Sickly Turkey Vulture Overcomes Lead Poisoning

This story was shared with us by Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Colorado.

Lead poisoning in turkey vultures is a common ailment seen at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program. Almost every vulture patient admitted by staff is suffering from an elevated level of lead in the blood. When a sickly, adult turkey vulture was found wandering around downtown Fort Collins, Colorado, staff jumped into action.

On admit, the 1,631 gram-vulture was at a healthy weight (about 3.5 pounds) but incredibly weak and ataxic, struggling to properly stand and balance. A lead test revealed that the stricken vulture had a lead level of 4.4 ppm. GI stasis is a huge problem in lead-affected vultures. Rehabilitation staff were worried that this vulture had begun the inexorable decline that all-too-often leads to death in lead patients.

Gas was already building up in the vulture’s crop, indicating that it was unable to process and digest food properly. It was vital that rehabilitation staff jump-start the bird’s digestive tract while simultaneously beginning the slow process of removing lead from the vulture’s blood.

In order to accomplish this, the vulture was put on a daily regimen of EmerAid Intensive Care Carnivore formula. Because the raptor was too weak to stand or hold its head up, the formula was gently tube-fed into the vulture’s stomach. Thanks to its easy-to-digest formula, the vulture was able to start processing greater and greater amounts of carnivore diet. Soon after, the vulture was able to transition onto a whole food diet again.

After over a month of twice-daily chelation treatments, the vulture’s blood tested low for lead (<.003ppm) and it had recovered enough to move through the final stages of rehabilitation and onto release.

On a sunny summer day, staff and volunteers bid the gregarious vulture (weighing 1,648 grams; a little more than 3.5 pounds)) farewell in a field near to where it had been rescued.