Another Sick Turkey Poult

[HomesteadLiving1]

I have another sick turkey poult and I still don't know what's going on. The last sick turkey poult we had had blackness of the beak, blackness on feet along with swollen feet. It died about a month after its symptom showed, though it had a strong appetite up until about two before it died. This current one has browning on its beak but this time it has some blackness around the eye and it looks like it's constantly in a sleepy state. Nothing is wrong with its feet. It drinks a lot of water (which I have infused with some oregano and vitamin / electrolyte powder), but does not have a strong appetite. It's sibling had similar symptoms but died within four days of the symptom showing up. It is isolated from the other turkeys, but the third turkey in their group did not and has not developed any symptoms, so we're not sure if it's contagious or if they were born with it. Any advice and suggestions would be greatly welcomed. Here are some pictures below of our current sick turkey. This was from a few days ago. Every time I go out there to check on it, I don't have my phone with me to get more current picture, but it doesn't look much different than this except for maybe the eyes are more sleepy like with some more black hardness around the eye. The eyes have been sticking together and I've been rinsing it with saline solution.

 

[R2elk]

@casportpony

 

[kfelton0002]

I've never encountered this, but I do hope you can get some answers. I know how frustrating it is to lose young birds and not know why. I had a week old Royal Palm poult die yesterday. It has been fine and then it just started flipping over and couldn't keep itself in a normal position. Before I could even start vitamins/electrolytes it had passed. Young turkeys are tender.

It could be some type of mycoplasma or bacterial infection so I would start baytril (enrofloxacin) if you have any on hand and some tylan 50 (tylosin) for good measure. Do you have those meds on hand?

 

[kfelton0002]

With bayril (enrofloxacin) you can individually dose with the injectable or use the water soluble powder. For young birds you can use the small quart sized waterers and add 1/4 tsp of water soluble enrofloxacin. Or you can mix 1 tsp per gallon. We have injectable tylan and we usually dose at 1ml per 5 lb. You would have to weigh your poult to dose accurately. I'm not sure what the dosage for the water soluble tylan is off the top of my head. You can buy injectable tylan at TSC. It's in the large livestock section.

 

[HomesteadLiving1]

I've never encountered this, but I do hope you can get some answers. I know how frustrating it is to lose young birds and not know why. I had a week old Royal Palm poult die yesterday. It has been fine and then it just started flipping over and couldn't keep itself in a normal position. Before I could even start vitamins/electrolytes it had passed. Young turkeys are tender.

It could be some time of mycoplasma or bacterial infection so I would start baytril (enrofloxacin) if you have any on hand and some tylan 50 (tylosin) for good measure. Do you have those meds on hand?

No I don't have those, but I'll call the local feed store. If they don't have it, they'll point me in the right direction. They gave me VetRX for the first turkey that died because it's initial symptoms included respiratory problems (which cleared up within days, so we thought it was doing better until it died) The current one doesn't seem to have that problem. This is my first year incubating and raising turkey poults. We got four- one day old poults from the feed store last year and we had no problems raising them, so this is all new to us.

 

[kfelton0002]

No I don't have those, but I'll call the local feed store. If they don't have it, they'll point me in the right direction. They gave me VetRX for the first turkey that died because it's initial symptoms included respiratory problems (which cleared up within days, so we thought it was doing better until it died) The current one doesn't seem to have that problem. This is my first year incubating and raising turkey poults. We got four- one day old poults from the feed store last year and we had no problems raising them, so this is all new to us.

The sleepy state, poor appetite, and swelling of its sinuses sure strikes as something mycoplasma or similar. My instinct tells me to lay the tylan and antibiotics to it. As long as it's drinking for now that's a good sign so you can get some meds in it if you could find some water soluble but it won't last too long without eating.

 Do you have a local vet that could give you some meds? I know vetRX can be helpful with respiratory illness but it is no antibiotic and your bird(s) need an antibiotic and medicine that kills mycoplasma like tylan. I am no vet but I've medicated a lot of chickens in my life (and more recently turkeys) so take my advice with a grain of salt. I just know without medicine you are losing birds so I want to offer what help I can give.

