Warning for some necropsy photos in the thread.
I had to have one of my 4 month old turkeys euthanized yesterday. I had been tube feeding her for 4 days and she didn't show any improvement, just maintained her low weight and continued to look awful. I had been giving her SMZ tablets from the vet, and she had gotten a sulfa shot and a b12 shot. I had a poult with the same symptoms about a week or two ago now, however I detected her early and after her vet visit, she cleared up the next day and now appears completely normal. This poult had been suffering awhile longer I presume, and I think I was too late for treatment. Her symptoms prior to any of this were lethargy, not eating/or drinking enough on her own, diarrhea, at one point bloody stools but those went away and didn't come back, yellow urates, and eventually her poop was mostly liquid with only a small amount of feces despite being tube fed. She also had gotten an ear infection.
The vet did blood work, found that she had a high white count and something to do with her liver. He also Xrayed her and found she had an enlarged liver, impaction in her gizzard, and gas built up in her proventriculus. Some of her other organs were obscured in the xray by gas that was filling up in her. She had some fluid in her lungs, but I don't know if it was from the tube feeding because she never aspirated (or appeared to) once when we were feeding her, nor did she regurgitate.
After a poor outlook on surviving surgery, I decided to have her euthanized to end her suffering. It hurt my heart, but I couldn't spend that kind of money and then go home with a dead bird.
My mom did an autopsy on her about an hour after she was euthanized. My mom doesn't know anything about bird anatomy, but she did her best and she took a few photos. I don't know much either, so I figured I'd ask for help. Please know I don't have access to these organs anymore. My mom threw them away afterwards, unfortunately, but I can't get mad at her because she already did a lot just by opening her up in the first place.
This was her liver. Mom said the white nodules are just that- nodules, they were popping out and not just direct coloration. She didn't open the liver up.
This was her gizzard, or the inside of it. Mom said it was full of stones. This was what she got out of it.
I don't quite know what this organ is. Mom said it was coiled up between some organs that were tightly coiled and twisted together. Maybe the spleen? She said the gravelly looking stuff inside it was stuck to the sides of it, almost like it was part of the flesh.
She said there was a lot of gas. Everything was kind of blown up with gas. She said there was no blood she remembered while doing the autopsy. She didn't go as far as the heart, she had cut from the vent up the breast bone to mostly look at her liver. Her body is most likely still in the freezer at the vet clinic we work at, but the organs that she extracted she threw out.
I'm scared of it being avian leukosis. These turkeys are not around chickens. The turkeys and chickens are separate from each other. My adult turkeys were housed with chickens probably 2 or 3 years ago, but none of my adults have ever shown signs of anything. This was a 4 month old poult that I bought from a breeder at 6 weeks old. They are in a separate pen from the adult turkeys, but their pen is inside the turkey pen. The other 4 poults (2 of them her sisters, the other 2 related to my own flock) show no signs of anything being wrong at this time.
Thanks. If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them. Here was my other thread where I talked about the one who was sick but got better quickly, and also the one who we had to euthanize. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/young-turkey-sudden-lethargy.1493006/
I had to have one of my 4 month old turkeys euthanized yesterday. I had been tube feeding her for 4 days and she didn't show any improvement, just maintained her low weight and continued to look awful. I had been giving her SMZ tablets from the vet, and she had gotten a sulfa shot and a b12 shot. I had a poult with the same symptoms about a week or two ago now, however I detected her early and after her vet visit, she cleared up the next day and now appears completely normal. This poult had been suffering awhile longer I presume, and I think I was too late for treatment. Her symptoms prior to any of this were lethargy, not eating/or drinking enough on her own, diarrhea, at one point bloody stools but those went away and didn't come back, yellow urates, and eventually her poop was mostly liquid with only a small amount of feces despite being tube fed. She also had gotten an ear infection.
The vet did blood work, found that she had a high white count and something to do with her liver. He also Xrayed her and found she had an enlarged liver, impaction in her gizzard, and gas built up in her proventriculus. Some of her other organs were obscured in the xray by gas that was filling up in her. She had some fluid in her lungs, but I don't know if it was from the tube feeding because she never aspirated (or appeared to) once when we were feeding her, nor did she regurgitate.
After a poor outlook on surviving surgery, I decided to have her euthanized to end her suffering. It hurt my heart, but I couldn't spend that kind of money and then go home with a dead bird.
My mom did an autopsy on her about an hour after she was euthanized. My mom doesn't know anything about bird anatomy, but she did her best and she took a few photos. I don't know much either, so I figured I'd ask for help. Please know I don't have access to these organs anymore. My mom threw them away afterwards, unfortunately, but I can't get mad at her because she already did a lot just by opening her up in the first place.
This was her liver. Mom said the white nodules are just that- nodules, they were popping out and not just direct coloration. She didn't open the liver up.
This was her gizzard, or the inside of it. Mom said it was full of stones. This was what she got out of it.
I don't quite know what this organ is. Mom said it was coiled up between some organs that were tightly coiled and twisted together. Maybe the spleen? She said the gravelly looking stuff inside it was stuck to the sides of it, almost like it was part of the flesh.
She said there was a lot of gas. Everything was kind of blown up with gas. She said there was no blood she remembered while doing the autopsy. She didn't go as far as the heart, she had cut from the vent up the breast bone to mostly look at her liver. Her body is most likely still in the freezer at the vet clinic we work at, but the organs that she extracted she threw out.
I'm scared of it being avian leukosis. These turkeys are not around chickens. The turkeys and chickens are separate from each other. My adult turkeys were housed with chickens probably 2 or 3 years ago, but none of my adults have ever shown signs of anything. This was a 4 month old poult that I bought from a breeder at 6 weeks old. They are in a separate pen from the adult turkeys, but their pen is inside the turkey pen. The other 4 poults (2 of them her sisters, the other 2 related to my own flock) show no signs of anything being wrong at this time.
Thanks. If you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them. Here was my other thread where I talked about the one who was sick but got better quickly, and also the one who we had to euthanize. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/young-turkey-sudden-lethargy.1493006/
