by Julie Hauserman
Earlier this year, a very sick swan caught the attention of a citizen in Mashpee, Mass. The bird was listless and obviously in distress.
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A swan poisoned by a lead sinker was rehabilitated at the Cape Wildlife Center and later released.© Cape Cod Times/Steve Heaslip |
Amazingly, all it took was a call to the Cape Wildlife Center on Cape Cod, along with some ace medical detective work, to give the wild bird a new chance at life.
Medical Mystery
When the swan arrived at the wildlife rehabilitation center, no one knew just what was wrong with him. He wasn’t bleeding and had no visible wounds. Then, blood tests revealed that something was very wrong – the swan had lead poisoning, more than 10 times above the safe level.
“He was the most toxic animal we’d ever seen,” said Robbie Fearn, who directs the Cape Wildlife Center that provides veterinary and rehabilitative care for injured, ill or orphaned wildlife.
The swan, X-rays showed, had swallowed a lead fishing sinker. It was caught in the bird’s gizzard, where it continued to poison the bird.
Heavy Metal
After feeding the swan a substance that coated the lead sinker and prevented it from leaching any more heavy metal into the bird, workers at the wildlife center then fed the swan doses of a laxative and fiber supplement until he eliminated the lead sinker.
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An x-ray showed the bird had swallowed a lead sinker that was leaching out toxins.© Cape Cod Times/Heaslip |
On March 20, the swan was well enough to be released. Cape Wildlife Center volunteers Lisa Kane and Kristin Muir brought the bird to a local pond and let him loose from the pet carrier.
The bird wasted no time in getting back into the water. Fearn said the center sees several lead poisoning cases a year. Animals eat lead fishing sinkers or old lead shot that lies on the bottom of ponds.
The center is hoping to get a machine that tests blood for lead so that animals can be treated more quickly and more economically. Right now, they send blood samples away to a lab and pay for the tests.
The machine costs about $2,600, Fearn said, adding that Cape Wildlife Center is always seeking donations for its work. Ideally, he said, the center one day will be able to afford a full-scale blood testing machine at $15,000.
“A lot of times, you are dealing with the process of elimination in trying to diagnose what’s wrong with a wild animal,” Fearn said. “By discovering whether a debilitated animal is toxic or not, we can determine the best treatment.”
To the swan now paddling free once again on a wild pond, a simple blood test was a life-saver.
