Is this poult done for?

phoenixmama

Songster
10 Years
Apr 12, 2009
337
1
129
Gilbert, Arizona
I have a 5 day old BR poult that flipped itself over yesterday, is the smallest of the whole bunch, seems to have legs are are a little too long for its body, and is now sitting on my lap in a towel gasping. *Sigh*

Earlier today I pulled it aside since it didn't seem to spend much time at the feeder. It was okay for most of today, but is now not looking good. Do you think there's a chance, or should I just cull the little guy tonight? It's from McMurray if anyone is curious.
 
I brought home two the other day from Privett. One's not doing well at all. I left it go and left it go and it just sat there under the heat lamp, wouldn't eat or drink. So, I started feeding and watering it by hand with a syringe. My last feeding, it actually pecked at my shirt. Since I only have two, and the rest of the birds are all doing fine, I can spend the time to hopefully get this one back into shape. If you've got the time/energy, I say to give it some assistance.
 
I agree with Bettacreek. Try to get some food into it, it's more than likely starving out. The runts get pushed away from the feed and get weaker and weaker. Hard boil an egg and see if you can get it to eat the yoke. I don't know if it's the yellow color or if they know it's full of protien but they really go for it.

Steve in NC
 
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My Dad always boiled an egg and whenever one of our new hatchlings, be it chicken, turkey or game bird, did as you're describing; he force fed it a little tiny bit of the egg white. I do the same thing and more times than not it seems to work. He said it was because of the potasium in the whites.
I always boil eggs for my chicks. They seem to really love eggs and lettuce.
 
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Well, I had mixed up a little cocktail of a bit of gamebird starter mash, corn syrup, and water. I gave a little bit at a time to the poult throughout the evening. It made it through the night, but this morning when we arrived home from mass it was dead. We did our best, the other 29 are looking really good. Well, except for one of the MWs. I discovered some dried blood on its beak a little while ago. None of the others appear to have an injury. I tried to look over its beak really good...I suppose it could be the injured one. It doesn't appear to be in any pain...and is still making its way to the feeders and waterers. None of the others seem to be picking at it. I'll just keep watching it...

Good to see you back, Steve!
 
I am going through the same thing that you are. This weekend my turkey hen finally hatched 18 turkey eggs. She was a week late as far as the hatch day. I didn't think that any of the eggs were fertile, so I didn't candle them. With her being a week late, I just knew the eggs wouldn't hatch. Well lo and behold, Saturday morning comes and a chicken is running around the chicken yard with "something" in it's mouth. Well I ran over to where the turkey was setting on her eggs and it was a Saturday Morning Massacre. I don't know what happened but there were about 6 dead newly hatch turkey babies on the ground. I almost fainted when i saw that. I immediately tried to pick up all of the bodies that I saw and risked getting attacked by my turkey hen and picked her up to see if any more babies were under her. I moved her to a safe spot. Well there were about 4 baby turkeys that were still alive and 2 eggs that were hatching. Lo and Behold there was a baby CHICKEN under her as well. The chick looked to be 2 days old. I guess a chicken layed some eggs in the turkey's nest and it hatched.

Well anyway, I'm getting off track. The 4 baby turkeys and the 2 hatching eggs were brought inside. 2 of the baby turkeys were displaying the same thing as yours. They were flipping over and not able to stay balanced. I kept putting them back on their feet but they kept flipping over. I have been hand feeding them egg yolks and mash since yesterday. I have been giving them vitamins in their water (with a syringe) and they have made a drastic change. They have more strength and are now able to remain on their feet for the most part. The flip over rate is down at least 80%. Still a flip over or two but much much much better.

Just give them a little TLC and hand feed them and give them vitamins for strength and I think that they will be ok. I will not give up on mine. I am feeding every few hours when they start chirping. I have noticed that they are trying to eat on their own. When they regain their strength, I will put them back with their mothers like I did the others. For now, they are inside and under a heat lamp. They do not seem to be in pain.

The pic below is a pic of the turkeys that were rescued before the chicks attacked and killed them.
6612_chicken_house_049.jpg


The pic below is one of the turkey eggs that was hatching.
6612_turkey_egg.jpg



The pic below is my turkey hen with her newly hatched "chicken". They seem to be getting along just fine. Neither one of them know the difference.

6612_chicken_house_063.jpg
 
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That is so tragic! I'm glad you found them before anything else happened. The chick with the hen, though...that is too cute!

I had a hen once that was laying in the netting over my chicken pens, in a bunch of leaves stuck there. She ended up breaking some of the eggs, so the chickens knew to look there in the pen for whatever fell. When the chicks started hatching, a few got smashed and fell through the netting. I was horrified when I found one of my chickens running around with a poult in it's beak!
 

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