Please Help! I think our turkey chicks may have some sort of respiratory infection!
Long story “short”, my little sister has recently taken over caring for our animals and picked up 5 turkey chicks from a swap meet on June 3rd. They couldn’t have been more than a few days old when she got them (one still had his egg tooth), which would make them about 3 weeks old now. Anyway, about a week ago, I checked on them and noticed that two of them had watery eyes, but no other noticeable symptoms. I helped her clean out the brooder really well and then gave them electrolytes, probiotics, and some apple cider vinegar (we’ve given that mixture to them for several days now). However, they have not improved, and in fact seem to have gotten worse.
Their symptoms are as follows: very watery eyes, abnormal noises due to apparent fluid in their throats/noses, and slightly swollen faces. There poo seems ok, but I believe it did smell a little stronger than usual last night. Both seem a little worn out and one of then keeps trying to bury his head in my hands/his buddies’ feathers. They seem to be eating and drinking fine though.
I believe we have 2 Narragansett, 1 royal palm, and 2 blue slate chicks. But only the blue slate chicks seem sick. The other 3 seem perfectly normal and are bigger than the blue slate chicks.
They are in an old rabbit cage at the moment (I have raised many chicks/ducklings in it before) and they were in one of those big metal brooders like hatcheries have before we moved them over to the hutch. Both brooders are in our basement. Chicks were on towels for the first week or so and then moved to wire. We are using a heat lamp right now. They had a rough trip from the swap meet to here, but have had it pretty easy since then. The only thing I can think of is that I did back the heat off a little faster than I usually do in order to get them outside sooner. We are feeding them a non-medicated chick starter.
I`m afraid they may have some sort of repertory infection… they have been isolated since we got them. However, they were in contact with several ducklings and chicks for a few days at one point. My sister is extremely attached to these turkeys and has spent a lot of time making sure they’re friendly, so I absolutely want to do everything I can for these guys. However, we currently have a healthy flock of ducks and chickens on our land and we cannot keep these turkeys quarantined much longer. We don’t have any other turkeys, but I have heard that chickens can get many of the diseases turkeys can. What should I do?! They are only 3 weeks old and they are so sweet now; more pets than anything else at this point, but I dont want to kill my healthy birds with their sickness.
Long story “short”, my little sister has recently taken over caring for our animals and picked up 5 turkey chicks from a swap meet on June 3rd. They couldn’t have been more than a few days old when she got them (one still had his egg tooth), which would make them about 3 weeks old now. Anyway, about a week ago, I checked on them and noticed that two of them had watery eyes, but no other noticeable symptoms. I helped her clean out the brooder really well and then gave them electrolytes, probiotics, and some apple cider vinegar (we’ve given that mixture to them for several days now). However, they have not improved, and in fact seem to have gotten worse.
Their symptoms are as follows: very watery eyes, abnormal noises due to apparent fluid in their throats/noses, and slightly swollen faces. There poo seems ok, but I believe it did smell a little stronger than usual last night. Both seem a little worn out and one of then keeps trying to bury his head in my hands/his buddies’ feathers. They seem to be eating and drinking fine though.
I believe we have 2 Narragansett, 1 royal palm, and 2 blue slate chicks. But only the blue slate chicks seem sick. The other 3 seem perfectly normal and are bigger than the blue slate chicks.
They are in an old rabbit cage at the moment (I have raised many chicks/ducklings in it before) and they were in one of those big metal brooders like hatcheries have before we moved them over to the hutch. Both brooders are in our basement. Chicks were on towels for the first week or so and then moved to wire. We are using a heat lamp right now. They had a rough trip from the swap meet to here, but have had it pretty easy since then. The only thing I can think of is that I did back the heat off a little faster than I usually do in order to get them outside sooner. We are feeding them a non-medicated chick starter.
I`m afraid they may have some sort of repertory infection… they have been isolated since we got them. However, they were in contact with several ducklings and chicks for a few days at one point. My sister is extremely attached to these turkeys and has spent a lot of time making sure they’re friendly, so I absolutely want to do everything I can for these guys. However, we currently have a healthy flock of ducks and chickens on our land and we cannot keep these turkeys quarantined much longer. We don’t have any other turkeys, but I have heard that chickens can get many of the diseases turkeys can. What should I do?! They are only 3 weeks old and they are so sweet now; more pets than anything else at this point, but I dont want to kill my healthy birds with their sickness.