Another nerf bullet ingestion incident

[Nckyturkma]

Hello everyone. I have a 6-month turkey. She is a bbb and weighs about 20 lbs. I love her so much, but she tries to get into everything. I never let her free-range unless I am present, because she constantly tries to eat non-edible things and unfortunately our backyard has a lot of random pieces of small plastic and stuff from the previous owners in the soi. I have cleaned up everything visible, but I am constantly picking new things up that the chickens kick up in the soil.

She has been better lately, but about 20 minutes ago I turned away for about 2 minutes and she found a nerf bullet (polyfoam) hidden behind a planter and swallowed it whole right as i was seeing what was happening. I am so upset because I have had to scour the backyard and have picked up so many of those damn things over the past year from the past owners. I was just thinking how everything is going so well lately after she recovered from blackhead, and now another thing to worry about. She is acting fine, but it just happened.

I have looked at posts on here and it seems this has happened a decent amount with chickes and ducks, which are quite smaller than my turkey, but few posts follow up. We don't have a good avian vet and she's honestly too big to really transport easily. I gave her a bunch of grit. I don't fully understand how poultry pass things that don't break up. I researched that the poly foam doesn't expand really with water, and the water can weaken the foam.

Do you think it will break up and pass? Should i do anything? How long before I know if she will be okay and how long do things take to go from the crop to the gizzard? If it was a smaller piece of foam i wouldn't be too worried. I didn't get eyes on it enough to see if it was q full dart or not, but it was at least 1 inch long

Thank you in advance!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If it doesn't break down she will get an impacted crop. I think you will know in a few days if there's a problem.

 

[Nckyturkma]

If it doesn't break down she will get an impacted crop. I think you will know in a few days if there's a problem.

Ok thank you. So if her crop does not empty overnight (it is full now), would it mean that her crop has an obstruction from the nerf dart and would crop surgery be a possibility? If it passes from her crop can it obstruct a different part of her digestive system?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Ok thank you. So if her crop does not empty overnight (it is full now), would it mean that her crop has an obstruction from the nerf dart and would crop surgery be a possibility? If it passes from her crop can it obstruct a different part of her digestive system?

I would check the crop daily to see if it's emptying. If it moves out of the crop it generally means it was broken down. An obstruction is always possible either in the crop or further down the digestive tract. A veterinarian would be your best option at this point. A BB turkey is a higher risk for having a bad heart so I'm not sure if surgery would be a good idea for one.

 

[Nckyturkma]

So just an update, I found another one around the yard (was hoping it was the same one and maybe I am crazy and she didn't ingest it- but it has to he a different once because I literally saw her peck and it and then it disappear) and I put it in some water with some grit. After letting it soak for 10 mins I massaged it with the grit and it became smaller (rather than larger) because the hollow tube collapsed on itself and it broke apart pretty easily with my fingers into smaller pieces. So as long as it can make its way to her gizzard, i think it might break down enough to be passed, she eats a lot of grit and it's pretty small in diameter. I gave her some oats soaked in some olive oil to help lubricate things because I didn't know what else to do. Her crop has already emptied since earlier (feels less full). She is acting normal and still trying to eat and drink, I let her peck at some zucchini, but that's it, I want to wait to feel her crop in a few more hours.

 

[Nckyturkma]

I would check the crop daily to see if it's emptying. If it moves out of the crop it generally means it was broken down. An obstruction is always possible either in the crop or further down the digestive tract. A veterinarian would be your best option at this point. A BB turkey is a higher risk for having a bad heart so I'm not sure if surgery would be a good idea for one.

Thank you so much for the info! Unfortunately, we don't have a good avian vet around here. We just spent about $500 at the one near us for our rooster and it was not a good experience- I will not be going back.

 

[Nckyturkma]

Update day 2: Gabby the turkey seems okay so far. Her crop emptied overnight. I don't think I would feel the foam even if it was still in there, but it's not full of food like it was last night. She is eating and drinking and acting normal and as of yesterday was pooping, so i will keep an eye on her poops today.

 

[Nckyturkma]

She pooped again this morning. Yay! It was nice and healthy. I broke it apart and did find some broken up blue stuff from the Nerf foam. Seems like it is breaking apart inside of her.

 

[Nckyturkma]

Update 4 days post nerf incident: Gabby the turkey is okay. Still pooping and eating normally. Yay! Hope this may help anyone in the future whose bird unfortunately eats a nerf bullet/nerf foam/etc.