Need advice: turkey showing a gagging reflex

[Garin]

My 32 week old female heritage bronze has lately been showing a gagging reflex. She seems a little down, her wings are hanging low and she doesn't like to be touched. She appears to be eatting...she ate some BOSS out of my hand but not very much.

Is this normal behavior?

What would cause this?

She is on a layer crumble diet and gets a whole corn/seed mixture for am and pm treats. She also gets scraps from salads and right now she has a pumpkin to pick at. She lives with 3 Buttercup chicks that are 31 weeks old. Chickens are fine and they all get along great.

No free ranging right now due to excess snow in VA. they have been cooped up since our last major snow in late Dec.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ivan3]

Extending head and neck up toward the sky and opening the beak widely before swallowing/breathing? Any respiratory sounds (gurgling/wheezing/etc.)? Quality of droppings changed?

The first thing to come to mind is Gapeworm (see if the symptoms match these): http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/202800.htm

If so, one location to get the meds listed in the link above is here: http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/store/index.php?cPath=23&osCsid=46dddd9f2ad8b3e6f95685d0018ffa85

 

[Garin]

She is not extending her neck skyward nor does she have any breathing problems. There is no wheezing or gurgling nor coughing. I did check her droppings and they are normal. She keeps her head close to her body so the neck is curved. It looks like she is trying to vomit. At first I thought it was the crop, but I didn't feel anything.

The past two days, she has been behaving normally. That's why I was wondering if this is 'turkey' behavior because this gagging reflex comes and goes. I'm having a hard time with the parasite assumption, because the other birds are fine. However, a deworming may be a good idea. I have had the birds for 30 plus weeks and have not done that yet.

I had another suggestion that she was stressed. The birds have been cooped up for a long time due to all the snow. I have had snow covered ground since late Dec.

Has anyone had a really stressed turkey and how did it behave? The other birds are chickens and they seem content with confinement, the turkey, however, always - always wants out. I have 40 inches of snow on the ground right now so this is not an option.

 

[melody123]

I had a hen wild type turkey that kinda acted like that last year. It turns out that she ate too much too fast, and her food got stuck. She too was on crumble. I massaged her and brought her lots of fresh water (She liked to drink water as I poured it, she was very sweet, now she's an a cranky teenager) I could actually feel that ball of food that was stuck. Once it was gone, she was healthy and happy again.

I know that my description dosen't sound like it came from a book or an expert, but it happened. And a message and lots of water won't hurt anyone.

 

[Garin]

Thanks for the insight. I have been reading up on crops in other forums and I think I will look more closely at that. I was feeling in the wrong place and did not realize how sensitive this could be.

 

[turkaholic]

Get your birds off of crumble! It's good for poults but when the birds are at or near maturity it gets caught in their esophagus and causes exactly the symptoms you describe. Mine did the same thing. Ate too fast and the dry crumble gobs up in their throat causing a weird head pumping with wings drooped. It is to them like us trying to eat dry oatmeal by the spoonful without any water! Switch to pellets.

 

[Cacklin" Hens]

turkaholic is EXACTLY right. i have had this happened until I switched to pellets for my turkeys!! Switch to pellets!!

 

[ivan3]

She is no longer looking `down' and wings no longer being held at `half-drag'? Not observing anything consistent, i.e., feed corn/seeds - `gag', eats at feeder - `gag', etc.? Keep a few overyly ripe grapes in your pocket when you're out. If you catch her `gagging', tear a grape up and offer it to her and see if this has an effect (stopping it). Have only seen obstruction in chooks (stretch out neck - usually horizontal to ground, open beak, `bark' and repeat). A couple of grapes and that's that.

When you pick her up, does her breath stink? Does she have access to grit? See link for an idea on grit size: http://www.ncgranite.com/gritmailer.pdf
How much in the way of treats does she eat as compared to feed? I'd quit feeding treats (or only give a handful once a day).

Without a more specific set of behaviors (signs), it is hard to say much more than, no, acting puny and and `gagging' (a video of this would be useful) is not `normal'.

The info on pellets is interesting. Ours will have been on nothing but crumbles for 5yr. come June. The only problem with `swallowing' is that a hen will sometimes rip an entire wild onion out of the ground instead of just nipping off a bite and one of us will end up pulling a foot long section of top from her by the bulb hanging from her beak.

Please post with any additonal info. and good luck to you and your hen

 

[Garin]

Her breath does not stink. She has access to grit and free choice to food. she gets about 1 cup of corn/BOSS each morning. That is for her and the 3 chickens she lives with. She is eatting, walking around, chirpping etc. but sometimes she gets this undulation in her neck that I considered a gagging (dry heave) reflex.

She holds her head close to her body and her neck is bent. The look reminds me of a bussard. Her mouth is not open when she does this nor do I hear any labored breathing.

she acted fine all day Sunday but then showed same signs again Sunday evening. Then in front of us - she drinks some water then eats some crumble and is acting fine. This morning she was in a great mood, wanted me to scratch her belly and was picking at my hood while chirping away.

Switching to pellets is interesting thought. I am going to try that and see what happens. I will also try feeding the cut up grape when I see her do this again. After all that, if this continues, I will take her to the vet, because I agree, sproadic or not, this is not normal behavior.

 

[TurkeyGirl101]

can anyone help me?my male turkey Quentin is about 6 months old and today when i picked him up i noticed that he opened his mouth like he was trying to breath so i put him down*scared that i was hurting him* and he lied down,he has been doing this for about 2 weeks but not this bad usually i will pick him up he will start breathing out of his mouth and i will put him down and within a couple seconds he will be up again, but just today when i picked him up i put him down and he was in kind of in a daze,then a few sounds later he came out of it but he lied on the floor for a few minutes before he got back up and started walking again he doesn't show any signs of a sickness he is completely normal and he eats and drinks just fine and his poop is normal,so could anyone tell me if i should be worried?

please PM me if you know anything
thanks turkeygirl