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tvpjournal.com | November/December 2015 | ToDay's VeTeriNary PracTice PracTical ParasiTology Peer reviewed 85 Veterinarians in practice often have numerous questions about how to address the parasites affecting their patients. To answer these questions, they often rely on the advice of experts. This series is intended to address parasite problems that veterinarians must manage in everyday practice. To initiate the series, i have compiled a short list of common questions that i receive from veterinarians in the practice trenches. Hopefully, my answers can address some questions before you have to ask them. 1. Should I perform fecal examinations, gross parasite diagnostics, heartworm tests, and tests for vector-borne diseases in the clinic or send them to an outside laboratory? The answer to this question depends on several factors: • Do you have the necessary equipment and supplies in place or are you willing to acquire them? • Do you have trained staff with the skills to perform the tests? • How often are you called upon to perform these tests and how many tests will be run? • Do you have convenient access to a reference or academic laboratory? • Do cost and turnaround time factor into your decision? reference and academic laboratories provide excellent parasitology resources for the practicing veterinarian. However, the conduct of in-clinic diagnostic testing is worthy of consideration. Equipment & Supplies The issue of equipment and supplies should not be of much concern. a quality microscope, centrifuge, and ancillary supplies are readily available. i often tell veterinarians that you can purchase a good microscope and centrifuge with needed accessories for less than several other pieces of in-clinic diagnostic equipment. They will likely last you a practice lifetime with little or no maintenance or repair. Training Staff interested and enthusiastic staff can learn the more common parasitology tests and procedures very quickly and can become very good at it. i have a staff member who oversees my daily diagnostics that, when frst hired, knew nothing about parasite diagnosis. she is now among the best in our feld. given the wet labs available at continuing education meetings and resources and counsel provided by academic laboratories and test manufacturers, training and experience are easily obtained. Most of us in academic laboratories are more than willing to offer training suggestions and resources to interested and enthusiastic staff members. Number of Tests regarding the number of tests performed, when staff are trained and the procedures are in place, the number of specimens to be processed is of less concern. once the decision is made to proceed with resident diagnostics, it is just a matter of time before the system is performing effciently. Reference Laboratories if you submit specimens to a reference or academic diagnostic laboratory, it is important to ask about procedures and tests that they use. some laboratories are running commercially available tests that you can purchase and your staff can perform. it is prudent to assure that the Practical Parasitology Common Questions that Veterinarians ask Parasitology exPerts Byron L. Blagburn, MS, PhD, Diplomate ACVM (Hon) Auburn University