Help! Sick turkey

[4H Mom]

My son's wanted to try a 4H project and we were told turkeys were an easy first project. We are not familiar with raising poultry or birds of any kind.

Our turkey chick was robust and lively. He is approximately 7 weeks old. We usually let him roam around the back yard for an hour or so at a time. The rest of the time he is in a large dog crate in our garage, heat lamp at night, newspaper and shavings on the bottom of the cage. Last night he was eating up a storm when I went to check him before bed and I refilled his water.

However, today, we found him
- listless and not really moving. He is just sort of lying around with some of his wing feathers hanging out to the side.
- breathing open-mouthed.
- gullet is empty.
- I've looked down his throat and it appears clear (no visible worms).
- there did not seem to be as many poops in his cage as I would hae expected.
- even when he stands he appears uncoordinated and a couple of his wing feathers still hang out to the side

(now that the symptoms are more pronounced I may have noticed the wing feathers and somewhat diminshed energy and lack of coordination yesterday.)

I have been giving offering him sugar water and apple-cider-water out of small bowls which he will drink if I hold them in front of him.

He just pooped a runny runny mess with some turkey crumbles still visible in it.

Does anybody have any ideas of what ay be happening and/or how I can help him?

Thanks,

Barbara and Robert

 

[noahsmom]

I'm so sorry I know nothing about Turkeys, but wondering if turkeys need something like grit to help them break up the food/bits they eat other than there regularly fed food?
I hope someone can reply to you soon and help you out more I just know nothing about turkeys.

If he will eat I would offer vitamins and lain yogurt to help his digestion, especially if he is pooping a runny mess..he could dehydrate quickly. You can purchase poly vi sol infant vitamins from places like walmart and some drug stores or the vitamins they sell at stores aimed at poultry like /nutri-drench' to hopefully liven him up a bit. Make sure he is drinking and you might just add those vitamins to his water along with giving him a dose on the side of his beak.

Once again new to poultry period, but the above helped save one of my chicks who were going down too. Good Luck and hope he will be ok!!!

 

[JackW1616]

You can see if your local vet will take poultry and try usely will message me if this helped

 

[kuntrygirl]

How is he doing today? What kind of bedding is he on? Could he have gotten into something while he was out on his 1 hour venture? Any dead carcasses, chemicals, pesticides, poisonous or toxic plants?

 

[4H Mom]

Wow. What a learning curve. And I thought this would be an easy first project! haha.

Your are kind for asking after him. We think he's doing a little better and we think we've figured out a little better what's going on.
Yes, in fact, I was thinking that maybe he got into something, certainly possible, but I think ultimately we concluded that he's hurt his foot, and before we figured that out he got dehydrated.
His bedding (in the dog crate) is a layer of newspaper covered by a layer of paper towels covered by pine shavings.

After talking to many other more experienced turkey owners, i got a lot of "Gee, I don't knows."
But one very knowledgeable and helpful lady instructed me to do the following

1) get poultry electrolytes/vitamins and add them to his water (1/4 tsp per 4 cups)
2) get Sulban for any worms, although she felt he was pretty young for full infestation.
3) give him 1/2 anti-biotic daily (down the gullet - that's fun [not])
4) keep him warm under a heat lamp. (he's in a large, well-bedded dog crate in our garage with a heat lamp)

I did all these things yesterday and made sure he drank some his medicated water by both peaking his interest in drinking on his own as well as giving him some in a medicine dropper.
He appears to be eating and drinking and he no longer has diahhrea. So that's all good.

WHAT I HAVE FURTHER DISCOVERED in the meantime: His left foot ball is swollen sore and warm. I have checked carefully for any lesions or scabs or thorns, etc and have found none (ie. bumblefoot). I manipulated his digits which don't appear broken. He doesn't want to put any weight on it, though, which is why he looks so unsteady, won't walk, etc. AHA!!!

SO, I've also added anti-inflammatory (1/4 of a plain old aspirin, crushed) to his drinking water.

oh my gosh. have I missed anything? I think that he's looking more lively. He'll stand up to eat. I'm hoping he'll feel better after a few more days giving his foot time to recover...

I am worried that he's eating his bedding shavings. Can that be hurting him?

 

[ivan3]

I'd replace wood chips with old, folded towel/shirts (anything soft and headed for Goodwill) as temp. soft bedding (just requires regular changing).

