Adult Turkeys fine today dead tomorrow

[Alaska Jeff]

Very strange--- I had 10 turkeys poults, 8 made it to adulthood (1.5 years old).

I've lost 3 adult turkeys now in the last 5 months, they have plenty of water, I feed them sunflower seeds, oats, corn and 21% pellets. They have a huge coop thats well insulated.

I check on them everyday and have never noticed any lethargy. They are fine- then the next day I come out and I have a full grown hen dead on her back.

A few months later the same thing different bird.

And two weeks ago I have a dead Tom, but he isnt on his back.

My friend who lives 15 miles away is also experiencing the same issues with his Turkeys! I cut all three of my turkeys open and found a green and hard yellow growth in 2 of them located breast meat, the third one had a similar intermuscular growth but it was much lower near the abdominal area.

My friend who has completely different unrelated turkeys has lost four Adult Turkeys in three months under similar circumstances and observations....

Any clue what I should be looking for? Any idea on whats happening? It isnt black head...

 

[Alaska Jeff]

And it isnt predators

 

[sfgwife]

I would call the state lab and one of you at least needs to have a bird necropsied.

 

[R2elk]

Very strange--- I had 10 turkeys poults, 8 made it to adulthood (1.5 years old).

I've lost 3 adult turkeys now in the last 5 months, they have plenty of water, I feed them sunflower seeds, oats, corn and 21% pellets. They have a huge coop thats well insulated.

I check on them everyday and have never noticed any lethargy. They are fine- then the next day I come out and I have a full grown hen dead on her back.

A few months later the same thing different bird.

And two weeks ago I have a dead Tom, but he isnt on his back.

My friend who lives 15 miles away is also experiencing the same issues with his Turkeys! I cut all three of my turkeys open and found a green and hard yellow growth in 2 of them located breast meat, the third one had a similar intermuscular growth but it was much lower near the abdominal area.

My friend who has completely different unrelated turkeys has lost four Adult Turkeys in three months under similar circumstances and observations....

Any clue what I should be looking for? Any idea on whats happening? It isnt black head...

I highly recommend that you change their diet. Sunflower seeds and corn in particular are very high fat foods. They should be considered as treats and all treats together should not consist of more than 10% of their total diet.

You have adult hens but make no mention of providing oyster shell free choice or any mention that the 21% pellets are or are not layer feed. If you are not providing layer feed or free choice oyster shell, among other things, your birds may also be suffering from a calcium deficiency (especially any laying hens).