Yogurt and chicken throwing up

[Mavrik]

TrystInn, Can you tell me why so many people recommend yogurt then?

 

[BrattishTaz]

Quote:
I found an article regarding diary products and birds written by an avian vet.

Dairy Products and Birds
We always are receiving questions about dairy products and birds. What forms are acceptable to offer to pet birds? Which dairy items should not be offered and why? Because there are always on-going questions, we thought it was time to go over the dairy dos and don'ts!

Birds are not mammals. While birds are warm-blooded animals, they hatch out of eggs. Pregnant female mammals provide nourishment to their young through the placenta. Once the infant mammals are born, the mother produces colostrum, which contains many antibodies and supplies the newborns with essential nutrients for the first few days of life. Next, the mother produces milk, which is a combination of water, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and other components. Baby mammals receive their complete nourishment from mother's milk for variable periods of time after birth. Mammals have enzymes (lactase) specifically designed to digest lactose, or milk sugar. Birds, however, are a completely different story.

Bird embryos are enclosed in an egg during incubation. This means that when the egg is laid, it must contain all the nutrients and fluids necessary to sustain the bird until it hatches. Once it hatches, the parent birds regurgitate foods that they have eaten to feed the chicks, as they do not produce milk. The food is stored in the crop, an outpouching of the esophagus. In some species of bird, such as the pigeon, the lining of the crop sloughs off, and is fed to the chicks. This is called crop milk, and which is a misnomer, as there are none of the components of mammalian milk as ingredients. Interestingly, both the male and female pigeon and dove produce crop milk. Like mammalian milk, crop milk is very rich in fat and protein, but unlike mammalian milk, it lacks carbohydrates and calcium. The chicks receive crop milk for the first few days after hatching, but later, they are fed increasing amounts of other types of food. Crop milk has no milk sugars in it whatsoever.

It makes sense, then, that milk and products containing milk would be totally foreign food items to a bird that spends its time in the rainforests and jungles of the world. Birds eat seeds, nuts, fruits, vegetables, shoots, leaves, blossoms, nectar, flower petals and such. Nowhere in its natural environment would it ever be exposed to milk, cheese, yogurt or other products containing milk. It should also make sense that birds would not have developed the enzymes necessary to digest milk sugar, lactose.

What happens if a bird ingests milk or products containing lactose, the milk sugar? Since it doesn't have the enzymes necessary to digest lactose, it will often pass through the bird's digestive tract unchanged. Because it is a foreign sugar, it may draw fluids into the intestinal tract, resulting in diarrhea, if ingested in large amounts. Small amounts of milk and products containing lactose are probably not harmful to most birds.

Some milk products do not contain lactose, such as cottage cheese and other types of cheese. Generally, it is thought that it is safe to offer yogurt and cheese, although products that contain lactose are probably safe, if offered in small amounts. Interestingly, live culture yogurt does contain lactose when it is produced; however the live organisms in the yogurt consume the lactose, eventually removing the lactose entirely from the yogurt before it is consumed! Cheese products with onions or garlic in them are best avoided, because of the risk of Heinz body hemolytic anemia.

Many bird owners, it seems, enjoy spending time in the mornings with their pet birds. Often, a bird may want to share breakfast with an owner. We get many questions about whether or not it is alright for a bird to share a little cold breakfast cereal and milk, or oatmeal made with milk. If the bird is just ingesting a small amount of milk, this should pose no problems for the bird. But, caffeinated morning drinks should be off-limits to birds, with or without milk added.

There is some concern about some soft cheeses potentially causing crop impaction in birds. While I have never seen this occur (and I do feed my two greys and Meyer's parrot mozzarella cheese almost every day), this may be more related to the volume of the soft cheese being consumed than anything else. So, when choosing foods to offer to your bird, use common sense, and don't provide one type of food in abundance or to the exclusion of all others. If you have any questions, always ask your avian vet for advice related to diet tailored for your specific bird.

I have been asked about the possibility of giving a bird a commercially available product developed for lactose-intolerant humans. The answer to that question is a resounding NO. The two compounds that lactose is broken down into by these products are toxic to birds!

