Faecal Egg Counts - Worth your time?

[@shanecroke7682]

Thanks very informative

[@patmcgowan442]

👍

[@jameschege2166]

thank you for all this information. am at carpri dorper in kenya

[@shropshirefarmvets2337]

You're welcome!

[@raymondwarrington9950]

Are you seeing more Haemonchus around this year than normal?

[@raymondwarrington9950]

Also after dosing is it possible to see dead haemonchus worms in the faecal. Found long dark squishy looking things this week

[@shropshirefarmvets2337]

@@raymondwarrington9950 yes we are, on account of two mild winters in succession. There will be a video on it! You may see haemonchus worms, they are visible with the naked eye and if you eyesight is good then you will be able to see the red stripey 'barbers pole' appearance without any magnification.

[@sheepdogman1]

We did a FEC which came back clear however the ewes were obviously carrying a worm burden we wormed them and they cleared up. The vet said that even though the samples were clear they were suffering. He said it would be down to sporadic egg releases

[@erikgrimley5519]

On DIY fec do you count all eggs in every square or count all eggs in one square then multiply by grid? Also is it a case of only counting certain types of eggs or most common or damaging for time of year

[@shropshirefarmvets2337]

@@erikgrimley5519 hi Eric, you would could all eggs in every square - I'll put a link to a site which explains it very well! In terms of distinguishing eggs, of all of the damaging worms that sheep have it's only nematodirus that you can reliably differentiate under the microscope, the others all look the same. But since those other species are all bad for the lamb, you can count them all together without needing to individually speciate them. Hope that makes sense! www.rvc.ac.uk/static/review/parasitology/EggCount/Calculation.htm