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7 October 2024 Uric Acid Ingluviolith in a Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus)
Perri Wiggin, Heidi L. Hoefer
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Abstract

This clinical report describes an adult, female budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) diagnosed with an ingluviolith. The patient presented for intermittent regurgitation, and a palpable foreign body was present in the crop. Radiographs showed a radiopaque foreign body, and computed tomography showed an approximately 16 × 12 mm (length 3 width) structure in the crop with a soft tissue and focally mineralized center and a 2–3 mm-thick mineral-attenuating shell. An ingluviotomy was performed. The stone was first analyzed using polarized optical crystallography, a method that cannot analyze uric acid salts, and was incorrectly deemed a cystine calculus. The calculus was then analyzed using infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffractometry and was confirmed to be a shell of subcrystalline to monoclinic crystals of anhydrous uric acid (C5H4N4O3) encrusting aggregates of numerous, threadlike, protein-based fibers. This case presents new information regarding avian ingluviolithiasis. The large size of the calculus indicates formation in the crop, and coprophagia linked to stress is thought to be the potential reason for urate and feather ingestion.

Perri Wiggin and Heidi L. Hoefer "Uric Acid Ingluviolith in a Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus)," Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 38(3), 167-177, (7 October 2024). https://doi.org/10.1647/AVIANMS-D-24-00005
Published: 7 October 2024
KEYWORDS
Avian
budgerigar
crop foreign body
crop stone
ingluviolith
Melopsittacus undulatus
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