glass found in gizzard

[marymac]

About 2 days ago I butchered 2 roos, and when I opened up the gizzard on one of them I found the usual stones but also some glass which was about the same size as the stones and I could tell it was wearing away as the stones do when they are grinding away at their food. It looked as though it may have been crushed glass such as you would get from a windshield or safety glass, but I know of none on my property. That is not to say there isn't any, and I'm sure a chicken could find it if it existed. Has anyone else ever had this happen? I give them crushed granite but they also free range in the evening about an hour or so.

 

[RileyHomestead]

Did it look like this?

 

[Moabite]

Did they polish well? I was told by an old tymer that he used to break green bottles near his coop so he could get the green gastroliths at butcher time. I have a gastrolith from a Jurassic Dinosaur that is bigger than a base ball. One day, I'll start posting pics.

 

[marymac]

It sure looked like it was polished. I was amaze at how shiny and perfect it looked. Almost like a clear diamond actually. Can this be dangerous for them to eat glass/

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Yes, I find bits of glass often when I butcher.

In fact

one of my cockerel grow out pens is in an area that the previous homeowner used as a garbage area. I cleaned it up 5 yrs ago when we moved in, but shards of glass still "turn up" as mother nature works them free.

I cannot even count how many chucks of glass my "boys" have unearthed and I just clean up behind them.

Some of the pieces - glass and rocks that come out of the gizzard are just...........well, beautiful - too bad they are sooooo tiny.

 

[digitS']

Somehow, my first thought was "windshield glass" when I saw your post, MaryMac.

Somewhere on BYC is a photograph of a wire that pierced completely thru a gizzard. That was a non-survivor.

And, here is something to read about a hen with 115 metallic objects, etc. Veterinary xray winners (scroll down to the text under Editor's Picks):

Jim Micinilio, DVM, of Countryside Veterinary Hospital in Shelton, Conn., submitted an editors’ pick. His X-ray reveals a large quantity of metallic objects impacted in a pet chicken’s gizzard.

“The owner allowed me to do my first and last venticulotomy,” says Dr. Micinilio. “[The chicken] recovered uneventfully and within a week, was back to following the owner around the yard.”

One hundred and fifteen objects including several screws, nails, wire, pieces of glass, linoleum and a bullet were found in that little chicken … beating out any of the dogs who swallowed random objects.


They don't say that chickens have bird-brains for nothing!

Steve

 

[marymac]

I wish now I'd have saved the pieces of glass as they were really pretty and the angular pieces were just like the angular pieces of rock, only real clear and sparkly. Darn it!!