Some background: This is my third Spring with turkeys, my second Spring breeding/incubating eggs. I am not new to turks or anything like that... I spend my free time hanging out with them, observing them and researching them. My flock is pastured and has access to an old horse barn. I have one tom, four hens, all about a year old, all heritage birds. I alternate Rooster Booster and ACV in their water daily, then once a week I give them cayenne pepper in the water and over food, followed by vitamins in plain greek yogurt. They have DE on their feed as well (I give them bird seeds and hardboiled eggs as a treat, and they're on gamebird maintenance/finisher feed). No one has ever been sick... until now...
Week before last, everyone was okay, I was getting 3-4 eggs a day (I got 5 one day!), but then they began to taper off... then I noticed a few watery-than-normal poos, so I gave them some cayenne pepper (this was on Friday 4/18). On Saturday, my husband and I had to visit family, so we had my mother-in-law look after the turks. The temps were in the 70's or so... not too hot. On Sunday evening, when we came back, three of my hens were lethargic, drooping wings, not eating (but drinking a LOT) and they had the horrible yellow "egg-drop-soup poops" that were consistent with everything I've read (and experienced) about blackhead disease. And only two eggs for two days...
**I do have a little experience with this disease... I had an outbreak last year, it killed two of my birds (one happened to be my favorite hen...) and they both had these same symptoms. We did an autopsy on them and they had the lesions on their livers... just like everything I've read about blackhead... we burned their bodies afterwards, and moved everyone who survived into the horse barn (which is everyone in my flock now)**
On Monday, I put Wazine into their water, along with ACV, vitamins and garlic slices, prayed for the best. My tom and the other hen were just fine. Their poos were totally okay, eating and acting fine. The other three hens just kept to themselves... wings barely off of the ground, necks like limp noodles, just kind of sleeping wherever. I continued to put loads of vitamins in their water. All of their faces were pale, almost white. On Wednesday, I was sitting with them, and a buzzard came by to see if he could have anything... he was RIGHT over the roof... so terrifying... On Thursday night, I wanted to try something... I purchased Safeguard for goats, and put it into their water with greek yogurt, cayenne pepper, ACV and vitamins. I'm not sure how much I put in, maybe 1/4th of the bottle? My other hen began to be lethargic, so I was willing to take a chance. I made this concoction and put it out for Friday morning. I get home from work on Friday evening, and the ENTIRE bucket of water is gone. It wasn't hot, they didn't spill it... I seriously have never seen them go through water like that.
I walked into their pen, and the hens came over to greet me! Then I went to give them food and they swarmed me! They ate like horses! They cleaned the whole bowl of food out! I poured in fresh, clean water and they were so happy about it, chasing bubbles and things... one of the hens was pecking at my pants (like she always does)! No one seemed lethargic, they were like completely different birds. There were no more egg-drop-soup poos, the color had come back to their faces... their poos are not completely normal, still kind of watery, but they're white and have solids!
Today, they're still eating like mad, re-establishing ranks, BREEDING even and their poos are slowly returning to normal... still a little watery, but normal colors. I am beginning to get eggs again, only once a day... they do have access to oyster shell, too.
So my question is: is there anything that mimics blackhead like this? Has anyone else had something like this happen?! What was it?
Thanks for reading!
Week before last, everyone was okay, I was getting 3-4 eggs a day (I got 5 one day!), but then they began to taper off... then I noticed a few watery-than-normal poos, so I gave them some cayenne pepper (this was on Friday 4/18). On Saturday, my husband and I had to visit family, so we had my mother-in-law look after the turks. The temps were in the 70's or so... not too hot. On Sunday evening, when we came back, three of my hens were lethargic, drooping wings, not eating (but drinking a LOT) and they had the horrible yellow "egg-drop-soup poops" that were consistent with everything I've read (and experienced) about blackhead disease. And only two eggs for two days...
**I do have a little experience with this disease... I had an outbreak last year, it killed two of my birds (one happened to be my favorite hen...) and they both had these same symptoms. We did an autopsy on them and they had the lesions on their livers... just like everything I've read about blackhead... we burned their bodies afterwards, and moved everyone who survived into the horse barn (which is everyone in my flock now)**
On Monday, I put Wazine into their water, along with ACV, vitamins and garlic slices, prayed for the best. My tom and the other hen were just fine. Their poos were totally okay, eating and acting fine. The other three hens just kept to themselves... wings barely off of the ground, necks like limp noodles, just kind of sleeping wherever. I continued to put loads of vitamins in their water. All of their faces were pale, almost white. On Wednesday, I was sitting with them, and a buzzard came by to see if he could have anything... he was RIGHT over the roof... so terrifying... On Thursday night, I wanted to try something... I purchased Safeguard for goats, and put it into their water with greek yogurt, cayenne pepper, ACV and vitamins. I'm not sure how much I put in, maybe 1/4th of the bottle? My other hen began to be lethargic, so I was willing to take a chance. I made this concoction and put it out for Friday morning. I get home from work on Friday evening, and the ENTIRE bucket of water is gone. It wasn't hot, they didn't spill it... I seriously have never seen them go through water like that.
I walked into their pen, and the hens came over to greet me! Then I went to give them food and they swarmed me! They ate like horses! They cleaned the whole bowl of food out! I poured in fresh, clean water and they were so happy about it, chasing bubbles and things... one of the hens was pecking at my pants (like she always does)! No one seemed lethargic, they were like completely different birds. There were no more egg-drop-soup poos, the color had come back to their faces... their poos are not completely normal, still kind of watery, but they're white and have solids!
Today, they're still eating like mad, re-establishing ranks, BREEDING even and their poos are slowly returning to normal... still a little watery, but normal colors. I am beginning to get eggs again, only once a day... they do have access to oyster shell, too.
So my question is: is there anything that mimics blackhead like this? Has anyone else had something like this happen?! What was it?
Thanks for reading!