While dairy products can provide a bird with necessary nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D3, we should choose carefully what items we offer to our pet birds, to ensure their safety. When in doubt, check with your avian vet regarding safe and appropriate food items to share with your bird.


Copyright

2006 Margaret A. Wissman, D.V.M., D.A.B.V.P.
All Rights Reserved
ExoticPetVet.net
www.exoticpetvet.net

 

[TrystInn]

Mavrik,

Folk remedies can take a very long time to beat back with science, especially when they seem to make sense. The problem is, we're applying "mammal logic" to an animal that is not a mammal.

The article BrattishTax pasted in sums it up pretty well.

 

[Mavrik]

Well I wish everyone would stop recommending yogurt then, just goes to show you, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it right. My bird suffered all day throwing up because of yogurt, poor thing.

It's looks like I cleared the block. It's been about 24 hours since I messaged her crop and she is pooping pretty good. It's mushy green, but others in the flock look the same. She had a real nasty rock in her, shaped like an arrowhead, point and all, a 1/4 inch long. I sure hope it didn't puncture anything. I'm giving her antibiotics just in case. With this rock and clumps of grass, might have been the issue. She is still not keen on layer pellets or crumbles though.

What I feel worked is when I injected 5cc of water into her crop and tried to flush it, unsuccessfully. What this actually did is move the blockage away from the tube from crop to proventriculus and loosened the contents so it could pass. I got a solid firm poop from her an hour or so after this.

 

[TrystInn]

Mavrik,

Glad to hear it!

With regards to yogurt, you'll find that people will get very angry with you when you point out what they've been doing is actually harming their birds. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence, research provided out of context (i.e. someone posted an article on how healthy the probiotics were for healthy gut bacteria - for HUMANS), etc.

I think the hardest part for folks is just getting over the mammalian reflex that's almost to the level of bias.

 

[Mavrik]

Well, they need to read the article that BrattishTaz found/posted. I just copied and pasted this in a thread that someone recommended yogurt to me. I think that article should be stickied, it makes me mad that someone's recommendation made my bird sicker.

 

[Highlander]

The sentence that Taz emboldened clearly states that lactose is all but gone by the time the yogurt is consumed. I can't see how yogurt would make your bird sick, I'm sure it was the crop issue that made her sick and with the crop being impacted it left no room for the yogurt hence it came back up.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
I agree. I suspect the crop issue came first. I would recommend a confinement, with only age appropriate feed, water and grit, free choice. Grass can sometimes lead to an inpacted crop.

Also, keep in mind that ONE particle on the internet doesn't make it a fact. Do some more research and experimentation, rather than buying into everything you read. When my mom got internet access she assumed it was all gospel, no matter how much the info varied. It was a hoot trying to convince her that it all had to be sifted throught the sieve of common sense and experience!

Good luck with your hen, hope it works out fine!

 

[Mavrik]

She was starting to recover and when I gave her the yogurt, she started to throw up. She never threw up before, even fully impacted. The only thing I did different was the yogurt.

 

[BrattishTaz]

Mavrik,

I originally posted that article in order to point out lactose is not a big concern in live culture yogurt. I honestly do not know why your bird had such a bad reaction to it. I do give yogurt, in moderation, to my birds as a source of extra protein during times of stress. I usually mix a small amount with scrambled egg. I personally believe it has saved several injured chicks that were very close to the point of no return. If nothing else, the mixture appealed to birds that were not showing interest in the usual chicken feed. (You can read through my thread, "Gonna have to cull" for an example of this.)

Do the probiotics help chickens? Possibly. It is probably not going to hurt, especially after antibiotic therapy which does kill beneficial bacteria in the gut. As I said before, the main reason I use it is to add extra protein. It is also easier for sick/injured chicken to consume. I typically only give a teaspoon full at a time. I think the key is moderation.

To address lactose intolerence....I have a roo that loves vanilla ice cream.....he probably shouldn't have it but a little now and then makes him happy.

I've seen no signs of illness in him after having it. Again....he gets one spoonful.