Fecal Egg Counts

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Video Summary

The above video and the accompanying PDF (available below) covers the procedures for doing at home fecal egg counts (FEC) for goats and sheep using the McMaster flotation technique.

A fecal egg count involves taking a sample of your animal’s poop and looking at it under a microscope to count how many parasite eggs are in the sample. Egg types you’ll identify include Strongylid eggs (Haemonchus - Barber Pole Worm), Coccidia, and Tapeworm eggs.

The egg counts give you a rough idea of your goat or sheep’s overall parasite load so you know when/if you need to give them deworming medication and to ensure that the medication you are giving them is effectively reducing their parasite load.

You can get all the supplies you need for at home fecal tests for about $120, including the microscope. If you can find a used microscope, you could probably cut this cost in half.

Alternatively, you can send samples to a lab to be tested for about $20 a test, but if you have multiple goats and want to test multiple times a year, you can quickly see how the investment in doing at home tests pays off in the long run.