???

[GabeCastro]

The past 2-3 days my panther chameleon's fecal has been a bit out of the norm. His stool is dark, but it's broken into 3 pieces. It almost resembles small rabbit poops but still intact inside the clear liquidy film. They're really moist and dark, I would show you guys but i just smashed it up to examine because i noticed it smells a bit "swampy".

Also I popped a cricket in my hand and he smelled a bit swampy aswell. The crickets i'm using are a bit black and really squishy, so i decided to toss all of them. Is my chameleons fecal smelly because of the crickets? I've read smelly fecal usually indicates parasites so i'm stressing over getting a fecal test done asap.

His urate is really white, no signs of dehydration just other than today his eyes look a bit sunken in. He drank allot of water yesterday so i don't see the problem. Everything in his cage looks fine, i've even had several people go over my set up and it checks out good. Also he's just sitting directly infront of the water dripper. At one point it was dripping on his nose but he wasn't drinking. But my cham looks extremely healthy though so i'm hoping it's just from the batch of crickets i had.

I just went on google and searched for some veterinarians in the bay area to get a fecal test. Allot of places don't look at exotic reptiles in my area, and the places who do charge anywhere from $90-$180 bucks. Would you guys know any other places around my area that are cheaper? Also if i spend close to $200 bucks i might as well buy a nice microscope that takes pics of the slides and have others look at the fecal samples, if thats possible.

I live in Alameda/Oakland area, hopefully some bay area members can help me out. I'm a broke art college student so i'm really trying to budget this fecal test in right now.

Thanks.

 

[GabeCastro]

Any Web Links?

Any links i could get to search for reptile vets in my area?

Anything would help.

 

[Alexl]

Isn't there an opportunity to ask the non-reptile vets around about some labors which you can send samples to? Over here, we got some labors who do exotic pet stuff sent by vets as well as by owners (somewhat about 15 €/20 $ including dispatch). Can't imagine only a fecal being so expensive. Medication is another issue, but just getting the result shoudln't be a big problem. Other idea, what about calling reptile vets further away for a fecal? You could send the fecal via post (needs to be packed careful and waterproof with a little drop of water to keep it moisture), I just don't know wheter your post offices allow you to do so or not. It's usual for our specialized vets and labors to get samples from keepers who don't have a reptile vet next door.

And by the way... you won't get a real good quality microscope for 200 $ . Plus you would need a bit experience to evaluate a fecal, too. It's often not that easy people might think it is.

 

[GabeCastro]

Isn't there an opportunity to ask the non-reptile vets around about some labors which you can send samples to? Over here, we got some labors who do exotic pet stuff sent by vets as well as by owners (somewhat about 15 €/20 $ including dispatch). Can't imagine only a fecal being so expensive. Medication is another issue, but just getting the result shoudln't be a big problem. Other idea, what about calling reptile vets further away for a fecal? You could send the fecal via post (needs to be packed careful and waterproof with a little drop of water to keep it moisture), I just don't know wheter your post offices allow you to do so or not. It's usual for our specialized vets and labors to get samples from keepers who don't have a reptile vet next door.

And by the way... you won't get a real good quality microscope for 200 $ . Plus you would need a bit experience to evaluate a fecal, too. It's often not that easy people might think it is.

haha i was just ranting about the microscope, there is no way i'd be able to do such a thing haha.

As for the fecal test, yes it ranged from cheapest $80 to $180. The place that told me $180 was waiting for me to give them a appointment while the $80 was telling me how sorry they are for having expensive fecal tests lol...Go figure.

As for shipping, i know it would cost about $30-50 bucks to over night him, then i'd have to pay to ship him back.

My cham seems fine now, just switched to Large crickets and he devoured 5. Also threw in a few wax worms for a surprise.

But i'd really like a fecal test just to get the stress out the way. If anything i'll go ahead and spend the $80 bucks. I've just been reading around and people spend $40 bucks for a test w/ meds.