Turkey wounds look "moldy"

[Sonnydale]

My 1 year old Royal Palm tom was attacked by a dog a few days ago. As you can imagine, he has been rather stressed and we have not been able to get our hands on him until today. He has missing feathers but only one semi-serious wound and a couple of scratches where the feathers were pulled out. He is doing much better than he was, eating fine, getting around fine.. has lost a little of his pride so won't strut with the other tom. My concern is, even though the wounds seem to be healing, they look "moldy". Is this gangrene? Our turkeys are for meat/eggs/pets. They are housed at night and free range during the day. I have attempted to clean the wounds the best that I can and have sprayed them with Iodine. Again, none of the wounds are life threatening and appear to be healing. What do I do about the "moldy" stuff covering some of the sores? Is it Gangrene? Will this ultimately hinder the healing? Will this turkey ever be safe to eat if he heals?

Thank you for any input/advice. I will try to get a picture but am trying to keep from stressing him more.

 

[DylansMom]

My 1 year old Royal Palm tom was attacked by a dog a few days ago. As you can imagine, he has been rather stressed and we have not been able to get our hands on him until today. He has missing feathers but only one semi-serious wound and a couple of scratches where the feathers were pulled out. He is doing much better than he was, eating fine, getting around fine.. has lost a little of his pride so won't strut with the other tom. My concern is, even though the wounds seem to be healing, they look "moldy". Is this gangrene? Our turkeys are for meat/eggs/pets. They are housed at night and free range during the day. I have attempted to clean the wounds the best that I can and have sprayed them with Iodine. Again, none of the wounds are life threatening and appear to be healing. What do I do about the "moldy" stuff covering some of the sores? Is it Gangrene? Will this ultimately hinder the healing? Will this turkey ever be safe to eat if he heals?

Thank you for any input/advice. I will try to get a picture but am trying to keep from stressing him more.

Any chance you can post a pick of the moldy looking wounds? My old turkey hen somehow injured herself last summer and by the time we realized she was hurt it was full of maggots, hopefully you don't have those to worry about. We treated with enrofloxin orally for 2 weeks and put iodine in a spray bottle, applied that every other day and applied triple antibiotic ointment on the days in between. Our turkey is a pet and loved all the attention, most of the time, so stress wasn't an issue. She healed up great.

 

[Sonnydale]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I couldn't get good pictures to really show what it looked like. It was very strange and did look like green mold. It just didn't relay in pictures.

I am so glad your hen recovered, that looks awful.

As for my tom, he is all better and was actually strutting for the first time yesterday, poor thing, no tail feathers to fan but none of the other turkeys seem to be laughing at him. I continued to put iodine on the wound daily and it really seemed to make a difference. His wounds were not deep, really I think it was more the top layer of skin from where he had his feathers ripped off.

It happened during deer season and one of the hunt clubs ran their dogs through our property even though they are not allowed to. Next year all the fowl will be locked up through the season!

Again, thank you for the reply!

 

[DylansMom]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I couldn't get good pictures to really show what it looked like. It was very strange and did look like green mold. It just didn't relay in pictures.

I am so glad your hen recovered, that looks awful.

As for my tom, he is all better and was actually strutting for the first time yesterday, poor thing, no tail feathers to fan but none of the other turkeys seem to be laughing at him. I continued to put iodine on the wound daily and it really seemed to make a difference. His wounds were not deep, really I think it was more the top layer of skin from where he had his feathers ripped off.

It happened during deer season and one of the hunt clubs ran their dogs through our property even though they are not allowed to. Next year all the fowl will be locked up through the season!

Again, thank you for the reply!

Hi there, I am so glad to hear that he is okay! I'm just sorry I didn't see the post sooner. Our hen's wound did look awful and it didn't smell too good either, but the iodine and antibiotics worked wonders. Turkeys seem to be pretty tough birds. Again, so glad to hear he has recovered and is strutting. Mindy

 

[lynnkz]

Hi Dylan's Mom,
I was so encouraged to see your post and pictures (not for what happened but for the info). We also have pet turkeys and our old female was recently wounded by a new young male who made his way into her pen while we were at work. Her injuries look almost just like yours- maybe a little deeper. She is now living in our house, and has received a shot of long-lasting antibiotic our vet prescribed, as well as daily flushing with chlorhexidine or betadine, and application of a chlorhexidine ointment from the vet, and a pain medication. Her wound has started to darken/blacken and smell necrotic (Sonnydale- they don't look moldy as you described); fortunately she's still eating, drinking, and pooping, and very cooperative.

Did you scrub or debride her wounds at all? I'm thinking we should (or take her in to the vet for this). You mentioned yours had maggots- perhaps they did the job for you! How long did the smell last? And about how long did she take to heal- the two weeks?

Glad to hear your girl's doing better!