 

[kfelton0002]

Doxycycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline, enrofloxacin... whatever you can get your hands on. I know it's slim pickings nowadays and you can't find much locally without ordering it. If you have no luck finding meds, a vet would be able to get you meds if you have one close that will look at a turkey.

 

[HomesteadLiving1]

The sleepy state, poor appetite, and swelling of its sinuses sure strikes as something mycoplasma or similar. My instinct tells me to lay the tylan and antibiotics to it. As long as it's drinking for now that's a good sign so you can get some meds in it if you could find some water soluble but it won't last too long without eating.

 Do you have a local vet that could give you some meds? I know vetRX can be helpful with respiratory illness but it is no antibiotic and your bird(s) need an antibiotic and medicine that kills mycoplasma like tylan. I am no vet but I've medicated a lot of chickens in my life (and more recently turkeys) so take my advice with a grain of salt. I just know without medicine you are losing birds so I want to offer what help I can give.

I've called 4 local vets and they don't treat chickens or turkeys. I keep getting referral for other vets but they don't treat birds. I'm currently reaching out to two other possibilities. I'm surprised that there arent more local vets that treat farm birds considering I live out in the country. Since this sick one seems to have stopped eating for the most part (it may have nibble on its food once or twice in the past 24 hours), I don't have to much hope for it (but I'm going to keep trying). While I am going to do the best that I can for this one, I am looking more answers in case we have another poult get it and maybe treat it fast enough , but more importantly prevent it. I've done my research, but I'm not sure how it's spreading. I'm assuming it's contagious but the other poults that were with it before isolation have no symptoms whatsoever.

 

[kfelton0002]

I've called 4 local vets and they don't treat chickens or turkeys. I keep getting referral for other vets but they don't treat birds. I'm currently reaching out to two other possibilities. I'm surprised that there arent more local vets that treat farm birds considering I live out in the country. Since this sick one seems to have stopped eating for the most part (it may have nibble on its food once or twice in the past 24 hours), I don't have to much hope for it (but I'm going to keep trying). While I am going to do the best that I can for this one, I am looking more answers in case we have another poult get it and maybe treat it fast enough , but more importantly prevent it. I've done my research, but I'm not sure how it's spreading. I'm assuming it's contagious but the other poults that were with it before isolation have no symptoms whatsoever.

If it is mycoplasma it's highly contagious. The current poult could have been incubating it for a while before it began displaying symptoms. If the poults have been exposed to other poultry or birds they could have picked it up from them. It is highly likely the others were exposed as well if they were all together. Their immune systems may be strong enough to hold it at bay for longer. Just watch them and I would go ahead and order some meds. I get most of my poultry meds from ebay. If you own poultry long enough you are bound to encounter illness at some point or another so it's always good to have meds on hand and antibiotics. Now I keep baytril on hand and metronidazole as I recently had to treat my poults for blackhead.

 

[HomesteadLiving1]

If it is mycoplasma it's highly contagious. The current poult could have been incubating it for a while before it began displaying symptoms. If the poults have been exposed to other poultry or birds they could have picked it up from them. It is highly likely the others were exposed as well if they were all together. Their immune systems may be strong enough to hold it at bay for longer. Just watch them and I would go ahead and order some meds. I get most of my poultry meds from ebay. If you own poultry long enough you are bound to encounter illness at some point or another so it's always good to have meds on hand and antibiotics. Now I keep baytril on hand and metronidazole as I recently had to treat my poults for blackhead.

I do have the other two isolated as well and am keeping an eye on them. I finally found a vet who treats turkeys and I'm bringing it in first thing tomorrow morning. I'm definitely going to be asking the vet about all that and see if I can stock up on all that. My in-laws have had chickens for about 10 years now and the only problem they've had with them is bumble foot. Turkeys are becoming more high maintenance (which I'm totally fine with, I have a good bond with the adult ones). Thank you so much for the advice. I'll keep you posted.