3 month old turkey pecking holes in his own legs?

[chickenwing225]

the only thing that kept him from pecking his own legs was bandages
today i see scabs and warts on his head
i wonder could it be pox ill try to get a picture and post it if i can

 

[chickenwing225]

what is it pox???

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Looks like pox or favus to me. Is his skin color normally blueish?

We had pox here this year - almost that bad, but not quite. It lasts 4 weeks. You'll want to treat all of those sores on him with iodine.You're going to have to be particularly careful around his eye there. That should be treated twice daily with neosporin so that if the neosporin gets in his eye it's ok. Maybe the neosporin ointment will soften the scab so you can take it off (gently) and then just treat the under-sore.

He's going to need vitamins/electrolytes in his water. I would also give him vitamin E daily - 1 400-700 IU capsule's contents in the beak daily - to reduce inflammation and help healing. You can even mix that and iodine and put it on the sores - except the one on the eye. Treat every sore on his head daily. The neck sores can be weekly.

Treat the sores on his legs the same way.

Make sure he eats. he has sores on his mouth so he may not. I would even consider giving him penicillin injections daily for four days for secondary infections. But that can wait a day.

You could also spray cod liver oil on his feed twice weekly - just use a hand-held mister bottle like for gardening. Keep in a cool dark place. Mist on top of the feed. Vitamin A is important for mucus membrane healing and those sores are getting close to that. It will also help his immune system as he's being bombarded right now. Turmeric (the spice) is also a natural anti-inflammatory. You could sprinkle that on top of the cod liver oil spritzed feed twice weekly if you want to.

At the least, treat all of those sores particularly the ones on his head. Do anything you can to keep him eating well - boiled eggs, yogurt for his digestive tract, his usual feed. Soften with water if you must. He must continue to eat.

Do the cod liver oil twice a week, and vitamin E daily.

So a summary:

Vitamin E daily
Cod liver oil twice weekly
Make sure he eats
Treat sores.

Just to make sure - that's not a fungusy stuff - the blue? is it the brown? The picture is a little unclear. Any way you could get a closeup of his eye/mouth?

 

[NotTheMomma]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2689678#p2689678

Here's another thread on this threehorses. Hope you can help her out.

 

[chickenwing225]

quote
Looks like pox or favus to me. Is his skin color normally blueish?
end quote

the turkey had fuzz on head but had started to loose it and the blue shows throug
i believe this is nornal i have 2 hens there head looks like that but do not have lesions or odd pecking or scratching behavior
i kept legs bandage and clean and put peroxide on sores and the healed up nicely
i thought i was almost done
took the bandages off sunday compleatly but he started pecking at them again so i put them back on
the lesions or warts i didnt notice untill yesterday evening
i couldnt find a picture of a turkey with pox yet i will look up favus
the information i have found so far if this is pox is you really cant do much about it it seems
if it is pox it should go away i hope
the only thing i can do i guess it treat the sores the best i can but on the eye and beak ..hard places might just keep an eye for infection unless someone has A BETTER IDEA

 

[Sillystunt]

edited by moderation:

Sillystunt - If you can't add helpful advice, please do not comment. This is your final warning.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
OK well this is a relief then. Note - the hens will probably get it. It's not spread exactly by contact - it's spread by mosquito and scabs. I'm glad to hear about his legs. You could maybe try that on his neck - not near his eye. Perhaps that will loosen the scabs. Near his mouth or eye would cause pain and near his mouth can cause him to vomit. Unless you just spot it on - with a q-tip perhaps/ On the back/outside? Not near the mouth corner?

Pox - you're right. You just treat supportively (vitamins, nutrition, treat the lesions to prevent bacterial infection) and hold your breath. It'll be very important to constantly work on his facial sores. And again - consider penicillin in the following week just in case. If those two areas swell more, definitely give him pen shots. Having it around is always a good thing. Penicillin G Procaine or regular penicillin from the feed store's refrigerator. You keep in the fridge, use a 3 cc syringe with 18 gauge needles to pull it out (after shaking and shaking and shaking it til all the stuff at the bottom is in suspension), and then you let the syringe come to room temperature after you've loaded it. Then you use it in the muscle - the breast probably being the best spot on a turkey. The dog/cat syringes come with a screw on/off needle that is 25 gauge. Buy the separate 18 gauge needles as penicillin particles are large and the med is very very thick, so you need the larger needles. Depending on which you choose, we can get a dosage for you. Pen-G is every other day.

