Hand-Rearing a Baby Turkey and Need Help!

[ichimander]

For a short backstory, I'm taking care of my mom's turkeys while she's out, and one of them was nesting for her first time. Two babies hatched out, and she completely abandoned the nest after. One of the babies died while I was still letting momma turkey be a momma turkey, so I've taken the other one with me, and he's been my constant companion for about 5 days now.

He lives in a plastic tub right now, and I keep a light on one end to keep him warm.

Yesterday I noticed he was congested and sneezing, so I went to the feed store and the guy who helped me told me to mix tetracycline into his water to fight anything he may have caught.

I did that yesterday and he seemed to perk up, he was even quite noisy last night so I had to move him into the room adjacent me so I could sleep.

Here's where my worry's come in now. He's been quiet all morning. I poked my head into the room and called him- he usually responds by peeping, but nothing. So I went over to him and stroked him, and he opened his eyes but just closed them again. I placed him outside of his box, and while he usually starts following me around, he just sat there and closed his eyes again. I'm really concerned because he hasn't been this way.

Is there anything I can do, or do I just need to leave him be? I've grown quite attached to the little guy and I just want him to be okay.

 

[frank53061]

If I understood you are down to 1 Poult and if that's the case Turkeys are very social birds and need company almost all the time and have been told that depression is a possibility among Turkeys now it could be that it or is just sick.
The Hen may have abandoned them because she could sense something was wrong with them or was just not a good mother.
Poults till several weeks of age are hard for some to keep alive.
All you can do is your best and no more.
There maybe some one here with more helpful information.
Best of luck.

 

[MamaBear46]

my babies were hatched on the 15th of august ...they have taken to sleeping during the day Alot! and of course like any other baby they are up when momma(me) wants to sleep .I don't know if that is the norm as these are my first babies so maybe that helps?

 

[Arielle]

How is the poult today--have you been able to get the medicine in? Sometimes when they are sick they are not drinking, if that is where the medicine is the poult is not getting his meds.

So feed him his meds by mouth. and water and food of course. I often feed dulited molasses and gatorade to support sick animals. Use lemon-lime, this was the flavor recommeded by my sheep vet, so I use only this flavor. You can buy it concentrated in a tub.

In my limited experience, survival at this point is difficult. But still worth the effort.