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Index of Subjects --bcaec51f986196f5bc049f8ab4c6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Some animals can exhibit "pica", or the ingestion of abnormal things if they have metabolic issues or blood dyscrasias...just a thought Helene On 2011-03-28 8:54 AM, "Randy Lauff" <randy.lauff@gmail.com> wrote: The surprise animal at the end of this year's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy class was a Harbour Seal. The seal was found live in a "not good" condition at Cribbons Point, Ant. Co., last semester. Shortly thereafter, it died and was graciously delivered to me by DFO. Last week, my students and I opened it up and found that its stomach and oesophagus were both full of stones...up to a bit bigger than golf ball size. Any ideas why a seal would eat rocks? My only guess was desperation...for some reason, it could have been hungry, but couldn't catch any thing? It had a decent layer of blubber, so I don't think it was starving. Nothing else seemed wrong with it, though I am no vet. Thoughts? Randy _________________________________ RF Lauff Way in the boonies of Antigonish County, NS. --bcaec51f986196f5bc049f8ab4c6 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <p>Some animals can exhibit "pica", or the ingestion of abnormal = things if they have metabolic issues or blood dyscrasias...just a thought<b= r> Helene</p> <p><blockquote type=3D"cite">On 2011-03-28 8:54 AM, "Randy Lauff"= <randy.lauff@gmail.com>= wrote:<br><br>The surprise animal at the end of this year's Comparativ= e Vertebrate Anatomy class was a Harbour Seal. The seal was found live in a= "not good" condition at Cribbons Point, Ant. Co., last semester.= Shortly thereafter, it died and was graciously delivered to me by DFO.<div= > <br></div><div>Last week, my students and I opened it up and found that its= stomach and oesophagus were both full of stones...up to a bit bigger than = golf ball size. Any ideas why a seal would eat rocks? My only guess was des= peration...for some reason, it could have been hungry, but couldn't cat= ch any thing? It had a decent layer of blubber, so I don't think it was= starving. Nothing else seemed wrong with it, though I am no vet.</div> <div><br></div><div>Thoughts?</div><div>Randy<br clear=3D"all">____________= _____________________<br>RF Lauff<br>Way in the boonies of<br>Antigonish Co= unty, NS.<br> </div> </blockquote></p> --bcaec51f986196f5bc049f8ab4c6--
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