Have your chickens ever eaten screws????

llandry

Songster
9 Years
May 8, 2012
793
169
201
jersey shore, nj
Today while doing some maintenance on our run some (or just one) of our chickens ate 4 steel 3/4" screws!!! I guess chickens really will eat anything. I actually saw my BO eat one. She kept picking it up and dropping it as i was scrambling over to her but i think she knew I was coming for her precious "silver shiny bug" because down it went. I don't know if she ate all four or if the others joined her. I didn't feel anything in her crop.

Any idea if this is going to be a problem?
 
I did not want to reply at first as in the case of my chicken it was not good news - we had some children come to fish in the river and mill pond - they had the tackle boxes open and one of my chickens managed to swallow a fishing hook - I wanted to cull her there and then as I felt she would die in agony but listening to other advice I waited... next morning she was bright eyed and I was still pessimistic about her chances - she died later that day.

Sorry if that sounds awful but I hope you have a better outcome with your chicken.

The kids still come fishing, we told them the outcome of the event and now they understand and keep ALL boxes closed - my chickens, ducks and geese free range and yes they will pick up anything they fancy be it good or bad for them.

Suzie
 
Thanks for the reply Suzie. Usually anything I've posted on the forum gets responses right away. I have to admit at first I was thinking come on, my chickens can't be the ONLY ones that have eaten something like this! Maybe no one wanted to upset me.

I work in a very large vet hospital (the largest in the country for cats and dogs) so I'm pretty realistic as to what the possible outcomes are. Dogs and cats eat things all the time and I could give tons of tricks for owners to try to help move things along. I guess I was hoping there were some tricks for chickens too.

I guess now i'm playing the waiting game.............
 
Fingers and toes crossed that your girl will make it through! Please keep us posted!

Suzie
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May I ask? Would you have to wait long (a few days or so) to know if she will come through this okay? Could it be two weeks or more before you know there will be a problem? My hen ate a push-pin two weeks ago and I just noticed yesterday that she is a little off with her eating, standing, and hen behavior.

any answer would be helpful, and I'm praying that your girl will poop these screws outwith any problems...

~a
 
I have no idea how long it could take. A push pin??? Oh my, we're both in a pickle. As i mentioned earlier, i work with dogs and cats. I had to do surgery on my own dog who ate a tennis ball earlier that morning. I've also been involved in removing a corn cob from a dog that ate it almost a year prior! No lie. I asked around the hospital today and i got every answer: it may pass, it could get stuck, it could perforate her intestines, or it could sit in her gizzard for the rest of her life. Oh wait, i forgot that she could die from heavy metal toxicity.

That's why i was really hoping someone had been thru this before and could share their experience., Good luck to you and i'll keep checking for an update from you.
 
How is she doing? I hope she can pass it. Your dog ate a tennis ball? My goodness, you just don't have luck on your side lately. Reminds me of when my late Akita ate a WHOLE bottle of rimadyl. What a crazy couple of days hoping he wasn't going to have organ failure. I hope everything smooths out for you and everyone stays healthy.
 
The tennis ball was over a year ago but yeah she ate a whole tennis ball. My screw eating chicken is doing fine so far. Tomorrow I'm going to pass my sons metal detector over her and the rest of them to see if they're still in her. I was thinking of bringing her in to work and taking a radiograph of her. I'm doing a presentation at my sons school on xrays and i've got about 40 or so films i've collected over the years on some crazy things animals have eaten. (snake that ate a light bulb, dog ate a match box car, another ate a whole spoon, etc...) i could use a chicken picture!
 

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