hurt turkey

[ramirezframing]

I have a bronze x broad breasted tom who will be a yr old in mid spring. He fell today trying to get away from me as he doesn't like being touched. He was turning away and fell, now he will try to stand and either is unbalanced and sinks back down flapping his wings, or he tries to walk and sinks back down flapping his wings. (I cant tell which) I felt his whole leg and feel nothing wrong or abnormal. Could he just have twanged or sprained it? What chances does he have of recovering and how do I help him? He is eating and drinking some. His mate, a non broad breasted type is laying eggs right now. How long will she be fertile? Thanks for any and all help.

 

[nick123548]

I have some experience with broad breasted whites. If his legs look good you may be looking at a hip problem. My experience is at a commercial farm, and he wouldn't have a chance there. If they start having a lot of leg problems the best thing you can do is stay out of the barns to keep them from moving as much. With that said I would try to rest him and keep him off his feet as much as possible. Rest and time can heal a lot of orthopedic problems in the animal world. There isn't much time on a commercial farm, so those turkeys don't get a chance to heal. You need to be on the lookout for swelling and infection and of course make sure he continues to eat and drink. Good luck with your tom; I hope this helps.

As far as breeding your turkeys goes, in the research I have done, the breast on the toms of broad breasted turkeys is too big to breed naturally. To successfully breed, they are usually artificially inseminated.

 

[ramirezframing]

Well I only have the two turkeys, so no farm here. He was sold as a bronze when he was a poult, but I can barely pick him up. His chest jiggles as he walks and the people on here said he was a bronze cross. So I figured with as big as he is but the fact that he doesn't look like a BBB makes him a cross. I have some of the pairs eggs in a bator and they are growing. And the first one I cracked open didn't have the bulls eye but 3 after the first one did. So I need to leave him sitting and not try to rig a sling for him? How long should I wait before I need to put him down? We are really attached to him and don't want to lose him. Thanks alot for the help.

 

[ivan3]

Easy to get attached to, aren't they?

They are very prone to hip problems (have seen this in big Slate tom as well - sparring another tom resulting in too much torsion in the hip as he turned away - though it takes even less in commercial varieties). Don't know what you give him as a treat but, if he'll eat torn up grapes you can powder an 81mg cardiac dose aspirin and spread the powder on the grapes (approved dose is 5mg per kg/TID, but we've given 10mg per kg to our roo with good results (qd - one dose a day). As has been mentioned, limit activity as much as possible. Might want to only give regular feed once a day.

If he starts flipping completely over when he attempts to stand and is unable to right himself without assistance it is probably time to retire the big guy.

Best of luck!

ed: clarity

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Pics?

 

[ramirezframing]

He is already on a limited food by me program lol, but was getting let out to walk around when I was home and able to watch him. Should I feed him even less? and do I need to remove the hen from the pen? Shes not bothering him, and I thought he would feel safer, happier and stay quieter if she was in with him like always. He loves tomatoes, so I'll be getting more tomorrow as I fed him the last one I had today.

 

[ramirezframing]

this is 'Tom' in Oct of this year. He's quite big now and has even more white in his chest

 

[ivan3]

Didn't know if he had 24/7 access to feed (why I mentioned it). So feeding is probably O.K. So long as he's not startled I wouldn't change anything. If the hen starts `presenting' I'd get her out as he'd probably try to accommodate her with unpredictable results.

Ed: saw pics (nice guy). Not a `50+' lb'er so there is hope!

 

[nick123548]

I just saw an episode of Dirty Jobs the other day, and they were doing AI on turkeys. They said that they only have to do it once a week. Based on that I would guess that depending on when he last accomplished his mission she should be fertile for up to a week.

I have never seen any kind of sling. I would be afraid that if he starts moving around he might have a tendency to start "wing walking". If he breaks a wing he has a good chance of cutting an artery. If that happens he will bleed out pretty quickly! I have no idea how long it might take keeping him still. I would give him a few days and check his progress. I am sure someone on here knows more about it than me, but I have found that getting them to see it is the trick.

 

[ramirezframing]

Thanks for the help

I think he might be or close to 50lbs, he's gotten huge