Blackhead Yikes!

[jmcqueen13]

Hi everyone, I recently acquired four royal palm turkeys. One little tom, and three hens. They are 12 weeks old. One hen acted a little puney on Sunday, and next morning, we found dead in the pen. Bam, just like that! I researched my head off and found that its blackhead. I scrambled to get meds and asked my turkey groups for dosage/application... Second hen is acting the same way this morning so I have given first dose of metronidazole (125 mg powder dissolved in nutridrench given by dropper.) Fingers crossed she will be alive and if I'm lucky she'll even be better when I get home. Here's my question: Do I treat the other two, although theyre not showing symptoms? And if I don't treat them with metronidazole, should I treat them with ivermectin just as a preventative? Let me add that I'm extremely attached to the little tom, as I helped him hatch two days after the others when we found he was shrinkwrapped inside the egg. I've raised him from a hatchling. If he dies, I'll probably have to be committed somewhere. Thanks, any advice welcomed!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Sorry about your loss. I had some issue that I think could of been blackhead back when I had turkeys. I didn't know that there was actually treatment for it until reading your post. I think that you should treat the others. Though I got a couple of my turkeys to slaughter before they showed symptoms, I lost a few to it. It'll spread. It'd probably be best to treat them all at the same time, instead of waiting till they show symptoms and get it out of all their systems. I could be wrong though...