CHELATION FOR HEAVY METALS?

[eleghart]

I was hoping to get some insight into anybody's experience with heavy metal chelation therapy. I have a pullet that has suspected zinc poisoning. I noticed that she was lethargic and found that she was very thin and her crop wasn't emptying. The vet performed surgery to remove the contents of her crop and sent a blood sample to the lab. She is home now, isolated. It's been 6 days and she has a lot more energy and is passing food. The vet called with her blood results and stated that she was anemic and that she recommends testing for lead and zinc. And if the results come back positive, the next step would be chelation. All of this has already cost a lot of money, and the vet has never used chelation therapy for a chicken before. I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience? Any advice? Is anyone familiar with the cost of chelation therapy?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi @eleghart Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry your hen is not doing well. I don't know much about chelation therapy. There is a "name" for when chickens have ingested metals it's called Hardware Disease.
If you find a treatment that is successful for your situation - please keep us posted, your experience will be helpful to others.
Here's a few links that you may find helpful:
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2015/07/preventing-hardware-disease-heavy-metal.html
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/03/lead-and-zinc-hidden-dangers-to-your.html
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/05/hardware-disease-in-backyard-chickens.html

 

[Kiki]

Very interesting, I have never heard of this before.
I'd love to "follow" your story.

 

[eleghart]

A little bit of extra background and an update:
Besides the symptoms of crop stasis and anemia, the heavy metal poisoning was suspected based on an X-ray that showed small spherical metal or mineral balls in her crop and ventriculus. The vet suspected birdshot or some other lead source. I used a metal detector through the yard and found nothing that was similar. However, I stumble on an area that had a bunch of small green fertilizer balls that had come from soil surrounding the root wad of a mt. laurel that we planted this year. It is close to the chicken run and she would have had access to them when we let them out to roam the yard. The green balls were very hard and packed with a dense powder. After the surgery to remove the contents of her crop, the vet inspected the contents to try to determine what the metal/mineral balls could be but they could not find any. However, under another x-ray, the contents from her crop was still showing metal/mineral objects.
So jump ahead to yesterday when the blood test came back with anemia- Since the surgery, the chicken has been inside getting fed wet crumbles and eggs to build up her muscle. Her energy is slowly coming back and she is passing the food, though her crop empties slowly.
I set up a consultation with a vet that deals with chickens regularly. He examined her and her blood work and was pleased with her progress. He explained that there is not a great recovery rate with cases he has seen like this, but he said she is doing very well for the circumstances. He said that if she did eat fertilizer, it could be more of a caustic effect than metal poisoning. He gave us the recommendation to add 1 tsp of red cell and 1 tsp of wheat germ oil to her food daily and continue with the wet crumbles and eggs. He also recommended electrolytes. We are going to weigh her daily and try with all our might to make sure she recovers from this, but the vet did warn us that there is a there is an underlying cause for the crop stasis and anemia (possibly anemia virus) and although we are making progress, we are not out of the woods. We decided forgo the further blood testing and chelation and focus on building her muscle and strength.

I just wanted to bring this up to warn chicken keepers, although we are not sure of the fertilizer's role in this ordeal, I do feel that it is very possible that it caused or contributed to the problem. I will thoroughly inspect anything we plant in the yard for these from now on and remove any foreign fertilizer balls or pellets that I find.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the update - very informative.

I hope she improves, please keep us posted.

 

[paulinachickies]

Hi @eleghart - I know this is an older post, but wanted to see if you ever pursued chelation therapy. My pullet is in the same boat now (suspected zinc/lead poisoning from metal pieces she swallowed) and I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing this, especially since the vet prices in Boston are extremely high. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!