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Hey friends & followers, we’d like to take a moment to talk about the interesting story of our Black Vulture patient here, who we shared a little about on Jan 30th!
So let’s start from the beginning - generally, we test for lead in ALL of our raptors (& most of our opossums!). While these patients may come in with other obvious issues like broken wings or eye trauma, we always check for lead just in case. We do that using this machine!
Now this fun machine can give us a range of lead levels, from “low”(assumed zero) all the way up to 65mcg/dl. Generally, we begin treating for lead poisoning if the patient’s level is between or over 10-20+mcg/dl.
Sometimes we anticipate lead poisoning based on what we see/find during an intake exam. This poor Black Vulture was extremely ataxic & lethargic, but had no visible injuries. We took radiographs - & this is what we saw. The largest single piece of lead we’ve ever found ingested.
While we get many animals shot with lead, lead poisoning generally occurs when animals or people consume lead, & stomach acid breaks down the soft metal & makes it available to be absorbed into the blood stream. This causes a variety of issues, so the lead has to be removed.
While we can remove the pellet(s), we have to also chelate the lead that is already in the bloodstream. This is why we test for lead through blood samples. We mentioned our machine goes up to 65mcg/dL. Generally if an animal’s levels are above that, it just reads “high.”
Well, the first time we tested this vulture’s blood, it said the test failed. And the second time. And the third time. We thought our machine was broken, so we tested the controls. Controls came back normal. Tried again - failed. What was going on?
We did some research, & according to our machine, failed results mean a blood lead level ABOVE 200mcg/dL. This was the first time our machine has ever reported back with such an answer. We immediately started chelation therapy, but most lead levels >65 have a poor prognosis.
To our surprise & delight, this vulture is alive & is showing signs of improvement, even starting to eat on its own. Blood lead levels sent out came back at nearly 2,000mcg/dL, & are now around 300. While this bird isn’t out of the woods yet, we’re continuing treatment.
We see a lot of lead poisoning cases with numbers peaking in late fall/winter, in line with deer hunting season. Bald Eagles, vultures, & opossums are the most impacted with >80% of each of these species coming in with elevated lead levels.
If you hunt, please switch to non-toxic ammo & don’t leave gut piles accessible to scavengers. If you shoot “nuisance” wildlife, don’t use lead & don’t leave bodies out where scavengers can access them. Better yet, call us first to discuss non-lethal options!
Lead toxicity is a terrible way to die, expensive to treat, and ultimately impacts the entire environment, humans included. We hope that this vulture continues to improve and can eventually be released.