My turkeys got it this year. They didn't get the mouth and eye location, but very very close. Their necks were actually more covered than yours - every single raised spot was covered. Even though I've had years of experience with avian pox/chicken, this was my first turkey case. It was so bad I thought that maybe they had some other disease, but it was just pox. They get it worse because they have a lot more unfeathered area.

So expect it might get worse before better. Just hold your breath and look for swelling. Preventing the secondary bacterial infection is the biggest thing.

I'd love to know how this goes for you.

Oh and by the way, mine seemed like it would never leave. On the day before its last day the birds were absolutely covered with it - as much brown scab as pink on their faces. The next day I went out to the barn and BOOM - all pink faces. Not one scab. You'd think they never ever had it! So strange. Unfortunately scabs are infective, so you might want to clean your bedding after (and throw it away). But if you keep turkeys, you might just consider vaccinating new turkeys for pox next year. (This bird will never get it again since he's had it once). I sure am going to - I never want to go through turkey-pox again.

 

[NotTheMomma]

threehorses, thanks hun! I wasn't sure what advice to offer as it was outta my league. At least now I'll know what it looks like in a turkey for next time this issue comes up. Much worse looking than the chickens, eh? But same type of treatment. I wonder if it itches like people chicken pox does. Could be why it's been pecking the legs. Dunno. Glad to know it's something that is simply, though looks much worse than actually is.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
You're very welcome. Last year I could have told you about chicken pox, but not the turkey version. I've had turkeys for years but never had it until this last batch. Last year's hen didn't get it this year or last, this years babies and young hens got it terribly.

And yes - the treatment is much the same as with chickens, but probably stronger and with more of an eye on penicillin just in case. They get SO much of it with all that unfeathered area.

Here's a good typical picture of turkey pox as it normally appears on a white turkey's head:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/htm/bc/poupx03.htm

That's a light case, really. This turkey is lucky as it has not gone to her eyes or mouth corners yet.

 

[chickenwing225]

thank you for the information
i will do as you said
the lesions came up pretty fast
i didnt notice them on the head until the yesterday eve
he looks pretty bad but eats drinks and dust normal
i guess he was eating the lesions off his legs at first? i never saw any just him pecking
i did a search on avian pox and on this site there is a picture of a chicken with bumps on its cone a few minutes ago
about a month ago i saw those on a barred rock rooster i have in a pen about 50 yards from the turkeys
at the time i didnt not know that it was pox
but i do know it looked exactly like the picture but it was not very bad just 3 or 4 spot that looked like he had got into ants
they healed up pretty fast and there is no evidenvce they were ever there now
we got plenty of mosquitoes here i will keep a look out for the others
i was kind of scared to fool with the turkeys head too much till i identifyed the problem it might have been contagous to human or something.
as for the barred rock rooster i probably wouldnt have saw the (POX) if i didnt pick him up
i wouldnt have known
ill have to check out the others
the turkey lesions look nothing like the ant bite looking spots on the chicken but i did find a picture of a turkey a minute ago and it seems it may get a lot worse before it gets better.

i was not sure if the leg thing had anything to do with the pox i guess it did
i started another post because i wasnt sure if it was the same problem and posted the pictures
some people had no answers just attacks like i had neglected the turkey
i thought this forum was here to help i was trying my best to do right for the turkey
if i took advise from some they say kill it
the turkey does not seem to be in pain but it does appear to itch
the turkey head has not been like this but for a day or so
saturday it was not like this
i saw it sunday evening
i will do as you say
i will watch for infection and if the turkey does not get infected i will let nature take it course
unless he get really bad shape
i will do all i can
i will look into a vaccination i didnt know they was such a thing
i never knew about pox before
for all who honestly tryed to help thank you
if someone post a picture in the future i will know what it is
and i will soon find out what will work or wont work
thanks