Lesion, growth, abcsess on my Turkey's neck??? What is it? Any HELP

[Yvonne37894]

Turkey, 5 months old
eating, pooping and just being a turkey.
except it has this thing on it's neck
It has a very hard scap over it, hard like a beak.

Should I just leave it alone or soak it and open it up?

 

[emys]

Hope someone with more turkey experience looks at this. Might want to include "turkey" in your title to alert them.

 

[Darlasmum]

ICK! If that were on a person Id say skin cancer.

 

[Yvonne37894]

Thanks emys!
Could it be an old puncture wound that has sealed over?

 

[ivan3]

How long has this been developing? Was it sudden or slow moving? Are there any other areas on head or neck with scabbing? Looks to be a very wide margin around the `scabbing' could be viral.

 

[Yvonne37894]

I hate to say this, I don't know how long it's been like this.
We have 7 turkeys, this is the only one with this.
No other problems on any of them.

 

[Matt A NC]

I would grease it up with some antibiotic ointment(ie: neosporin) to see if you can soften it up and remove it.

Matt

 

[ivan3]

You can try a number of things, but measure this at the widest point (not the scabbing, but the margin, ie., the slightly raised area of healthy tissue on the very edge of the affected area), every few days to determine rate of spread. It could be a neoplasm, as Darlasmum mentioned, if it slowly increases in diameter you might consider having a vet look at it. In the meantime you can try antibiotic ointment/antifungal/antiviral ointment/pine tar/ painting with betadine to dry it out. If it doesn't respond and continues to spread it could well be cancer.

Hoping the turk just got stuck by something sharp, or was bit by a bug and this clears up soon.

 

[Yvonne37894]

It is now about half the size, swelling has gone down, sad to say I had nothing to do with the good news.
I've been down with a bug, and have done nothing to help this turkey.
Looks like it is going to fall off in a few more days.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That sounds great, maybe sometimes we might jump on things to quickly. Happy to hear it's better and hope you are too!