Blackhead disease in Turkeys . How long

[db7420]

Hello,

I lost one Tom to what I think is Blackleg. His mate I kept seperate after his death for about two weeks. Thinking she was all right, I placed her in with my remaining pair.

In about two days she started exhibiting the drooping wings, ruffled feathers, standing away by herself, drooling and loose dropings but not the yellow sulpher kind.

I placed her back into her own pen again and now five days later she looks better again. Her dropings are harder and still no yellow sulpher color. She is easting and drinking.

Any ideas?

 

[ivan3]

db7420 Welcome, sorry your turk's doing poorly. I am assuming the other pair is still healthy, yes? Did your tom exhibit the same symptoms, as the hen, before he died? Did the tom have yellow stools (along with the other symptoms)?

I'm providing a link to the Merck Vet manual on Blackhead and, if this thread isn't moved to Diseases/Cures, please post again in that subject line for quicker response and info on possible treatment.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203000.htm

Again, welcome. And I hope the hen keeps improving.

John

 

[hinkjc]

You can't be certain what your turkey had that caused his death without a necropsy. Those symptoms could lead to many conclusions. I am starting with those statements because if you truly want to save the rest, you're going to need to consult a farm or poultry vet to come out and take samples.

Blackhead is not a common disease as many would think. Contact your local ag dept and ask them when the last outbreak of blackhead was in your county. I'll bet they haven't heard of one in many, many years. Some more likely issues would be coccidiosis, overload of internal parasites, respiratory diseases (i.e. MS, MG, IB, CRD, etc).

The only treatment for blackhead that I am aware of is metronidazole, which must be obtained from a vet. We thought we had blackhead one year and a vet came out and swabbed our birds and took fecal samples to confirm it was actually cocci, which is very treatable. Please know what you are treating before you start treating hastily. Good luck and I'm very sorry for what you're going through.

Jody

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck, I moved this to the Emergencies/Diseases/Injuries section.

I don't know much about black head, except that a poultry sci prof in oregon said I didn't have to worry about it here, and the chances were next to nill in this area.

 

[Pine Grove]

BlackHead is real common in the Southeastern states, Also birds dont always show the sulfur colored droppings, only yellow when the cecum is infected..Spartrix,Ronidazole, Methronidazole and Dacoxine is effective in the treatment..They all can be obtained with out a Vets prescription

 

[angidee]

I don't know much about black head, except that a poultry sci prof in oregon said I didn't have to worry about it here, and the chances were next to nill in this area.

I see this thread is from quite some time ago...anyone know if the Northwestern states have any issue with this???​