Chicken just ate two .22 shell casings

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misdaisi

misdaisi

In the Brooder
7 Years
Mar 18, 2012
14
0
24
Rock Co, WI
Help. While we were in the backyard watching the girls wander around the yard, one of my buff Orpingtons scarfed down two .22 shell casings she found. I couldn't get to her fast enough. Tried holding her at an angle and massaging her crop, but no luck. Will this pass, or is she just going to get sick? She is 5 months old. Absolutely bummed and worried. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
If it won't come back out the top, it will have to go out the bottom. Was it a short round I hope?
My biggest concern would be metal poisoning, and any residue on it could also be bad.
Try to give her a higher than normal fiber diet to pass it quickly thru her system.
I don't think I ever recommended Metamucil for a chicken, but it may help this time.
It will bulk up like a gel, and also cushion her digestive lining from any sharp edges.
I would also recommend a can of whole kernel corn. It's like crack to them, she will prbably eat the whole can if allowed.
Plus it is high in fiber. Hopefully she will pig out, and poop it out.
Good luck on this one, I don't think this is gonna be easy.

Do you have access to get her x-rayed?
It will take a few shots to see if there is any progress thru her system, but you can monitor where it is and if it is moving.
 
Thanks for the info. Been looking through my chicken books, trying to figure the best course of action. Will try the whole kernel corn in the am, and have a couple of those greasy "chick sticks" that they were crazy about a few months ago. Have a friend who is a vet; might be taking all of my girls in tomorrow, in case someone else picked up some brass.

No more target shooting in the backyard for the hubby.
 
And please, try to pick up all the other casings. These birds will eat anything that looks yummy to them.
Let us know how it goes.
 
At midnight Sunday night, took 3 cans of corn out to try to move things along, but no luck. Five of the girls went to the vet the next morning for x-rays. One girl had eaten two shell casings and they showed up in the gizzard. She got a tube feeding mixture of wet cat food and mineral oil, but when I dug through the poo this morning after work, no results. What is the transit time from beak to vent? On the up side, I have the coolest x-ray of her first egg, on its way down the chute. Still not giving up, but kind of worried and bummed.

And we did pick up the casings. My husband feels so badly about it, he bought a metal detector.
 

The gizzard grinds up food and it passes out from there.
I really do not know if it will stay in there until it is broken down, or if will pass through just because everything else keeps moving.
I hope things go well.

I am glad you can afford to do these things. I love the metal detector.
Who would have thought chickens can cost us so much?
 
Last edited:
After several days of digging through oily chicken poo (she was kept in a horse stall w/ a stall mat to make it easy to see what was passed), no shells came out. She acts fine, actually laid a second egg, and eats like a champ. My vet friend is concerned about zinc toxicity (brass is a mixture of copper and zinc), but right now she is asymptomatic. I guess the plan is to watch, wait, and pick up ANYTHING that even looks remotely interesting to a chicken.
 
I guess that's good news
hmm.png
 

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