Any experience with lead poisoning please?

[JCaseyHammond]

Sorry for your loss. Your photo does look like lead bullets. I don’t have any useful suggestions about dealing with the source of the bullets. But maybe you can get lots of composted horse manure from a stables and just cover your poultry yard with a layer like at least 8 inches deep, so any remaining bullets are out of reach underneath it. Around here we have a rule: you kill it, you eat it. Don’t suppose that rule would impress your neighbor though.

 

[JCaseyHammond]

And I’m a big fan of immediately taking a capsule of activated charcoal with water whenever toxins are suspected.

 

[Texag87]

The objects in the picture do not appear to be shotgun pellets . Rifle/handgun bullets maybe??? I would bet they are something else. Sorry I don’t have any suggestions for getting rid of others in your yard. We moved to our place a year ago and I find all kind of things almost every day.

 

[KCNC06]

Yeah, I was thinking they looked more like .22 bullets. I don't know if they're from a neighbor, maybe some stray old bullets from our property, maybe came in with the soil/compost we've had delivered. No idea how we'd ever figure it out. I think adding a new, deep layer of soil/compost to the yard to bury anything could be the best option but I think we'll have to screen it somehow before dumping it since we found so much broken glass in the loads we had delivered already. We've had so much soil was away from our yard, including the fowl yard, that tree roots are getting exposed. It drives me crazy that developers are allowed to just bulldoze layers and layers of topsoil off lots and then do nothing with the land. The storm water runoff has been causing so much damage to our property.
The neighbor that shoots birds and doesn't pay attention to the direction they're shooting, or what might be beyond the birds, definitely does not care about anything other than what he wants to do. My husband went to talk to them when their shot was raining down on us...the neighbor's shooting buddy is a cop, threatened to arrest my husband for tresspassing. Dude has no jurisdiction here so, cool. Also, you're drinking and shooting in the direction of 3 neighboring houses...whatever.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

And I’m a big fan of immediately taking a capsule of activated charcoal with water whenever toxins are suspected.

Me too, but that's the despicable thing with heavy metal poisoning: Once you develop symptoms, the poison has spreaded all over your body and charcoal can only bind what's left in the digestive system.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The objects in the picture do not appear to be shotgun pellets . Rifle/handgun bullets maybe??? I would bet they are something else. Sorry I don’t have any suggestions for getting rid of others in your yard. We moved to our place a year ago and I find all kind of things almost every day.

Same here, i've found everything from shotgun casings, metal jackets to buried plastic bags. The latter are very interesting for the ducks and i had to free more than one duck after she had poked her head through the handle or the body of the bag and is running around with a cape like super-duck and frightening the whole flock.
I made it my habit to walk around the house and the area available to the duckies, picking up any debris that i can spot. There were plastic bags from stores that no longer exist…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yeah, I was thinking they looked more like .22 bullets. I don't know if they're from a neighbor, maybe some stray old bullets from our property, maybe came in with the soil/compost we've had delivered. No idea how we'd ever figure it out. I think adding a new, deep layer of soil/compost to the yard to bury anything could be the best option but I think we'll have to screen it somehow before dumping it since we found so much broken glass in the loads we had delivered already. We've had so much soil was away from our yard, including the fowl yard, that tree roots are getting exposed. It drives me crazy that developers are allowed to just bulldoze layers and layers of topsoil off lots and then do nothing with the land. The storm water runoff has been causing so much damage to our property.
The neighbor that shoots birds and doesn't pay attention to the direction they're shooting, or what might be beyond the birds, definitely does not care about anything other than what he wants to do. My husband went to talk to them when their shot was raining down on us...the neighbor's shooting buddy is a cop, threatened to arrest my husband for tresspassing. Dude has no jurisdiction here so, cool. Also, you're drinking and shooting in the direction of 3 neighboring houses...whatever.

Shooting guns in a (sub)urban neighborhood is, as far as i know illegal in any jurisdiction! And for a very good reasons! Even pointing a loaded gun at your neighbors house is punishable!
I would have recorded them shooting and pointing their guns to neighboring properties and the just called 911, claiming that your house, car and property was hit by bullets and you feel like your life is in danger. Mr. cop outside of his jurisdiction would have found himself face down on the ground, cuffed and thrown into a swat car.

 

[Mimi13]

Unfortunately I am of no help with ideas of removing existing lead shot, other than bringing in something to completely (and deeply) cover the ground. And in most cases I would say that could/would not even be considered. I’ve also got erosion problems, but that’s my own problem that I’ll always live with. Some of us have all the luck!

When I first got chickens, I do remember worrying myself to death about “hardware disease,” but I never even thought about possible toxins. When we bought this property I only had horses so my main concern was the nails that constantly surfaced. But a big rolling magnet helped with that. It’s too bad a magnet won’t pick up toxic lead.

I am so sorry you’re dealing with this.

 

[KCNC06]

I think our area is probably still considered rural even though suburban sprawl is oozing all around us. The smallest lot in our "neighborhood" was 3 acres but most of us have double or more lots. It seems like just about everyone around here shoots in their own yard, but we've all been...not idiots and don't shoot towards someone's house. We did call the Sheriff about the shot raining down on us that day, it started again after the deputy left the neighbor's driveway.
Anyway. I still don't know what to think about this duck, we're calling her Phoebe (because of the Pb). Friday night she seemed to be going down hill. She didn't seem to have much interest in food and didn't seem like she could move her wings much. Yesterday we brought a duck inside to join her for swim time in the bathtub. I made up a bowl of their crumble softened with warm water, mixed in a squirt of b vitamins (can't remember the exact name but it was recommended from folks on here last year, it's from Tractor Supply), and tossed in a handful of peas that were cooked until they got soft. Held the bowl for the ducks while they were in the tub and Phoebe went nutso gobbling it up. Maybe having a friend to compete with encouraged her to eat more? She didn't seem happy about the other duck being with her once they were out of the water though. The friend (Althea) kept stepping on Phoebe, stepped on her wing then stood on her head...not fun when you can't get out of the way. I did a little physical therapy with Phoebe after her swim, gently lifted her wings a little and flapped them to help her dry her wingpits. Later after she had another swim I helped her do a little bit of flapping again and then she lifted her wings a little on her own. She tried to stand on her own out of the water but her balance was still really bad so she was tipping. I put my hand under her chest to support her and she stood for several minutes. She ate and drank well again last night. I made her a bed in a laundry basket and had her sleep in my brother's bedroom last night, thought maybe having a person as company might improve her mood. She did a good amount of stinky poops over night, ate and drank well this morning. No more pellets in her poops. She had swim time with Althea again. I made the water a little deeper and she walked around in the tub for a bit. She ate well in the tub, had her flappy physical therapy after swimming again. I dried her off and put her in her fresh basket bed. She stood up on her own with no support but seemed a little wobbly so I put a rolled up blanket under her chest for support. Then she stood in her bed for quite a while preening. She even oiled herself! She hasn't made an effort to reach her oil gland in days. I'm very cautiously optimistic. Maybe she just ate those two pellets and maybe they weren't in her system too long. I don't expect her to get back to normal but at least she doesn't seem to be getting worse.

 

[JCaseyHammond]

Awww, Phoebe is a sweet name! Hope she makes a complete recovery! And if she doesn’t, get some more ducks. Off topic, I recommend a book, “Watership Down.” The part about the seagull removing the little stones from the rabbit.