Help! Not sure what is wrong with Tom?

[frazierbbjh]

Tom is a little of a year old. He has been fine, fine this morning. This afternoon he is acting sickly. He isn't walking straight, wobbling quite a bit, not eating or drinking much this afternoon. He is losing a lot of feathers too. We are in VA and it has been really hot today - upper 90's. Please let me know what you all think. This is our first Turkey.

Thanks. Becky

 

[ziggywiggy]

Does he have access to lots of shade and fresh water? I almost lost a couple turkeys that flew into my garden and couldn't get out. If I had not found them when I did, they both would have died. They were showing the symptoms you are describing except for the loosing of feathers.

 

[OmaBird]

What kind of turkey is he? What are you doing to keep him cool?

 

[frazierbbjh]

I'm not sure which type he is. I've tried to figure it out, but get confused. I'll post a pic. He has a house, but he normally leaves the to the female, he'll normally roost on top of it and sleep on top, the pen is surrounded by trees, and he has a good amount of shade during the day (off and on), He'll normally lay in the sand or behind the chicken coops. 5 gallon water jugs are changed each day along with fresh feed. My hubby seems to think it's the heat, but the female and our chickens are doing fine.


Hubby says they are wild turkey.

Thanks all. Becky

 

[OmaBird]

My question about what type of turkey he is has to do with brood breasted turkeys not taking the heat as well as the heritage turkeys. I do have some of my turkeys molting right now. Its mostly my late summer and fall turkeys that are molting for the first time. Some things that I do to keep mine cool is I put misters out in the trees. They also stand in a pool as other have posted today. I wet all the area down where they lay. Mine even like to be spayed with a fine mist. They will stand there forever as I spray them. Feed him things that are full of water that he likes. Mine eat melon, grapes, frozen peas, grated carrots and potatoes.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

If he is a broad breasted tom at a year old he would be huge in the 50 pound+ range and a doubt a bird of that size could get to the roof of the house unless it's low to the ground. It was 100 here in NC today he is suffering from the heat.

Steve

 

[ziggywiggy]

Sometimes turkeys aren't the brightest creatures on earth. He may be pacing back and forth in the sun trying to get somewhere else. Like maybe a hen? or a food source? Sorry I wished I had a better answer but, I'm leaning to what your husband suggested. Heat.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

We are in Central Va too and this heat has been brutal on all our birds.
We normally use rain water I store to water our birds but the last couple days we've been pumping water so it is cold for them at least for a little while.
We also have shade cloth over all of our enclosures since ours won't use their house either except to eat and lay eggs.

Good luck with him,
David

 

[chickenzoo]

My turkeys like to stand in shallow water pans, so I've been freezing a water bottle and putting in the pan.