My turkey hen ate a bolt

[Hope7733]

My 2 year old rescue turkey hen just ate a bolt. She is acting normal, but I’m worried about it because it is metal. I’m not sure what I can do. I use nuts and bolts to lock my coops. She grabbed it and ran before I could grab her.

 

[RyderTheChicken]

Keep a close eye on her, check her droppings if possible to see if the bolt passes through by itself. If it does pass through you will see it in the next couple of days. If she her droppings become watery or stop all together it may be blocked somewhere inside of her. Another thing I would personally do is give her more fiber over the next couple of days.

 

[Mo_fawaazzz]

My 2 year old rescue turkey hen just ate a bolt. She is acting normal, but I’m worried about it because it is metal. I’m not sure what I can do. I use nuts and bolts to lock my coops. She grabbed it and ran before I could grab her.

My turkey hens swallow up rocks to help in digestion. A bolt is just a weird-shaped metallic stone.

 

[LaFleche]

Hi and welcome to BYC

What kind of bolt did she eat? Can you post a picture?

You can feed her raw natural sauerkraut which will wrap itself around the foreign object and help to excrete it without the intestines getting injured.

Feeding her chilled pieces of coconut oil can slicken the passageway.

 

[Hope7733]

Hi and welcome to BYC

What kind of bolt did she eat? Can you post a picture?

You can feed her raw natural sauerkraut which will wrap itself around the foreign object and help to excrete it without the intestines getting injured.

Feeding her chilled pieces of coconut oil can slicken the passageway.

It was a few inches long. I wish I had a photo of it. I am not sure where to find sauerkraut around here, but I have coconut oil. I will give her some tomorrow.

 

[LaFleche]

It was a few inches long. I wish I had a photo of it. I am not sure where to find sauerkraut around here, but I have coconut oil. I will give her some tomorrow.

A few inches is quite long. Does it have a sharp or pointy tip?

If you are unable to get the sauerkraut try giving her strings of grated carrots with germ oil or coconut oil and some fresh grass cuttings about 1-2 inches long as substitute.

 

[Sally PB]

@LaFleche, is that advice usable for any foreign object, in any poutry?

I always worry that one of my chickens will eat something that they scratch up in the run. I've found pieces of plastic, glass, metal. As far as I know, none of them have eaten any of it.

The people who had the house before us (30 years ago) left a lot of trash around. We still find stuff in the woods.

 

[LaFleche]

@LaFleche, is that advice usable for any foreign object, in any poutry?

As I used it successfully only for my dogs and chickens, I have no experience using it for other species.

As long as the foreign object is still situated in the crop, a vet might be able to retrieve it using an endoscope or similar. But sometimes, in case of long, sharp edged and pointy objects it would be less risky to cut the crop open for removal.
In case the object has already passed into the digestive tract there would be only surgery left to retrieve it, which performed on chickens would be a very risky and pricy thing to do and should only be performed by avian vets with expertise (hard to find!!)

 

[orelsi]

Feeding them a teaspoon of cooking oil/vegetable oil can help pass through foreign objects. It's not a guarantee, but it's something. You can soak some bread in the oil and feed it to her, works as well.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

@LaFleche, is that advice usable for any foreign object, in any poutry?

I always worry that one of my chickens will eat something that they scratch up in the run. I've found pieces of plastic, glass, metal. As far as I know, none of them have eaten any of it.

The people who had the house before us (30 years ago) left a lot of trash around. We still find stuff in the woods.

same. I haven't had any chicken problems, but one of my pigs cut her mouth on a broken beer bottle once, and I worry about my ducks due to the trash pile's proximity to the creek, though it's technically not on my land.