Thanks for posting!
Lynn

 

[DylansMom]

Hi Dylan's Mom,
I was so encouraged to see your post and pictures (not for what happened but for the info). We also have pet turkeys and our old female was recently wounded by a new young male who made his way into her pen while we were at work. Her injuries look almost just like yours- maybe a little deeper. She is now living in our house, and has received a shot of long-lasting antibiotic our vet prescribed, as well as daily flushing with chlorhexidine or betadine, and application of a chlorhexidine ointment from the vet, and a pain medication. Her wound has started to darken/blacken and smell necrotic (Sonnydale- they don't look moldy as you described); fortunately she's still eating, drinking, and pooping, and very cooperative.

Did you scrub or debride her wounds at all? I'm thinking we should (or take her in to the vet for this). You mentioned yours had maggots- perhaps they did the job for you! How long did the smell last? And about how long did she take to heal- the two weeks?

Glad to hear your girl's doing better!

Thanks for posting!
Lynn

Hi Lynn,
Sorry to hear you are going through this, I know how "Not Fun" it is. When we first discovered the wound it smelled really bad . Much of the skin over her breast had died and was hanging in strings, so I did cut much of that away with a scissors, I did not cut away any other tissue except skin. She never flinched so I know the nerves were all dead in it. I used Swat wound dressing, I think I found it in the horse section at TSC, smelled just like Vicks vapor rub, this stuff chased the maggots right off, they were literally throwing themselves off her wound. It also helped a lot with covering the rotten smell, so I can't say exactly how long that lasted. After we had the maggots taken care of I took a large Palmolive dish detg. bottle that was almost empty, maybe 3/4 of an inch left in the bottom, and refilled with hot water, I shook it up good and used that to flush the area good. Just pointed it and squeezed the bottle to make a forceful soapy stream. Then rinsed with clean water, after the rinsing is when I debrided. Let it dry a bit and used the iodine spray, then the trip. anti. ointment. She had pockets of loose skin, and I was really worried I wasn't reaching all the areas of infection, but just did the best I could to squeeze a lot of the ointment into those pockets. I think the antibiotic shot like my oral enrofloxin will go a long way toward keeping any infection from spreading. After about a week everything started to dry out, I kept applying the spray iodine and ointment thinking I should keep the tissues as soft and pliable as possible. I am still amazed how well she healed up, she is still doing well and will be 10 this spring. Total time from that first pic. I posted to the second was more like 6 weeks, but after about 3 weeks I didn't really have to treat the wound anymore it was like a big scab and the healthy tissue was drawing together. They have incredible healing abilities with a little help from us. Please keep me posted, and if you want PM me with a pic and I'll see what it looks like compared to my girl's boo boo,. I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of you. Mindy

 

[lynnkz]

So cool your girl is 10- that's amazing! Ours is "only" 6; other than foot problems caused when she was detoed (before she was rescued) she has been in pretty good health- till now, that is.

I have to admit, the idea of debriding her makes me queasy (I used to work at zoos and vets, and can handle most things but its different when its your own animal/kid/hubby). The wound has so many pockets, like you described, and its hard to tell what I'm looking at! I have Swat, and also read online that honey is antibacterial and helps debride wounds. I'm going to ask the vet what he thinks.

I'll try to get you a pic, and will definitely keep you posted.
Thanks again!
Lynn

 

[DylansMom]

So cool your girl is 10- that's amazing! Ours is "only" 6; other than foot problems caused when she was detoed (before she was rescued) she has been in pretty good health- till now, that is.

I have to admit, the idea of debriding her makes me queasy (I used to work at zoos and vets, and can handle most things but its different when its your own animal/kid/hubby). The wound has so many pockets, like you described, and its hard to tell what I'm looking at! I have Swat, and also read online that honey is antibacterial and helps debride wounds. I'm going to ask the vet what he thinks.

I'll try to get you a pic, and will definitely keep you posted.
Thanks again!
Lynn

Our "Turt", escaped from a processing plant and was hiding out in a coworkers back yard. She also has only partial toes. The coworker didn't have the heart to take her back to be turned into Thanksgiving dinner so she called me. She knew we had Peacocks and pleaded w/ us to take in the turkey, didn't take much pleading either. My son was only a couple months old at the time and he will be 10 in June. The debriding was hard and I had to cover my nose while doing it. Hubby held her still and he was having a tough time with the smell also. She had a really big pocket in front that I could just stick the whole tube of ointment into and squeeze. Just do your best, if mine can bounce back at 9, I bet your girl will do fine. This is her in Dec. all healed up and just done molting with a thick white winter coat of new feathers.

 

[lynnkz]

Our poor girl died during the night last night. She didn't eat yesterday, and seemed hot. I was going to call the vet this am and get a new antibiotic- I was worried about sepsis, and I guess I was right. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement- I think we're going to not have any girls for a while until we know we can keep them separate from the male.
Thanks,
Lynn

 

[DylansMom]

Our poor girl died during the night last night. She didn't eat yesterday, and seemed hot. I was going to call the vet this am and get a new antibiotic- I was worried about sepsis, and I guess I was right. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement- I think we're going to not have any girls for a while until we know we can keep them separate from the male.
Thanks,
Lynn

I am so sorry to hear you lost her.

Try to remember that you gave her a second chance and a better quality of life than was ever expected for her.