How to treat a turkey with a hurt leg

[ironsfamilyfarm]

I am completely new to turkeys and need some advice on what I can do to treat my hen with a hurt/sore leg. I bought her from a family that was moving and they sold all their chickens & had this 1 turkey. The lady told me she raised her from a baby and she is about 3 years old now. I believe the breed to be a rio grande. I think catching her and the shuffle in getting her to my house is how her leg was hurt. I didn't see her limping at all until I got home with her. The lady told me she hadn't been limping but that she did sit a lot. The turkey was housed in a horse stall because coyotes had become a problem & she couldn't free range. Is there any specific food and/or medicine I can give her to help her recover. I can't really see any swelling or anything obviously wrong but she is limping and not putting much weight on it. Thanks for any advise you can give.

 

[ivan3]

Hi! Keep her separated from the others and provide soft bedding. If it is a slight injury you should see some improvement day-by-day. We've had good luck with powdering 81mg chewable Aspirin tabs and daubing the powder up with ripped up grapes. The rec. dose is 5mg per Kg but we usually use 10mg per pound (for 8lb+. birds 1 tab twice a day) this certainly helped our old roo get around for a bit longer.

If it doesn't improve/gets worse - have one person pick-up turk (arms around folded wings with the turk's back to the chest of the person holding her - easy for second person to check the legs for any swelling or odd movements in affected leg, etc.).

 

[ironsfamilyfarm]

Ivan3,
Thank you so much for the reply to my question. She does seem to be getting slowly better day by day. I will give her some of the aspirin today & see if that also helps. She has a good appetite and is drinking plenty of water and otherwise seems to be happy so I am very hopeful that with some rest she will be able to get back to normal. I have been thinking all along that she needed something to relieve the pain in her foot or leg but being new to having turkeys, I wasn't sure what to give her. Thanks again for your advice and telling me what has helped for you in the past.