On Saturday, August 7, 2021, at 12:40 pm, we admitted an adult loon. People had been watching it be a normal loon just two evenings before. Diving, swimming and being the typical icon-of-the-wilderness off the end of their dock, but less than 48 hours later something was horribly wrong. They were able to catch it and bring it to us.

The green goo and the general appearance of it when it arrived provided a stark contrast to the healthy vibrant bird it was just a couple days earlier. It was conscious, but showing signs of having aspirated on its own vomit and having difficulty breathing.

Unfortunately, wildlife rehabbers have way too much experience seeing these things and they were shouting to us LEAD POISONING.

The weight indicated it’s probably a female. Her body condition was pretty good, so whatever was going on was acute, sudden onset.

We drew blood for a blood lead level test hoping for good news. While we were waiting for the test to finish, we took a couple x-rays. Both diagnostics confirmed our worst suspicions.

The blood lead level was HIGH. That means there is so much lead in the animal’s system, the analyzer is unable to break it down into a specific number. It’s over 65 micrograms/deciliter (or .65 parts per million) but we don’t know if it’s 66 or 166. A value of 10 or less is considered “background” and the general thought is it’s not of concern. We are not of that mindset, however. We treat any measurable value so when the animal gets re-exposed after release, there is more of a cushion for future accumulation. Unless we get the lead out of our fishing and hunting equipment, they WILL be re-exposed.

The x-ray revealed what appeared to be a jig head in its stomach. This was the likely culprit. In these situations, removing the source of lead in the digestive tract is the only way to keep lead from continuing to enter the bird’s system. We were the first rehabbers in the state to use endoscopy to accomplish removal of fishing tackle from loons. (See Loon Endoscopy blog and the video).The human gastroenterologist who donated use of his equipment and skill has long since retired meaning that is no longer an option. Most rehabbers and their veterinarians “gavage” the item out of the stomach. This is accomplished by anesthetizing the bird and “flushing” the entire stomach contents from the bird.

The trouble with either of these approaches is the loon first must be stable enough for anesthesia. This one was not even close to that point. We began work to stabilizing her, but she was too far gone. Despite everyone’s best efforts, she passed away mere hours after her admission.

So why in the world would a loon have a jig head or sinker in its stomach?

They may have eaten a fish that had snapped an angler’s line. Or they mistook the piece of lead for a rock. Loons ingest small rocks and stones on purpose. Called gastroliths, they are in their stomachs to help grind up their food and help with digestion. This, however, makes it even more deadly when they swallow a lead jig head or sinker. The rocks in the stomach grind against the fishing tackle. This removes any paint that may have protected the lead a bit. Then the rocks continue to grind against the bait, releasing more and more lead into the system continually. Lead is released back into the system faster than we can chelate it out.

She was banded July 10, 2009 as a juvenile on the connecting body of water on which she was poisoned.

Loons don’t generally start breeding until around 6 years of age. Hopefully she was successful in the last six years to raise several other generations.

In the 12 years of her life, she migrated roughly 61, 800 miles between breeding and wintering grounds.  It’s astounding to think of all the challenges she would have encountered. Weather events, people, boats, predators.

She survived all those obstacles over all those years only to come home to be killed by something totally preventable.

The future of our wildlife is in our hands. We need to do better. Get rid of all the lead in your fishing and hunting gear.

She deserved better.