Distressed Poult

[DonnaBee]

Hi I am new to raising turkeys and let me tell you this has been a difficult season for me. We have an 80 acre farm and my husband decided to buy some turkeys. We have 2 Toms and 2 hens. One of the hens decided to nest. She had 15 eggs and we let her do her thing. She came into the yard one day with a pretty severe injury and we ran down to the nest only to see that it had been raided and only a few eggs survived. We treated her and put her in a pen with the remaining eggs. She hatched 2 and the other two broken eggs we brought in and hatched ourselves. After nursing my two they are doing well and follow me everywhere. We tried introduce them to her but they want nothing to do with her. Last nite something got one of the ones that she had with her in the pen and pulled it thru the chicken wire and killed it. I was devastated. The remaining one shows no visible injuries but wants to do nothing but sleep, like hes exhausted. I have it in a separate cage with food and water and he is just laying there. I want to help hime but have no idea what to do. Could he have been injured internally during a struggle? Any advice would be appreciated.
thanks

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.
I dont know anything about turkey's, but it would seem that you need to try to get some feed and water into the poult in order for it to have a chance to survive. Make a liquidy mixture of feed and warm water together and try giving an eyedropperful of the mixture to the poult. You might have to force it into its mouth but be careful not to use too much or the poult could aspirate. You might have to do this quite often during the day in order for the poult to regain its strength until it's able to eat on its own. Good luck.

 

[DonnaBee]

Thanks for your reply. I couldnt stand him being in the cage by himself so I went and got him and am holding him now. Called hubby to pick up a dropper on the way home and will try to get some food in him asap. He looks very weak. I am not optomistic