Is this a Broad Breasted poult? It is getting 28-30% protein starter?

You've definitely got the rest of the bases covered.

 

[4H Mom]

Thanks so much for your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Yes, he is a broad breasted poult.

That's a good idea about the towels and t-shirts. I will do that.

I had recently switched him to grower but was advised to put him back on starter.
HOWEVER, he doesn't like it as much: I noticed him just pushing it around, as if looking for something, so I sprinkled the grower kibbles over the top and he went bananas.
So I made a mixture of half and half for his feeder. I want him to get the protein but I also want him to eat as much as possible.

 

[chicks and hens2]

Wow. What a learning curve. And I thought this would be an easy first project! haha.

Your are kind for asking after him. We think he's doing a little better and we think we've figured out a little better what's going on.
Yes, in fact, I was thinking that maybe he got into something, certainly possible, but I think ultimately we concluded that he's hurt his foot, and before we figured that out he got dehydrated.
His bedding (in the dog crate) is a layer of newspaper covered by a layer of paper towels covered by pine shavings.

After talking to many other more experienced turkey owners, i got a lot of "Gee, I don't knows."
But one very knowledgeable and helpful lady instructed me to do the following

1) get poultry electrolytes/vitamins and add them to his water (1/4 tsp per 4 cups)
2) get Sulban for any worms, although she felt he was pretty young for full infestation.
3) give him 1/2 anti-biotic daily (down the gullet - that's fun [not])
4) keep him warm under a heat lamp. (he's in a large, well-bedded dog crate in our garage with a heat lamp)

I did all these things yesterday and made sure he drank some his medicated water by both peaking his interest in drinking on his own as well as giving him some in a medicine dropper.
He appears to be eating and drinking and he no longer has diahhrea. So that's all good.

WHAT I HAVE FURTHER DISCOVERED in the meantime: His left foot ball is swollen sore and warm. I have checked carefully for any lesions or scabs or thorns, etc and have found none (ie. bumblefoot). I manipulated his digits which don't appear broken. He doesn't want to put any weight on it, though, which is why he looks so unsteady, won't walk, etc. AHA!!!

SO, I've also added anti-inflammatory (1/4 of a plain old aspirin, crushed) to his drinking water.

oh my gosh. have I missed anything? I think that he's looking more lively. He'll stand up to eat. I'm hoping he'll feel better after a few more days giving his foot time to recover...

I am worried that he's eating his bedding shavings. Can that be hurting him?

"I've also added anti-inflammatory (1/4 of a plain old aspirin,crushed....."
My reply:Hmm... Medically speaking,Aspirin isn't an anti-inflammatory drug,but it does thin the blood and can help with pain 1/4 of a regular strength aspirin (325 mg) is probably way to much for a poult. It is most likely not much more than 5#'s in weight??(if I remember right was this the 4 week or so old poult or am I mixing this up with another post?) 1/4 of an 81 mg tab on the other hand might be OK.
Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth as nurse. I remember a vet told me once that a dog of ours that was sick could have the adult dose ASA (aspirin) he weighed aver 100 lb's. Just don't want the aspirin to cause any bleeding or stomach issues as aspirin can tear up the stomach lining especially if he/she isn't eating much. Try to give it on a full stomach, that might help too!

 

[chicks and hens2]

some turkey enthusiast's on this website don't recommend letting your turkey poults touch the soil until they are older as their digestive track is not able to handle the bugs, worms, and whatever else may be in the soil. They will let them be on sand but not actual yard/garden dirt.Hope that helps for the future.
I have learned and am learning sooo much on this website as this is my first year with adult turkeys and poults. Might check out the thread for "turkeys for 2013. 'Lotsa' info there for us newbies.

 

[4H Mom]

Thanks so much for offering the info on the aspirin. I literally don't know what I'm doing so any help is greatly appreciated.

My poult is about 2 months old.

I had read that for a swollen foot an anti-inflammatory NSAID (?) (did I get that right?) was appropriate and that the dose should be of 1 regular aspirin per gallon of water. So I crushed a quarter aspirin and mixed it into 4 cups of water and put it in his water dispenser.

So at least I didn't make him eat it. I wouldn't want to add insult to injury on this poor bird.

So, I'm hoping you (or someone??) can tell me what would be the proper anti-inflammatory and dosage for my poor little guy?