help please! Turkey Poult with respiratory infection. How can I decongest her sinuses so that she

Hi. My 4-6 month old poult has been fighting a sinus infection for about two months. It has gotten nearly all the way better, and then flared up again, on two occasions. Her two "sisters" have both healed up fine, from the same condition. However, this girl is the smallest, and I think she had a much worse case.

Two days ago I gave her LA300 IM.

This morning (since about 3:00AM), she has been struggling to breathe. I have given her water to drink, have placed warm compresses on her swollen sinuses, cleared her nostrils as best I can, sucked an unbelievable amount of puss and blood out of her sinuses with a needle and syringe, and kept her in my warm room. The photos of the yellow and red stuff on a paper towel are images of the stuff I sucked out of her sinuses.










She does seem a little better, but the sinuses are filling up within half an hour or so of being drained. She is breathing primarily through her mouth. She feels hot to me, but I am just going by ;putting my cheek to hers.

I do not have any Tylan injectable, though I do have the soluable kind. I have also penicillin, LA300, and a couple of other water soluable medicatitons, containing oxytetracyline. I cannot afford a vet. I want her to live.

Can you help me help her to breathe:?

Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: I have no medical training.

I think you poult needs sinus surgery no get all the pus out. As long as any pus remains it will keep filling up. Read this:
http://connerhills.com/sinus_infection_removal.html

If she's not drinking ant eating you will need to tube feed her. How much does she weigh?

-Kathy

Thank you so much, both for your time and for the article. I have read such articles before, because sinus infections seem to be the disease of the year, around here. I tried this procedure with a silkie rooster. He did not survive. I suspect that his death was due to shock, and the length of the surgery. What I found in his sinus cavity looked nothing like the nice little package shown in this and other guides. I don't understand it! I knew that I would not have the heart to repeat the surgery, if I stopped before it was done. Yet, it took so very long! I shudder at the memory, and I am loathe to attempt it again. What my poult has in her sinuses, as you can see from the photos, is not a dry mass, but thick sludge and coagulated blood. It is difficult to get it out with a syringe, but it can be done. I understand what you are saying, however, about the necessity to get it all out. I am at a loss. (BTW - am I correct that there is no way to insert a paragraph break?) She is very hungry and thirsty, and is taking in a lot of both food and water. Her principal trouble there is that she cannot see beyond the swellings on her face, and so her aim stinks. The poor thing gets so frustrated! She has been in my bedroom, because it is cold outside, and rainy. When I cam in just now, to check this thread, she was (and still is) sitting on my vacuum cleaner handle. This is a small perch, about two feet above the top of my bed. So, she has the strength as well as the ability to navigate, sufficient to get her up there! That seems good. But, she sits there, head and wings drooping, and makes her pitiful little noises. I just want to cuddle her and make it ok. My poor little baby bird. So, what do you think? Try the surgery? She had a big mouthful of Tylan water (concentrated) so that I could be sure she got plenty. She seems a bit better, but her face is still grossly swollen, and she cannot breathe easily. Gee whiz, I really want her to live! Any further thoughts you are willing to share will be very much appreciated!

With your rooster, I know what you mean about the mass being everywhere, and yes, those are harder to treat due to the way it invades the entire sinus cavity. The feed store I go to had a peahen like that and it took me several days to get all of it out, but she did live.

With your poult, you could try making a smaller incision and the "milk" the pus out. Would be like popping a big pimple. Have you studied what the sinus cavity looks like in birds and how their nares are connected to the choanal slit?

You could also start her on some of the Tylan powder, just tell me how much she weighs and I'll calculate a concentrated dose that you can give her 2-4 times a day. Turkeys need a huge amount of this, more than chickens even.

-Kathy

This link has good information:
http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/anatomy.html

-Kathy

Hi again, Kathy!

My little girl weighs just under 4Lbs. (3Lbs, 15oz.)

Her sisters, whom I earlier crowed about having brought to a glorious state of recovery, each have a swollen sinus this afternoon. Will I never learn to keep my yap shut? Neither of them are anything like the little one. Just a small swelling on one side. Today is rainy and chilly. Maybe that has done it.

In any case, seems sensible to treat them too. I could not jockey either one onto my postal scale, but I estimate them both to be about twice Baby's (the little one is "Baby") weight, or about 8-9 Lbs.

I have to go milk things, and feed things to other things, but I will be watching for your very generously offered calculations.

Thank you so very, very much!

Patience

What size syringes do you have?

-Kathy

I need to know if you have 1ml or 3ml syringes so I can calculate the proper oral dose.

-Kathy

I'm so sorry! It never rains, but it comes down in buckets and barrels! In addition to my poor baby turkey, husband is now very ill with a gut-infection. Thank goodness I won't need to drain THAT! But, my birds have been neglected while I have been seeing to his wellbeing, and covering his chores. Wow! He has more to do in a day than I had realized!

At any rate, I have just about every size and type of syringe you can imagine. I have teeny diabetic syringes, all the way up to the ones we use to treat the black angus bulls, when they get sick. Needles we have in plenty, as well. So, just tell me what to use, and I will track it down.

BTW - I see that I have to cave in and do the surgery you have suggested. I am in the process, now, of sterilizing, equipping and settling myself for the task. The poor little thing! I so want her to survive and thrive! I will go very carefully. I will also try to document what I do. My poor little Baby. She seems to be begging me to do something.

(AND then I forgot to press "Submit," so this was written several hours ago...

Well, she survived the surgery. She did really well, in fact. She tried to bite me for the first time ever, but I guess I can understand that!

The worse side, her right, was as I had feared. The puss was throughout the tissue, not in a cavity that I could squeeze out. A lot of it was old blood, and thin mucous. I got as much as I felt safe getting, without unduly traumatizing her. I put bacitracin opthalmalic ointment into the wound, and also into her eye, and closed it.

The other side seemed less dangerous, so I simply drew as much of the contents out as I could, using a syringe. Again, I did not want to push her too far. There is a lump in there, that feels as though it is attached, not floating. It feels as though it could be a blood clot, or maybe a fibrous ball of ick. I decided to seek advice before excavating it.

Here are some photos of the process, before, during and after. I hope she does well. She deserves to survive, after all this!

Thoughts? Criticism? Advice? I will appreciate all I can get. Thank you so much!



Before

Patience







During

btw - I chose that spot because the cheek was already oozing quite a bit in that area.





After