{"id":3754,"date":"2020-08-04T11:28:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T18:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2025-01-22T07:52:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T15:52:35","slug":"no-more-pennies-for-this-lucky-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/2020\/08\/04\/no-more-pennies-for-this-lucky-duck\/","title":{"rendered":"No more pennies for this lucky duck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall 2020 Issue<\/a><\/p>\n

by Josh Babcock | Photos by Francisco Aguilar-Contrer<\/em><\/p>\n

For ducks, pennies don\u2019t bring much luck — a one-cent coin could actually cost them their life.<\/p>\n

That was the case for Wazzu, an Indian Runner duck who showed up at Washington State University\u2019s Veterinary Teaching Hospital<\/a> this spring struggling to walk, losing weight fast, and feeling ill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my best to treat her, but she wasn\u2019t making much improvement,\u201d Wazzu\u2019s owner, Heathear Bloom said. \u201cI saw online someone said their duck had similar symptoms and had swallowed a metal washer. I thought an X-ray may reveal the cause of her condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Bloom hopped in the car and the two drove from Latah, Wash., to WSU.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure enough, there it was as plain as day,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n

The radiograph showed Duck, later named Wazzu for the work of WSU veterinarians, swallowed a coin and it was stuck in her gizzard.<\/p>\n

Due to her symptoms and knowing the foreign body was likely a coin, Dr. Marcie Logsdon, the lead veterinarian on the case, suspected the culprit was a post-1982 penny.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was showing signs consistent with zinc toxicity and pennies minted after 1982 contain high levels of zinc,\u201d Logsdon said.<\/p>\n

Despite efforts by WSU\u2019s Exotics Team<\/a> to remove the object via endoscopy, Wazzu would ultimately require surgery to have the item removed.<\/p>\n

Bloom said at that time she wasn\u2019t sure if she could move forward with the procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as I wanted to save this silly bird, I just couldn\u2019t afford the estimated cost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Logsdon recommended WSU\u2019s Good Samaritan Fund<\/a>, \u00a0which was setup by WSU veterinary students in the mid-1990s \u00a0to help animals in need of special care.\u00a0 Since that time, more than 1000 caring people have given to support the Good Samaritan Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call later that they had approved $350 to be put toward the surgery,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cI was thrilled because I didn\u2019t have high hopes. Most people don\u2019t think of poultry on the same level as the family dog or cat, so I assumed she may be turned down for the surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wazzu received the surgery the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a small incision into her ventriculus (gizzard) and were able to remove it,\u201d Logsdon said. \u201cIt was a penny, but it didn\u2019t look much like a penny anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The penny was black, corroded, and riddled with holes from an estimated two to three weeks of Wazzu trying to digest it. There was no sign of any writing, copper, or Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was really no telling it was once a form of currency,\u201d Logsdon said.<\/p>\n

Logsdon said the more Wazzu\u2019s body continued to digest and break down the coin, the more toxic zinc she became exposed to, and the sicker she became.<\/p>\n

She said, ultimately, the swallowed coin would have killed her if it wasn\u2019t removed.<\/p>\n

Besides a small scar now hidden by feathers, the two-year-old is living the best days of her life now.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is doing very well,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cShe did a lot of her recuperating in the front room where she watches TV with me from her bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the penny, it sits on a shelf in Bloom\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI show it to people when I tell the story of my coin-consuming avian friend and the crazy predicament she got herself into,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For ducks, pennies don\u2019t bring much luck — a one-cent coin could actually cost them their life. That was the case for Wazzu, an Indian Runner duck who showed up at Washington State University\u2019s Veterinary Teaching Hospital this spring struggling to walk, losing weight fast, and feeling ill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":3759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":[]},"categories":[511,514],"tags":[619,614,591],"wsuwp_university_location":[332],"wsuwp_university_org":[425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3754"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3809,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions\/3809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=3754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}