my Joey ate stones??

[rebeccaturpeinen]

I finally went for a complete healthcheck with Joey and he had the works; bloodtest, feces/urine test (since we found him outside they were concerned about worms) and x-rays.

His health is good and the vet thinks that whoever had him before took good care of him. That was a relief since we have no idea who had him before and where he came from. The vet has had lots of Rosellas himself and he thinks Joey is a girl!! I guess it will be Jolene then. And he guessed her age to be around 3-5 years but he can not be sure.

There was one thing though... Jo-jo has stones in his stomache and as we have newspaper in the bottom of our cage, the vet thinks he ate these stones when he was outside, even though this is a year ago. He might have been that hungry that he ate stones. Now, the vet sais it is nothing to worry about and she will pass these stones naturally and without problem but I wanted to hear other peoples opinion.

Ever heard of a bird that ate stones? Could it at all be the cement perch that he has in his cage? I have noticed him nibbling on it but I never guessed he would be eating it... and the vet thinks he could have had these in his body for a long time.

Here is her x-ray, the white mass in the bottom of the picture are the stones

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Some people offer grit, which is no longer recommended, but it is possible a previous owner did so. If the cement perch has bits that can easily be chipped off, you might want to try replacing it.

Will the vet want a follow-up radiograph?

That white spot looks awfully round. I still don't know my avian anatomy that well, can someone explain why an accumulation of small stones would look so symmetric and round on a film? I'm curious.

[Nevermore]

I would be easier to tell, if we knew if the bird in the x-ray was beak up or beak down. I"m going to assume he is beak-up.

My guess would be that the rocks are in a nice balls shape because they're in the bird's gizzard.

The other possibility is that the body has labeled them as a 'threat' and has built up various secretions around them. That is how pearls are made. A bit of grit gets into a clam, and it protects itself by building up various secretions around it.

But being stuck in the gizzard would be my first guess.

[captwest]

I'm not a vet, but if that's rocks in the gizzard, i;m crazy.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

the vet hasnt asked for a follow check-up no... he sais it shouldnt be a problem, he wasnt worried at al.

he has explained to me where the stones are exactly but he ofcourse explained it in danish so the words aint the same. he said the stones are in the last sack right before all of the intestines, i have no idea what this sack is called...

Jolene seems fine though. but ofcourse now im gonna panick even more every time there is the slightest change in her poop

captwest, dont you think that those could be rocks?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

The last stop before the intestines is the gizzard or ventriculus. I just found a photo on the internet that looks almost identical to the xray posted and it does say the opacity in that area was due to particles in the ventriculus. I don't think the whole thing is packed full, it's that the particles are distributed throughout. And it does appear very round, low and to the right, superimposed on the hip.

Gee, learn something every day! I'd have figured it would appear much higher in the body.