Chelation therapy for Hardware Disease

[paulinachickies]

I took one of my 5-month pullets to an emergency room of an animal hospital last night, and today they ran an x-ray on her and found metallic objects (screw, some sort of a ring, etc.) in her gizzards. I am feeling just terrible for her, as I think the screw may have come from my construction of their expanded run. I ran a magnetic sweeper over it a few weeks ago, but she must have gotten to it before that or whatever was left over after.

We still need to do lead and zinc tests on her, but they recommended that I not pursue surgery but a regimen of grit to help pass the screws if possible + chelation therapy instead. Does anyone have experience with this? They did mention they may need some sort of approval from a state department of farm animals to see if they would be able to administer the drugs, as they are not commonly used on chickens (will get names tomorrow).

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I haven't heard of this before. I hope it works.

 

[CatWhisperer]

It seems chelation therapy would take too long to work in order to prevent a puncture from a screw. If the objects won’t cause harm they could possibly just stay inert in her gizzard.