Injured Turkey - Can see her lung and inside her chest cavity WARNING:graphic picture

[Jilissa]

She can make it! We had a chicken attacked by a dog with her crop outside of her body. I found her that way in the middle of the night. She'd been hiding but came to the front door sometime in the night and when I went out to pee, I saw her eyes glint in the moonlight, under the 'bridge' over the water ditch...I cleaned it, pushed in the crop and held it closed all night. In the morning it was staying so I kept her in by the fire as it was winter. Part of the crop, maybe half or more, came back out and the wound healed that way..I put marijuana pomade on it for two moths..the crop dried up and fell off after those two months and now she is with nine babies, five who were from another mama, but who was pecking too hard and killed three of her babies. She is Marilyn, so strong and healthy and sweet!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Hi, I realize I'm new here, but have been a long time reader. I had the same thing happen to my Bourbon Red turkey hen and the tom's claws and spurs were the culprit. Her wounds were very similar only more of them and all hidden under both her wings. You've gotten some good info on her care and yes, she can recover from this.... my hen did. What I wanted to add is that once I figured out it was from the tom I was able to do a few extra things. This took me a few days to figure out as well...there were no signs of a predator, no rusty nails anywhere, no sharp pokies on the farm (I always had baby animals around and was ultra careful) so once I saw him struggling on a different hen then saw some minor scratches in the same places I connected the dots.

The first thing I did was wrestle my big tom down and give him a nail trim. Thankfully he was a good pet, however he did not appreciate the manicure. He was 45lbs and I'm only 5'1" so I had to wrap my legs around him to hold him still. Pretty sure I heard some very unkind turkey language directed at me.
From that point on I made it routine to keep an eye on his nails and spurs and trim two or three times a year. Good dog nail trimmers or even small wire snips work. I used goat hoof trimmers. Keep some styptic handy, though I never nipped his nail quick...all I was aiming for, and did, was blunt the ends. Sometimes a good rasping with tools meant for small hooves worked well.

Once my hen recovered enough to rejoin the group I made her an apron. Just like the ones chickens wear for over-zealous roosters to keep from getting bald backs. You may be able to find somewhere to get one made for her breed size, however I made them myself for my hen out of canvas drop cloth material I found in the paint section at a home improvement store plus soft elastic. I studied the ones for chickens and how they attached under the wings, then replicated for my hen's size and dimensions.
Anyone handy with a sewing machine should be able to whip up something, though I wasn't handy with a sewing machine at the time, however they still worked fine.

I found that so long as I kept up on Mr Tom's trims, my hens only really needed the aprons during times of high activity, like spring. The rest of the year was fine. I don't know what happened to your hen, but it's possible it was the tom by accident. Sharp claws plus the treadling on the back of the hens that they do can cause quite the damage. Not to mention if they lose their balance and try to dig in so as not to fall off, as my tom often did.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very good suggestions. The wound will eventually fill in and heal on it’s own with cleaning and disinfection. Keeping it moist with antibiotic ointment twice a day is best. Please let us know how she is doing.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Any updates on how Momo is doing?

 

[AquaCluck]

UPDATE:

Put a t shirt on her, put in the dog pen in the garage, gave her food, a heater and kept her clean. She is healing up beautifully! Since she's less than a year old that helps with cell production etc. I didn't take her to the vet. I looked at it Monday morning and it was already starting to stitch up naturally from the inside. She's doing amazing. Hopefully she'll be back out with the rest of the girls this coming week.

Oh yes, she also started laying. Almost an egg a day. Five eggs in a week, is that a lot for a turkey? They're beautiful speckled eggs!

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad to hear that she is laying eggs and healing nicely. I am not familiar with turkeys, but others may be able to comment on how often they lay eggs.

 

[AquaCluck]

Hi, I realize I'm new here, but have been a long time reader. I had the same thing happen to my Bourbon Red turkey hen and the tom's claws and spurs were the culprit. Her wounds were very similar only more of them and all hidden under both her wings. You've gotten some good info on her care and yes, she can recover from this.... my hen did. What I wanted to add is that once I figured out it was from the tom I was able to do a few extra things. This took me a few days to figure out as well...there were no signs of a predator, no rusty nails anywhere, no sharp pokies on the farm (I always had baby animals around and was ultra careful) so once I saw him struggling on a different hen then saw some minor scratches in the same places I connected the dots.

The first thing I did was wrestle my big tom down and give him a nail trim. Thankfully he was a good pet, however he did not appreciate the manicure. He was 45lbs and I'm only 5'1" so I had to wrap my legs around him to hold him still. Pretty sure I heard some very unkind turkey language directed at me.
From that point on I made it routine to keep an eye on his nails and spurs and trim two or three times a year. Good dog nail trimmers or even small wire snips work. I used goat hoof trimmers. Keep some styptic handy, though I never nipped his nail quick...all I was aiming for, and did, was blunt the ends. Sometimes a good rasping with tools meant for small hooves worked well.

Once my hen recovered enough to rejoin the group I made her an apron. Just like the ones chickens wear for over-zealous roosters to keep from getting bald backs. You may be able to find somewhere to get one made for her breed size, however I made them myself for my hen out of canvas drop cloth material I found in the paint section at a home improvement store plus soft elastic. I studied the ones for chickens and how they attached under the wings, then replicated for my hen's size and dimensions.
Anyone handy with a sewing machine should be able to whip up something, though I wasn't handy with a sewing machine at the time, however they still worked fine.

I found that so long as I kept up on Mr Tom's trims, my hens only really needed the aprons during times of high activity, like spring. The rest of the year was fine. I don't know what happened to your hen, but it's possible it was the tom by accident. Sharp claws plus the treadling on the back of the hens that they do can cause quite the damage. Not to mention if they lose their balance and try to dig in so as not to fall off, as my tom often did.

Wow...he has very small spurs, more like lumps than anything pointy but I didn't think about his claws. He hasn't show any mating behavior either but since she just started laying and they're the same age maybe that it what happened. Ugh. Good thing he's super mellow. I'll have to keep an eye out for that now. Thanks.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

UPDATE:

Put a t shirt on her, put in the dog pen in the garage, gave her food, a heater and kept her clean. She is healing up beautifully! Since she's less than a year old that helps with cell production etc. I didn't take her to the vet. I looked at it Monday morning and it was already starting to stitch up naturally from the inside. She's doing amazing. Hopefully she'll be back out with the rest of the girls this coming week.

Oh yes, she also started laying. Almost an egg a day. Five eggs in a week, is that a lot for a turkey? They're beautiful speckled eggs!

So glad to hear she's doing much better!!

And the egg amount sounds just about right. They lay fast and furiously in the spring, slow a little towards summer, then eventually taper off. Or rather mine did, however I'm not sure of your location which makes a difference. The eggs are really cool looking, though I didn't find them to be overly tasty. I had an abundance of eggs, and sometimes I didn't want them sitting so would collect them. Figured I'd at least give them a scramble and a try....not a fan. They do however work ok for baking if the recipe can handle some extra egg in it. Or, if you have other animals that can benefit from eggs or the extra protein, they are great for that.

If you try making an apron, I measured my hen at the base of the neck to the base of her tail, then made sure the side flaps were generous and came down to the tops of her legs to account for tom slippage off the sides.