I think I have a sick turkey

[boxermom]

I went out to do chores this am and was watching everyone to see if they are all well. I noticed one of my young turkey hens (6 mo) doesn't look right. She is all bunched up like she is going to shake her feathers, but doesn't. I watched her "poop" and it looked like yellow urine. No solids. I have had no illnesses in the almost 2 yrs I've had birds, so I'm not sure what to do. She is one my chickens hatched. They are all in the barn together and have been together all their lives, so I don't think it's a turkey/chicken issue. They free range in the warmer months, but are now in the barn, probably for the duration. Today is Christmas Eve, so I need an answer fairly quickly before everything closes for the wknd. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help.

 

[Denninmi]

Just the basics -- warmth, electrolytes, antibiotics. The question is what kind to use? If you don't know what it is, throw more than one thing at it? At least, that's what I've done in the past, and it seemed to work. Usually, I try to combine something like tetracycline with something along the lines of amoxycillin. If it's possibly the dreaded blackhead, you would need fish-zole. Don't know if you keep this kind of stuff on hand, or have to try to go out and find it. Good luck.

 

[ivan3]

Separate that turk from the flock. Flagyl/metronidazole/Fishzole are the same med. If you have a pet store that sells meal worms get quite a few. Try getting some chopped up grapes in there with the `worms' (have gotten `sick' birds to eat this when they wouldn't touch anything else). A bottle of polyvisol enfamil vitamins (iron free formulation), give three/four drops a day. Need to observe intake/output for a day or two while she's isolated (yellow tinged dropping continue?).

Good luck!

 

[boxermom]

Thanks. I ended up going to my vet. He agrees with me that it isn't blackhead. We are treating the entire flock for cocci and we are treating her with IM injections of baytril (?) paper isn't in front of me and DH is busy. We went to inject her and couldn't really tell which one she was. I didn't think to mark her because she looked so obvious. Duh.

We found one that looked like she wasn't feeling well, so we'll see. Yes, we marked her...

Thanks for your help.

 

[boxermom]

Update*** I think I "jumped the gun." I got the medicine from the vet, but I'm not using it other that the flock wide ciccidia treatment. Everyone looks good and healthy. Oh well, better that way than having a sick flock over the Christmas weekend.