Ex-ray of a duck showing several swallowed nails and other sharp metal objects

What Is Wrong With This Patient?

Cryer Gardener the Muscovy duck came into the Wildlife Center for an Odd Pet Vet appointment after his owners noticed that he was having trouble waddling. There was some suspicion that he had been eating “hardware” from around the inside of his pen and had possibly ingested something a little screwy. Waterfowl will often times eat small stones and pebbles to aid with digestion and the thought was that Cryer had just gotten a little overzealous. After further examination Dr. Mertz and the Gardener’s decided to proceed with some x-rays in an attempt to locate the problem.  The x-ray of Cryer (pictured…) revealed that he had swallowed an array of different objects.  What do you see on this x-ray and how many can you count?

Cryer was diagnosed with a classic case of “hardware disease” and because of the amount of sharp material that he had eaten Dr. Mertz decided to perform on the spot surgery to remove the objects. The procedure was a success and Cryer recovered at home with his family: Another happy end to a fowl situation.