Can anyone positively ID these parasites?
- Thread starter luckykarma
- Start date
MesophillicChik
New Member
Just curious: is this a fecal smear or blood sample?
I do not see any of the characteristic flagella of flagellates, not even inside if this were the cystic stage. I am very curious about it though, so do keep us posted.
I will keep looking also.
I do not see any of the characteristic flagella of flagellates, not even inside if this were the cystic stage. I am very curious about it though, so do keep us posted.
I will keep looking also.
luckykarma
New Member
This is from a fecal float. A vet I forwarded it to thought it may be just urate crystals. I have to double check with Dave if they were swimming around or stagnate. Its odd as the animal is coming off a lot of parasite meds and was perfectly clean a week ago.
A few days ago he started having a second movement in the afternoon which was running and smelled. This went on for two days. This morning his feces were runny and had an odor.
A few days ago he started having a second movement in the afternoon which was running and smelled. This went on for two days. This morning his feces were runny and had an odor.
MesophillicChik
New Member
Any other symptoms? If they weren't moving, I'm not totally convinced that they are parasites, but anything is possible!
Runny, smelly poo can come from many different problems due to the digestive system. Many parasite treatments are NOT specific to any one bacteria or other microbes. Often it is similar to something like a "colon cleanse" and just wipes everything out. It's important to monitor (like you're doing) for a few days to ensure that the regular intestinal microflora can resume its lovely existence in the GI tract. I would venture to say that if the cells can not be identified, that the runny poo may be the result of a stressed and very "clean" set of intestines.
Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure of a treatment in chameleons for inducing pre- and probiotic growth.
Let me know if the little buggers were swimming or just hanging out. And when your vet gets back to you, let us know about that too!
Good luck!
Runny, smelly poo can come from many different problems due to the digestive system. Many parasite treatments are NOT specific to any one bacteria or other microbes. Often it is similar to something like a "colon cleanse" and just wipes everything out. It's important to monitor (like you're doing) for a few days to ensure that the regular intestinal microflora can resume its lovely existence in the GI tract. I would venture to say that if the cells can not be identified, that the runny poo may be the result of a stressed and very "clean" set of intestines.
Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure of a treatment in chameleons for inducing pre- and probiotic growth.
Let me know if the little buggers were swimming or just hanging out. And when your vet gets back to you, let us know about that too!
Good luck!
luckykarma
New Member
Out of concern I did hit him with a dose of Flagyl this morning. I'll stop that and see what happens. Do another fecal next week.
Dave told me just now he's "never" seen anything swim around and he's done probably a hundred slides and floats. Maybe the feces aren't fresh enough? Or is there some trick we don't know of?
I do know vets always want to see the feces asap within a couple hours max. and these tests have been done on samples that were well past that. Sometimes 5-10 hours.
Dave told me just now he's "never" seen anything swim around and he's done probably a hundred slides and floats. Maybe the feces aren't fresh enough? Or is there some trick we don't know of?
I do know vets always want to see the feces asap within a couple hours max. and these tests have been done on samples that were well past that. Sometimes 5-10 hours.
MWheelock
Veterinarian
Just curious, what magnification are you at? Is this a sugar float or zinc sulfate centrifugation?
I'm not sure this is actually a parasite, though I am no parasitologist. The first picture particularly shows different sizes of the item in question. Like fat droplets, if something that is lipophilic placed in water will form perfectly round systems. This could be just artifactual based on food or medicine in the gastrointestinal system.
Matthew
I'm not sure this is actually a parasite, though I am no parasitologist. The first picture particularly shows different sizes of the item in question. Like fat droplets, if something that is lipophilic placed in water will form perfectly round systems. This could be just artifactual based on food or medicine in the gastrointestinal system.
Matthew
Dave Weldon
Avid Member
Howdy Matthew,
If I recall correctly, the photos were at 100x, 400x, 100x. The first shots were direct smears with a dash of water added to the slide. The last photo was a fecal float using the generic "Fecasol" sodium nitrate solution. It seems to float'm like a beach balls in a bathtub
.Most obvious in the 3rd photo, there are lots of oil-like droplets that, as you said, probably come from a feeder food source like silkworms or superworms etc. The things in the photos that we were concerned about were the little parasite-like(???) objects most distinguishable in the first photo. One website had a photo described as flagellates that was a pretty good match-up to our photo, while Klingenberg's book photo of flagellates didn't look anything like them...
.I think the keeper's decision right now is to wait for another couple of sample tests to see if the numbers go up or down.
