# Help! Chicken ate my earring!



## BethW (May 3, 2007)

I was wearing very small diamond studs today when I guess one caught the light and Ms. Naughtypants reached up, jerked the stud out of my ear and gulped it down

I almost caught it in time but she was faster than I was. This was NOT the kind of grit I had intended for her.

So, two questions...one, is it likely to hurt her? It was a very small stud on a short post, but she's a 12 week old Dominique and still not that big herself.

And two, will she poop it out? I've already separated her in the hopes I might find the earring in a few days. 

Grrrr.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Ewwwwww.
You will have to do some poo picking if you want that stone back. 
Guess you won't pick your nose that day.


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

I hope you contain her in a cage before exporing fecal material.....look for the shiny speck. LOL


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## Bonnie L (May 11, 2002)

This, too, shall pass. :lookout:

Sorry couldn't resist.  I remember that another person here (long time ago) had a chicken grab a pearl earring. She was advised to get it out fast because a pearl wouldn't last. A diamond should be fine, but the post might be toast. 

Why am I suddenly rhyming?!


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## Narshalla (Sep 11, 2008)

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!!!!


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

LOL. 

I will add this to the list of reasons that I do not wear jewelry.

Good luck finding it!


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## BethW (May 3, 2007)

LOL, thanks y'all. I have her in a dog crate with her food and water. Guess I should go round up a strainer, too.

Any idea how long it should take for the earring to pass through her system?


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

BethW said:


> Any idea how long it should take for the earring to pass through her system?


We are all wondering the same thing. Not too long, I would guess. Those birds go potty pretty often.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

I don't know, but that earring may stay in the bird's gizzard for quite awhile. It certainly could, at least. I hope not, as you don't need to pen that bird any longer than you can help! 

Good luck with it. I'd like to laugh but I know I've had things like that happen, too!

Jennifer


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## Michael W. Smith (Jun 2, 2002)

Hmmmmmmm. Now THAT is interesting. One wonders if the earring will pass through as undigested food, or if it will stay in the gizzard much as grit does.

Interesting "experiment" you have decided to do! Good luck.


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## Ceres Hil (Aug 13, 2008)

I would give her a day. If no rock--off with her head and into the gizzard you go.

Let us know....


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

We butchered a turkey once that had a very yellow liver.

When I cut open the gizzard, I found the metal part of a pencil head (the part that holds the eraser) inside.

I'm thinking that had to have been inside her gizzard for quite a while to have affected her liver to that extent..


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

I was wondering the same thing as MWS. My thought was, I would put her on a tray of sorts and put her poops on a screen and then the hose would be used to wash the pooh. If the screen is fine enough to let the manure through and not the earring you could kill two birds with one stone and make manure tea. That way your hands stay clean. I would think a couple of days will tell if it will pass or stay. How much do you like that pullet? 
We need to revivie the old thread about stupid things that happen on the farm. I think it was in HQ. It was really funny and many of us had chicken tales, some more than one.


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## TripletDad (Apr 21, 2009)

Ah, gee!

I have always heard of finding a diamond in the rough, but if this is what they meant, I don't know?!

:doh:


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## LFRJ (Dec 1, 2006)

Can't get much better as a gizzard stone. She could grind glass!


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## Lauren62 (Mar 27, 2009)

Ah the things we learn from reading the posts at homesteadingtoday. I'm loving it. But who knows maybe someday I will be wondering, "just how long does it take for a (insert item) to pass through the digestive tract of a chicken. I whould put some sort of screen down so that your hen doesn't take a second bite of the apple (so to speak). You know how they like shiny things and they aren't to particular about eating their own, um, well you know. Good luck and keep us posted.


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## hillbillly (Jun 28, 2009)

i think i recall reading that it takes about 20-30 minutes to go
from one end of the chicken's GI track to the far end...


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

Inquiring minds want to know.....found your earring ?


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yes, I want to know too. I have been thinking about you and your hen.


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## wildhorse (Oct 22, 2006)

Oh my sorry your having a rough time.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

sorry but I have a sour note for you on this...I know the gauge of the post on an earring and it is very close to the size wire I found piercing a dead chickens gizzard(which had gotten enfected) and since your pullet is young yet the size of the wire is larger to the size of the gizzard and increases the chances that the wire( during muscle contraction of the working gizzard) will be presented to the gizzard wall in such a way that the action will drive it in. Remember the earring is not in the gizzard by itself, it will be supported in position by the food being ground, not like dropping to the bottom of an empty bubble. I would not wait more than 3 or four days for it to "pass" before I put the bird down and recovered it.


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## harrisjnet (Jul 13, 2006)

I am guessing it will stay in the gizzard. It may act like what we call hardware in cattle. That happens when wire gets thrown in the feed grinder and the cattle ingest small pieces of wire which in turn pokes the stomach and causes them to stop eating much. If the post sticks into the side of the gizzard, she may stop eating enough to keep her alive. Then again, she might possibly pass it on through.
I once found a thumb tack inside an egg of a Silver Laced Polish hen I have. I have no idea as to whether she ate it and some how it ended up in her egg tract or if maybe she sat on it as she laid an egg and it went up inside her and was then put into the next egg. You might keep all her eggs just in case there is a way the earring could be in one. I really don't see how it could happen, but I am still at a loss over the thumb tack to.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Maybe they should make 'chicken magnets', like the ones for cattle? Clearly they would need to be much smaller.

I, like everyone else here, am also curious about that earring.


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## Kats (Nov 9, 2008)

I always said chickens would eat anything.


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## waterpossum (Apr 19, 2009)

cast not your pearls before swine....who woulda thunk it about earrings and chickens!??


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## mooman (May 19, 2008)

Beth, any update on the earing. I just wanted to throw in that yesterday I found a .22 casing in some turkey poo (they are about the size of chickens right now). I was watching them peck at a few when they were younger, but they never ate one so I wasn't too worried until now. I've done a more detailed "policing" of my brass as a result.


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## WildBillTN (Feb 1, 2006)

Hope you get your earring back! 

When I was a child we were so poor that my brother swallowed a dime one time and my 
paw made me follow him around for three days with a stick.

Let us know how things work out.


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## BethW (May 3, 2007)

Sigh. No news.

I kept her in the dog crate for nearly 72 hours while I screened all of her poop very thoroughly (oh, the fun). Nada. We had to leave to go out of town yesterday so I gave up and put her back in with everybody else. (I felt bad at the thought of her alone for several days without even me for company).

I didn't think to mark her before I put her back, so now I'm not sure which one she is. Duh. I do hope it doesn't perforate her gizzard

I'll be checking those eggs as soon as they start coming, though!

She's no longer a Dominique, she's a "Diamonique."


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## quietstar (Dec 11, 2002)

Beth...I can't help wondering. If you found the earing intact, and took to wearing the set again, do you think would there be a decrease in how much your man nuzzled your ears? You gotta' love the perils of country living...Glen


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