Internal Injury?

[Tame Emu Guy]

Internal injury?

Guys, I have an emu that has suddenly become listless, and off its food. It’s clearly ill.

By the house, I just found a fragmented emu blessing, that is, a stool that’s not like the normal ‘pat.’ It’s from one of my birds – it has grains of wheat in it. In the stool is a beer-can ring pull that’s worn down to exactly what you’d get if you tasked someone to make a ring pull into a nasty little blade that slipped over your finger: the edge of it is flat, serrated, and sharp.

Could there be a connection? Any suggestions?

Supreme Emu

 

[chickenzoo]

I'm sure it didn't help matters.... Don't know if it is the cause. They swallow many things that would kill other animals.....don't know why they find it tasty when they gag on regular food. It could certainly make her feel bad or do some internal trauma. Hope she gets to feeling better.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Thanks, Emu Hugger. Boy, you've heard this before: I feel so helpless!

She's been up and down, but she is still an unwell bird.

.S.E.

 

[chickenzoo]

Yes ....even here were there are vets that treat them, it is often still hit and miss when solving emu troubles. They are such simple yet complex creatures... Helpless is a familiar feeling among emu owners when one becomes I'll. I do hope she improves..she's been through a bunch that's for sure.

 

[The Sheriff]

Sorry about the emu Supreme. If you recall my boys ate from a box of zinc roofing screws last year and we took them to the vet. The x-rays showed numerous crews, bolts, nuts, washers, dog tags, etc. They were both fine but it was quite a scare. The vet is an avian vet who has raised emus for 30+ years. He said their GI tract is pretty much a straight shot and he wasn't worried about perforation.




On the other hand I took a sick chicken for euthanasia and necropsy last week and she had six screws in her gizzard and one that perforated. She also had an iron level of 9,000, 150 times normal. That was attributed to metal breakdown. Here is what the report said:


"Large amounts of macrophages loaded with a pigment consistent with hemosiderin were detected in small intestine and liver, probably hemoglobin break-down metabolites from chronic bleeding in to the gizzard in the proximal GI tract. Heavy metal screen of liver tissue detected extremely high levels of iron, this is probably a consequence of chronic iron release from the metallic foreign bodies ingested and the one embedded into the gizzard wall."

I know some pieces of hardware contain amounts of zinc that are toxic to animals even in small amounts. Hoping for a recovery for your emu. I don't know if any of this is relevant but I wanted to share it.

 

[Raptor65]

Wow, and I fuss over every little scrap of metal on the ground (Or might be on the ground). Had a guy putting in new windows on the house and I think he was starting to think I was an obsessive compulsive patrolling the side of the house looking for dropped nails and the like.
So far the only things he's swallowed that he shouldn't have swallowed are an aluminum grommit and a used musket cleaning patch (That I know of...).

 

[The Sheriff]

Don' t have him x-rayed Raptor!

 

[Raptor65]

Too late, didn't even think to ask if I could keep the x-ray either.
The Vet we went to was one of those "been in the business for 30 years, done it all" sort of guys too, only he'd never worked with an Emu, much less one only 2 weeks old and not too keen on being taken away by a bunch of strangers. I still wish I had recorded the sounds, you'd have thought Gerry turned into the Hulk there on the x-ray table because the receptionist went dashing back there to help and came out a few minutes later looking very ****** off.

I did try to warn the Vet about what would happen if he took Gerry back there without me but he insisted it would be no problem and that I should wait in the lobby. Guess he learned something new that day, don't underestimate the little big birds. I've been meaning to go back there and give him some ribbing over it too, he also insisted that the Mazuri diet was the only way to go.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Thank you so much for your opinions. Although it’s true that we feel helpless, without wishing to sound like a one-up merchant, being so far in the bush, and not being to handle a sick bird, makes the feeling of frustration so much the worse for me -- that’s what makes every little bit of information so valuable to me.

This property has a very great deal of wire and glass and hazards lying about on the ground. It’s the only thing that stops it being emu paradise.

Supreme Emu