My first turkey has a swollen belly/butt

Hi. New here and new to chicken and turkeys. We got our first chicken, 2 ducks and 1 turkey 3 weeks ago. So far we've had no problems, other than a couple baby chickens that had poop stuck to their butt, which I cleaned off after reading about it on this site.

Today I noticed that my little baby turkey who has been doing flawless so far, is swollen under the butt area. the butt hole (vent?) looks like normal as far as I know, and doesn't have any poop stuck to it externally, but the area bellow that is swollen with no feathers and feels almost like a little water balloon. The turkey has always been very social and comes running up to me and likes to sit in/on my hand and loves his treats, and still seems to be acting the same.

What could that be, and what can I do???

Thanks.

PS: for what it's worth, I was feeding them DUMOR chick starter/grower until 2 days ago when I ran out, and the store was all out of it, so I temporarily got the DUMOR chick starter for turkey/quail/etc...They said the only difference was higher protein content and that it would be fine for all the birds. Makes sense to me. I mean we don't get sick if we eat more protein than our daily requirement. And in nature birds just eat whatever and don't get "food rations". Could that change in diet have anything to do with it, and what can I do to help little Turk???

Hi. Figured I'd bump this thread incase somebody hasn't seen it. Really hoping that somebody can help me before little Turk dies.

I also wanted to update on something I tried last night. Not know anything about birds, the only thing I could think of in that area was that maybe Turk was constipated. So I put some very warm water in the bathtub, and tried setting him in it. He didn't seem very excited about that and tried standing very tall and tried to climb on my hand. He like sitting on my hand when he gets snacks or is resting. So I tried getting him to sit down in my hand, and then with the other hand gently held him in that position and lowered him into the water until his lower half was under water. Then I gently massaged his belly (No idea what all the bird names for parts are. lol) and that swollen area for a while. suddenly he raised his wings off of his body about 1/4-1/2", extended his neck and started looking like he was straining or something, and suddenly a HUGE almost goose like poop came out, and a little while later another somewhat smaller poop. I kept him in the warm water a little while longer to see if anymore would come out, but it didn't. After that he seemed a little more cheerful, seemed to move a little more excited, and when I brought in a hand full of mealworms for all the chickens, Turk was especially aggressive at trying to make sure he got his share. So I was hoping that fixed it, but it seems today he's back to not being overly excited. I noticed this morning that he didn't try to jump/fly the almost 2 foot height to sit on the edge of the cage with the chickens to greet me.

Any ideas? Please help.

I'm going to try the warm water massage again to see if it works again.

also I have no idea if it's a male/female Turkey. I'm hoping for a Tom because they look so much more impressive, but also kinda hoping for a Hen because the eggs would be nice to have. But I named the bird "Turk" and it just sounds better to say "he". LOL

Could something be pecking at his butt?

I guess one of the other birds could be, I'd have to watch a little closer. but I don't see anything like blood or scars or anything that would hint at another bird pecking at it's butt.

Do you have any yogurt around? Are you able to move him for a few days to monitor his rear? If not, then don't worry about it. I just wanted to see if the swelling would go down if he were alone, possibly meaning that someone is pecking on his rear end.

How is he doing this morning? Is he back to his old self?

There is some yoplait light in the fridge, but I don't eat it because it has "Aspartame" in it.

He still seems swollen this morning, so I gave him another very warm bath which seemed to make him squeeze out another 2 large (i think) poops. Not sure if it's just coincidence or if maybe I'm scaring the crap out of him. It didn't seem to really help with the swelling that much. right now he's sitting under the heat lamp warming up and drying his feathers. Then I was going to let him hang out in the living room with me for a while and watch a movie or something so I could see if I can get a picture of his belly/butt area, and to see if he actually is pooping by himself or not.

Couple other thing that I just thought about that have recently changed. Since all the birds were barely a couple days old my son and I have been catching life flies, worms, grubs, millipedes and other insects, or bought live mealworms and waxworms from the store to feed them. but the other day when I changed their feed to the DUMOR chick starter (for turkey and other game birds) I also bought one of the large bins of dried mealworms since I was all out of live mealworms. I also removed the ducks from the enclosure and put them out in the garage, but that seems more like a good thing since now the bedding stays much cleaner, it doesn't smell as much, and the chickens have more room. And I also when from 2 heat lamps (red bulb) down to 1 heat lamp (red bulb).

any thoughts???

oh I had this crazy Idea of trying to give Turk some olive oil or vegetable oil to make make things "slide out" easier if it is in fact constipation. thoughts???

what else could be wrong in that area other than constipation other than.......well.......any one of his organs failing or swelling to the size of a large marble??? (the LARGE marble. or maybe just a bit smaller than a pingpong ball.

oh and i'm not sure if it's just because of the swelling or something, but his butt--hole looks like it's "longer". not like it's inverted (prolapse???), but just like it grew out a little bit. I thought maybe it was because of the swelling and it's being pushed out a little, or it was just temporarily swollen due to pushing so hard. and it looks like the butt--hole is constantly "convulsing". like the muscle is contracting/relaxing/contracting/relaxing over and over.

not sure if any of that helps.


(this site sensors the word "butt--hole"??? isn't that were it seems half the health problems with these critters are??? ok so what is the proper word to use for a chicken/turkey/duck/goose butt--hole???....hey i'm still learning)

in this picture his butt is a little wet like he's oozing some white poop or something from his butt. the part that looks kinda red in the pic is just from the camera. I looked again after I took the pic, and there is nothing red or irritated looking, other than the purple swollen part of his belly.


here you can see a little bit where the belly looks a little darker and slightly swollen. it doesn't look as bad in the pic as in person, because Turk didn't want to pose properly for the picture. you can also see where his butt--hole looks a little "longer".




maybe these pics will help figure out what's going on. Thanks again.

Is it hanging out????????????

Holding poop can cause what it looks like he has.

kuntrygirl said:

Is it hanging out????????????

Click to expand...

is what hanging out?

kuntrygirl said:

Holding poop can cause what it looks like he has.

Click to expand...

"holding".....as in....he doesn't want to poop, or as in he's constipated??? He hung out with me for about 1/2-1hour earlier and while I was posting those pics, and the whole time was just sleeping on my lap. then we went for a walk into the kitchen where I was going to feed him some mealworms soaked in olive oil (I don't know. seemed like a good idea) and while in the kitchen, he made another huge (i think) poop. I took a picture if you think it'll help. it was about 2 pennies long, almost 1 penny wide, and quite thick. I don't know anything about birds, but just last week when he pooped on my arm 3x it wasn't nearly that big. So to my untrained eye, this recent poop looked a little to large for such a small bird.

what do you think I should do??? or should I just go ahead and get 1 or 2 more turkeys incase this one can't be helped???

Do you think I should keep giving him the warm water baths, or some more olive oil???