help -- turkey bleeding from ears, very shakey

[cjbuchholz]

Turkey appears weak when standing. Noticed blood around ears but not bleeding profusely. Any ideas?

Turkey is an Auburn tom, about 5 months old. No other birds appear affected. He's been like this for about 4 days.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Could he have scratched his ears himself?

 

[cjbuchholz]

He might have, but he appears very shakey and weak. I put some of the fish stufff (zoles(?)) in a cup of water with a tsp of sugar and it seems to have helped. He's still isolated and in the barn for extra warmth and dryness. Is this indicative of blackhead? Do older turkeys get blackhead?

 

[Frosty]

The symptoms you mentioned don't sound like Blackhead to me (and yes, adults get it too). I think I would more suspect a head trauma, perhaps the turkey flew into something or got pecked on the head?

 

[cjbuchholz]

Could be the pecking, like you said. his neck feathers are pretty much gone down to the top of his breast, as well.