Turkey Vultures Survive Lead Poisoning

turkey vulture in harnessThe following story was shared with us by The Bird Rescue Center of Sonoma County.

In 2018, The Bird Rescue Center admitted a small handful of turkey vultures suffering from lead poisoning. All lead-affected birds are incredibly difficult to bring back from the poisoning; however, turkey vultures are some of the hardest. Not only do they have an affinity for regurgitation when stressed, but lead-poisoned vultures often experience gastrointestinal tract (GIT) shutdown, making nutrition one of the most difficult parts of rehabilitation.

With this string of cases, we got to work trying to find the best nutritional plan we could to keep the birds stable and fed while undergoing chelation therapy. For the first time, we decided to introduce EmerAid IC Carnivore, and what a difference it made! EmerAid was one of the only diets that the birds were willing and able to keep down. Providing this nutrition was imperative for their survival, especially in the early stages of care when their lead levels were highest and GITs the most compromised.

Since 2018, our lead treatment protocols for vultures have been amended to recommend tube-feeding with EmerAid IC Carnivore for the stabilization period at the beginning of each vulture’s treatment. It is our hypothesis that the unique partially hydrolyzed proteins (i.e., pre-“digested”) provided in EmerAid IC Carnivore are gentler on the vultures’ compromised GITs, enabling them to forgo the digestive process and go straight to absorbing the nutrients.