Help! How can I get my turkeys to swallow a Metronidazole pill?

[kuntrygirl]

Were you able to give the pill to the turkey?

 

[Sally8]

No, I put the pill in a small amount of yogurt. I put him in the dog cage as I had started out doing. I don't believe he ate any of it overnight. I'll be getting home early and I'll con someone in to helping me this afternoon. He is no worse and I haven't seen any yellow poop but outside I saw light brownish that looked frothy, not liquid but not firm. I wish I had left him inside the dog crate as it has just poured all day. He has a lot of area to be out of the rain though. I'll keep you posted. The other 2 aren't showing any signs of being sick.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have a method that I use to place pills in my turkeys mouths and have them swallow it. It's very simple. I get the turkey and position the turkey between my legs with their butt sticking out the back and they are facing front. I secure the turkey between my legs so that they cannot move. I gently grab their head/mouth/beak and get them to open their mouths. Although they do struggle and shake their heads back and forth for a minute or two, they eventually allow me to open their mouth. Once they open their mouth, I place the pill near the back of their mouth and gently close their mouth but not closing their mouth all the way. This allows them to move their tongue and the pill gently slides down their throat. It takes me about 3 minutes tops to administer pills to my turkeys.

You may need a 2nd person to help you hold the turkey still. I guess I am able to get my turkeys to swallow pills because they are very tame and I have been doing it for years on my oldest turkey (Mr. Turkey, who had a couple respiratory problems and needed a pill twice a day for 2 weeks.)

I wish I lived close to you, I would come over and help you. :/

Keep us posted.

 

[Sally8]

I have a method that I use to place pills in my turkeys mouths and have them swallow it. It's very simple. I get the turkey and position the turkey between my legs with their butt sticking out the back and they are facing front. I secure the turkey between my legs so that they cannot move. I gently grab their head/mouth/beak and get them to open their mouths. Although they do struggle and shake their heads back and forth for a minute or two, they eventually allow me to open their mouth. Once they open their mouth, I place the pill near the back of their mouth and gently close their mouth but not closing their mouth all the way. This allows them to move their tongue and the pill gently slides down their throat. It takes me about 3 minutes tops to administer pills to my turkeys.
You may need a 2nd person to help you hold the turkey still. I guess I am able to get my turkeys to swallow pills because they are very tame and I have been doing it for years on my oldest turkey (Mr. Turkey, who had a couple respiratory problems and needed a pill twice a day for 2 weeks.)
I wish I lived close to you, I would come over and help you.

Keep us posted.

Thank you so much for the offer. If you did live closer I would have taken you up on it. What a nightmare it has been. I have found that he loves yogurt. I give him several Tbls of yogurt and stir the pill up in it. Then I sprinkle some scratch over the top and place all this in a smaller container and place it inside his large food dish. He loves it! I'll share something with you. I should stick to cats and dogs. I know so much more about them. I thought Chuck had gotten into burdocks, we have them all over. I tried to pull it off his chest. Finally, I got the scissors and tried to cut if off. I finally realized that it was his beard. UGH, I CUT HIS MANHOOD OFF!!!!! I was too horrified to think it funny. Poor Chuck, just when he was already down. Tomorrow is his last pill. He seems to be doing somewhat better. No nasty poo. He and I have gotten friendly and I love it. Thank you. I was going to weigh him tonight but forgot. He's getting quite big and absolutely beautiful.

 

[chickenzoo]

Almost peed myself with the beard story....lol. Glad he is feeling better.....

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have a method that I use to place pills in my turkeys mouths and have them swallow it. It's very simple. I get the turkey and position the turkey between my legs with their butt sticking out the back and they are facing front. I secure the turkey between my legs so that they cannot move. I gently grab their head/mouth/beak and get them to open their mouths. Although they do struggle and shake their heads back and forth for a minute or two, they eventually allow me to open their mouth. Once they open their mouth, I place the pill near the back of their mouth and gently close their mouth but not closing their mouth all the way. This allows them to move their tongue and the pill gently slides down their throat. It takes me about 3 minutes tops to administer pills to my turkeys.

You may need a 2nd person to help you hold the turkey still. I guess I am able to get my turkeys to swallow pills because they are very tame and I have been doing it for years on my oldest turkey (Mr. Turkey, who had a couple respiratory problems and needed a pill twice a day for 2 weeks.)

I wish I lived close to you, I would come over and help you. :/

Keep us posted.

Thank you so much for the offer.  If you did live closer I would have taken you up on it.  What a nightmare it has been.  I have found that he loves yogurt.  I give him several Tbls of yogurt and stir the pill up in it.  Then I sprinkle some scratch over the top and place all this in a smaller container and place it inside his large food dish.  He loves it!  I'll share something with you.  I should stick to cats and dogs.  I know so much more about them.  I thought Chuck had gotten into burdocks, we have them all over.  I tried to pull it off his chest.  Finally, I got the scissors and tried to cut if off.  I finally realized that it was his beard.  UGH,  I CUT HIS MANHOOD OFF!!!!!  I was too horrified to think it funny.  Poor Chuck, just when he was already down.  Tomorrow is his last pill.  He seems to be doing somewhat better.  No nasty poo.  He and I have gotten friendly and I love it.  Thank you.  I was going to weigh him tonight but forgot.  He's getting quite big and absolutely beautiful.

I'm sorry but I had to laugh at the beard story. So sorry that happened. He will be ok. I'm glad to hear that he is doing better.

 

[Sally8]

Hopefully, this will be one of my last posts. Chuck is doing great. I'm still penning him up in the dog crate at night. I sometimes think the other turkeys think that since he's down, let's kick him a little. His poo is firm but where the white is on top, his still has a tint of yellow. I'll watch that because of his liver. I was on top if his illness pretty quick. I'm watching the other 2 very closely also. The one thing I found interesting is that Rosie, his girl, never really left his side. He was the dominate one and now Huck is, but Rosie still prefers Chuck. We actually saw Rosie fan her tail out but I know she's a female. Thanks for all your input. I really appreciated it. Sue