Chickens will eat .22 slugs

[MI_Chkns]

Princess started with an impacted crop turned sour. Found a vet nearby, treated with Nystatin for a week. Gave it another week and she just couldn't clear her crop. Another trip to the vet, this times for x-rays. I was expecting either nothing, or some uncurable disease to show up, but wanted to make sure it wasn't something that could be treatable before choosing to euthanize her. Well, two .22 caliber slugs shows up in her gizzard, not allowing her to pass enough material to fully digest everything.
I won't be target practicing nearby anymore.
She had surgery yesterday, which I didn't expect her to survive. Today she seems to be doing pretty well. She's young and hasn't started laying yet, but she better lay golden eggs after what I spent on her.
I let the doctor keep one of the slugs as a suovenir.

I found a few older posts asking if they would do this, will they pass, will it kill 'em, etc.? Well, here's proof that it can happen.
Waiting on blood lead level tests to come back, but the slugs were copper coated and weren't worn through when removed, so I'm hoping it isn't too bad and can be corrected.

 

[-Chanticleer-]

Luck bird! Hoping for a full recovery.

 

[Sally PB]

Wow! I'm glad my target range is well away from my birds. Thank you for the warning.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Wow, it sure is crazy what they'll eat. They'll literally eat whatever is shiny. Back many years ago, when we did our first Cornish Xs and butchered them ourselves, we discovered that they had been digging where a windshield had shattered many years before. We had 15 of those meat birds, and every single one of them had a gizzard full of broken pieces of glass from that windshield. It was so weird seeing, as on the first one, we thought it was diamonds. Nope, glass. I've also had my birds dig up old Matchbox and Hot Wheels card, but thankfully they couldn't eat those.

 

[SourRoses]

Cluck cluck "Oh, look at these cool pebbles for grit!"

You're a hero for doing what it took to save her. We love our birds but a massive vet bill is out of the question. I hope she lays beautiful eggs every day for years to come.

I can't imagine what our birds have consumed on this property where people have dumped stuff, and one guy made an arrowhead & seashell hunt for his kids. We've scoured the place so many times, but things still come up. I had one pullet just crazy for cigarette butts (from coop builders). I kept thinking I had gotten them all, but she'd come out of the coop and find one instantly. So, I wound up just stalking her for hours and when she'd get one and run around laughing about it, pounce on her and take it away. She (Dovey) is also an Ameraucana.