5.5 months old turkey (young jake) attacked by bobcat…. Advice please!!!

[FireStar89]

Good morning friends,

Our sweet boy, Frost, was attacked this morning by a bobcat (the bastard has already taken at least 3 of our other birds since February 2024 when we started our flock).

I have attached pictures and I’ve checked him over, he has a lot of feathers gone, 2 decent wounds (the meat is exposed and I’ve applied wound care treatment to them. My main concern is his neck wound. The skin/feathers was torn from his actual neck, like exposing his neck tissues, and pretty much is a flap just hanging. He won’t eat pellets but we did get him to eat a couple pork rinds. Will the wound grow back or does it need to be stitched back? All help appreciated!!!!

 

[alinas2010]

Sorry to hear about your turkey. Can you trim all the feathers out of his wounds? That will help keep them a bit more sanitary and be easier to look at. It sounds like you’re doing well treating the wounds otherwise. Rinse them out well with a wound spray or saline and then apply a triple antibiotic ointment or cream (make sure none of the sprays or ointments you apply have pain relief in them).

Can you get some clear pictures in good lighting of his neck wound and flap of skin once you trim the feathers back? It looks like a large flap of skin hanging, but I can’t really tell how deep the wound is or large for sure the flap is.

General consensus is usually not to stitch or sew anything back into place because it creates a pocket for bacteria to grow in and nowhere for drainage if the wound isn’t cleaned out enough before sewing, but sometimes you can use some ointment and sort of “glue” the skin back into place if it is a small enough flap. Other times it’s best just to cut the skin off or let it dry up and fall off itself as the wound closes up. Seeing more pictures of it would help determine the best course of action. For now keep it packed with ointment.

It sounds like he might be in shock from the attack still. Try to get him to drink some electrolytes with a bit of sugar mixed in. Gently dip his beak in to get him interested. He might like some egg yolk or wetted down feed turned into mash, also. Keep him somewhere warm, dim and quiet for a bit until he pulls out of shock.