THE DANGERS OF LEAD POISONING


Lead poisoning is st ill a very common problem within our wild water fowl populat ion.


Lead poisoning causes


CRITICAL FEW HOURS FOR CUB


This juvenile fox was found in a pr ivate garden, collapsed and not moving.


He was brought in straight away to


Stapeley where was seen as an emergency by our vet team. It appeared to be a young male fox, with no obvious injuries or wounds but underweight.He was given some fluids and some tests were run to try and establish why he was in such poor condition. There were no obvious clues on his clinical examination and the most intriguing question was: why he was so skinny?!


The first few hours were critical but he


responded to treatment well and he started to look brighter and stronger within a few hours. After a few days of supportive treatment he was eating by himself and starting to behave more aggressively, which is how a wild animal is expected to behave in captivity.


After about 10 days of treatment, he was


signed off from veterinary treatment as there was no indications for further medications and once he grew up a little bit more he was released by our wildlife team. This story shows us that sometimes with a bit of unconditional empathy we can help our wildlife when they really need our help!


al icja pel isiak (Veterinary Officer) 11


a range of signs including anorexia, weakness, walking and flight uncoordination, muscle paralysis, liver and kidney damage and sudden death if high acute toxicity. Over a third of our swan admissions have high levels of lead in their blood and require hospitalization and treatment to remove the lead from their system.


Swans pick up lead


pellets from the lake and river beds, mistaking it for grit. It is then absorbed by their muscular stomach, called the gizzard, and is absorbed. For this cygnet, the scenario was quite complicated because the lead particles were still remaining in his gizzard. In this case, the particles need to be flushed out otherwise the treatment wouldn't be successful, as the lead would be continuously absorbed


again. Gizzard flushing is a very


aggressive therapy that consists of flushing over 10 litres of warm water into the gizzard with the swan under anesthesia, hoping that the flush will help to bring all the particles back out through the mouth or push them into the intestines so they will be passed out during the following days.


The procedure is high


risk, especially for weaker patients and the recovery period is critical. For this lucky little one, the recovery was fairly smooth so hopefully, the medical therapy can be more effective now. However, the prognosis for this patients is still guarded for the next couple of weeks as we can not know how much liver and kidney damage the lead may have done.


We have given the best


chance and tried our best, so fingers cross for this little one! "


teresa prohens (Veterinary Officer)


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