Might be Blackhead? UPDATE: Still need some advice

[Louise's Country Closet]

So I went out this morning to find one of my 13-14 week old turkeys laying in the corner sleeping soundly. I didn't think anything of it at the time when I nudged him to wake him up until I saw a pile of semi-runny, yellow-green droppings next to him. He was a little sleepy at first and now I'm worried what it could be. He was perfectly fine yesterday, that was the only droppings that were there this morning and he's had three more since. He's back to being active now too; running in and out of the coop, pecking at me when I come in and he won't have anything to do with me picking him up. There's no poop stuck to his butt, nothing wrong with his eyes, nose or his breathing. No discoloration or drooping wings, etc. It does look like he has some more feathers coming in though, but he's not ruffled looking or anything. Any ideas if it's Blackhead or not? The droppings weren't foamy either, just a little runny (the yellow part) and the green part was more solid-looking. Help!

UPDATE:

It's been almost a week now and he's still here. In fact, after loading his food and water with cayenne he's gotten MUCH better. He's not lethargic, his color is coming back in his face and he's curious about everything again.. he's finally back to normal. The only thing that's still strange is his poop. It's not runny anymore, it looks like a regular dropping except instead of the white that's usually there it's yellow still. Any ideas what could be happening? I would think he was over it all if it wasn't for that.

 

[Frosty]

I have never had blackhead here so I can't say... Since he sounds like he is acting normal, I wouldn't panic yet. Is there any chance that he ate something that he shouldn't have? The yellow in blackhead droppings simply means that there is something going on with the liver, not blackhead specifically. I just have to wonder if the bright green may indicate that something is making the feed go through his system before it's fully digested. Is he eating ok? If he is eating and everything else is normal, I think I would keep an eye on him. I think with blackhead they look and act like they don't feel good. Perhaps a bit of apple cider vinegar in the water... have they ever been wormed? Sometimes when I get wierd poops I add some coarse ground hot peppers to their feed or water. If you do that, make sure you don't inhale any of the dust yourself. The birds don't seem to notice it, but I do!

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

Hmm, I don't think he could have gotten anything that he shouldn't have. The only thing I can think of that we did differently, is that we changed the straw bedding yesterday. It's from the same batch that we had on the floor before that so I'm not sure if that would be the cause.. maybe there was something in it that he ate? I noticed he's been a little lazy today but I'm not entirely sure that's because he doesn't feel good.. he hasn't been doing much since it's gotten cold outside because he seems to hate it outside, and spends his day inside laying around.. suppose there's nothing else for him to do.

As for his eating yeah, I think he's eating okay. He was eating earlier when I was taking the pictures and then he ran outside and drank a bunch of water so I know he's doing that at least. It's really muddy here and we had a lot of snow and wind the night before. I don't have any hot peppers but I did add a bunch of cayenne pepper to the food and a little bit to the water. My other turkey really seems to love the water like that.

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

Oh, I should add that I haven't wormed them yet. The two turkeys I do have are almost 3 months, I wasn't sure if that was too young? I don't really know how to go about worming them either, I've only ever wormed the chickens and I do that with pour-on Ivermectin.

 

[Frosty]

How is your turkey doing? Cayenne is a type of hot pepper, so that works. And this is a good time of year to find a pumpkin to give to the birds. Raw pumpkin seed is supposed to be a wormer. Find folks carving pumpkins and ask for the guts

Hoping that the poop goes back to normal soon!

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

He's hanging in there. He wasn't too active yesterday and still had the same colored poop, so we sectioned him off his own piece of the coop so that I could keep an eye on how much he's eating and drinking. I'm hoping he'll get better because when I put that food in there he started to eat right away and a couple hours later the dish (a dog bowl) was already gone and he seemed more alert than he was earlier.

 

[longranger]

By all means keep an eye on this young one but it is very unlikely to be blackhead or anything else serious by your observations.

 

[al6517]

Looks like Cocci to me, the turkeys will usualy hang in there for a few day's, but it looks like the same symptoms as cocci with the color of the poor being the main indicator.

AL

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

Is there anything I can do for him if it is cocci?

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Go get some CORID at the feedstore and start administering it to your flock...