5 day old turkey poult not eating on its own

[skyehunter85]

hello, i have a turkey poult that is 5 days old. i hatched it myself via an incubator and the egg was collected from my own birds. when this baby hatched it had a hard time, and it took forever to come out of the shell. right away i noticed that it had what appeared to be a clubbed foot. its not terrible but its noticable. after around 24 hours i put it in the brooder with my other hatchlings( they were hatching at different rates but the oldest at the time of this one going in was 3 days old). the next morning when i went in to feed and change water, it was lying on its side and its legs were purple.. i have never experienced this before so i grabbed it and checked it out. it seemed very out of it and weak. i medicine droppered it some water and some liquified food ( just mushed up the gamebird starter and then pureed it) it took it well and by the end of the day it was pecking at the mash off of a spoon and much more stable. i kept it by itself in a brooder under heat with a stuffed bear for companionship ( actually pretty cute its now quite attached to the bear). on day 3 it was very active and doing much better so i put a day old baby pheasant with it ( all my birds brood together so this is not a new thing). all was well until this morning when i noticed it was lethargic again. so i have started hand feeding it again and its perking up.

now with that said, this morning i also saw it appear to have a siezure.. now i am not certain if turkeys can have siezures but it definitely looked like that is what was happening.. it suddenly dropped onto its side and was shaking and one leg was stretched out and stiff and the other was kicking.. it lasted maybe 30 seconds but it was very disoriented at that point. i watched it for a while and it seemed to be ok again.

i guess my questions are.. A) how do i get the bird to eat on its own? i dont think it can peck at the food because it seems to fall over on its face when it tries unless i am holding it.
B) if it is actually having siezures what can i do... C) is there anything i can do for the leg/foot that is turned in?

thank you very much please feel free to ask me questions!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

More than likely it will die as it sounds like there's something wrong with it. I would keep up your feedings, it's possible it will improve, it's potentially having seizures from low blood sugars, make sure what you're feeding has some form of glucose included, whether it's regular sugar or a premade electrolyte mix. Unfortunately not all make it. Sorry I don't have and good advice for you, but to keep trying, you never know. I would keep it alive and get it eating before worrying about the foot.

 

[skyehunter85]

thank you! that was my thought, cant hurt to try and i personally dont have the heart to find a way to put it to sleep. i am feeding it every couple of hours at this point. tonight i will start feeding it over night as well . there is gamebird starter crumbles in the brooder as well as fresh water so she has the ability to eat if she tries and succeeds, but i will continue to supplement and feed it myself... i think it is a girl so we named her sammy that way no matter hen or tom the name fits.. my mother in law keeps trying to call it thanksgiving cause we wont eat it for thanksgiving and it is thankful to have hatched to someone willing to try .

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Keep us posted with pictures.

Drop on over to the NY Chicken Lover thread.i need another person in this area.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

How's the baby turkey?

 

[skyehunter85]

She was doing good for a bit but she unfortunately passed away a few days ago

 

[casportpony]

She was doing good for a bit but she unfortunately passed away a few days ago

Sorry for your loss @skyehunter85

-Kathy

 

[skyehunter85]

Thank you