Please help. My turkey can't walk and I don't know what's wrong.

[casportpony]

Poor girl. I wish I had turkey experience so I could offer advice. You said you found her with blood on one wing, and that the tip was missing? The physical tip, and not the feathers? Is it at all possible she had an altercation with another bird, or a predator?

I know with meat birds in chickens, if they get too overweight they start to have skeletal problems and sometimes cannot support themselves properly. Leg problems are often a first. If she is a breed that has been bread for rapid weight gain, is this a possibility with her?

Best wishes. I'm sorry I couldn't help out more. I'll be thinking of you both!

If she's a broad breasted white this can be very true. I have two that will be two in March, both get around okay, but many of their clutch mates showed leg problems a a very young age. This really pulls at my heartstrings as I know how affectionate turkeys are, so I'm sure this is very difficult for Turkey Mama to deal with. Hugs for Turkey Mama.

I just had another thought... Maybe some calcium would help? Just thinking out-loud...

-Kathy

 

[Nambroth]

If she's a broad breasted white this can be very true. I have two that will be two in March, both get around okay, but many of their clutch mates showed leg problems a a very young age. This really pulls at my heartstrings as I know how affectionate turkeys are, so I'm sure this is very difficult for Turkey Mama to deal with. Hugs for Turkey Mama.

I just had another thought... Maybe some calcium would help? Just thinking out-loud...

-Kathy

If this is a potential problem, I know people that have kept them (them being CornishX) alive by carefully monitoring feed intake-- There is still damage done to the growing skeleton by too much gain too fast, but I have an aunt that unknowingly purchased CornishX, kept them as pets, and was horrified by what happened. She carefully put the hen on a diet and she's not the picture of chicken health, but she can get around again and is still alive and actually laying eggs. Again, I want to be clear that I have no experience with turkeys (other than they can be sweet!), but I am just wondering if (IF!) this is the case with this fine young turkey lady, maybe it is something that can be a fix for her.

 

[casportpony]

If this is a potential problem, I know people that have kept them (them being CornishX) alive by carefully monitoring feed intake-- There is still damage done to the growing skeleton by too much gain too fast, but I have an aunt that unknowingly purchased CornishX, kept them as pets, and was horrified by what happened. She carefully put the hen on a diet and she's not the picture of chicken health, but she can get around again and is still alive and actually laying eggs. Again, I want to be clear that I have no experience with turkeys (other than they can be sweet!), but I am just wondering if (IF!) this is the case with this fine young turkey lady, maybe it is something that can be a fix for her.

Did your aunt just cut way back on the protein?

-Kathy

 

[Nambroth]

Did your aunt just cut way back on the protein?

-Kathy

Not way back, but stopped the 'grower' feed which is higher protein. Mostly she just stopped letting that hen have free access and meal-fed her measured amounts.

 

[Turkey Mamma]

Thank you for the kind thoughts Namroth. I really appreciate that you are all reading and responding even if you don't have turkey experience. This has been therapeutic for me at the very least. I feel better that I can get on here and talk to people who know how I feel and what I'm going through. You are all a blessing to me.

At first I thought that maybe she had been attacked by a small animal. I ruled out raccoon, skunk, coyote, and large breed dogs which are the main predators we have around here, because if it had been one of them she'd most likely either stink really bad or have been dead when I found her. It could have been a small dog though. The problem that I had was that there were no puncture wounds, lacerations or facial wounds which would be characteristic of a dog attack. She e's a pretty big bird, so if a little dog where alone it's possible that she scared it off and maybe got an internal injury in the process.

Nothing's changed. I'm still watching her. I did give her a little "pedi" this evening after the foot soak. I cleaned off the tiny scab looking parts of her pad, cleaned with peroxide/water mix and then re-soaked her foot and wrapped it with some triple antibiotic (no pain killer kind) ointment. The pad looked significantly smaller after doing this and I'm hoping that this may be a big part of her problem. I was just afraid to do something that could make it worse. I'll post an update in the morning. Hopefully we can try to practice standing up again if the foot looks better. Meanwhile, still giving antibiotics and aspirin for pain with plenty of food and water.

 

[casportpony]

Other pain drugs that can be used in poultry are tramadol, carprofen (Rimadyl) and meloxicam (Metacam). If you have any of those and want to use them, let me know and I'll look up doses for you.

-Kathy

 

[Eggcessive]

~~Hm. It certainly isn’t MM because she shows no signs of respiratory illness (except the panting which does seem more like stress related than infection or even weight related because it comes and goes and does not depend on moment). I have her on the Duramycin powder and was going to switch to the Superboost per some advice but after thinking about it I am afraid to switch antibiotics in the middle. Do you think it’s okay to switch to the Tiamulin while she still has the Duramycin in her system?

Her condition has not changed. She is still spunky and happy from the neck up, but unable to walk, stand or sit straight. She’s still eating, drinking, and pooping just fine. She has even started to make a habbit of scooting herself either onto or close to her bed after I’ve changed it. She’s making an effort to move but can’t get up. I’ve never seen anything like it. Also, someone asked before why her tail is trimmed and the reason I did this (far from the cuticle to prevent pain or damage to the live part of her quills) was because several of her feathers had been broken off already and I figured it would just be cleaner for her and for me in the house while I'm pretty much having to wipe her bottom for her every time she goes, since she can't move. I know it looks terrible and I hated to cut them because she really had a beautiful fan, but felt it was necessary.

With MS, they don't have to have respiratory symptoms--sometimes no symptoms at all. Duramycin10 is tetracycline, and can be given with tiamulin together according to the literature. She looks so sweet, and you seem to really be attached to her which I can cetainly understand.

 

[Turkey Mamma]

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I finally got the flu that my youngest has had for the past few days. Yep, in addition to turkey poo, I've been cleaning up baby puke too (yay), and although yesterday my son was back to his normal, crazy two year old self, I was miserable. Lucky and I didn't practice walking and I didn't soak her foot again until late last night, when I could finally stand up without feeling nauseous. It was all I could do to just keep her clean and fed yesterday I'm feeling much better today though, and we are going to try today. She's still on the same antibiotic (haven't added anything new). I may try the other one just to cover all of my bases since she can have both. I'm sure Tractor Supply carries it. They have a nice selection, and I can call them first to find out. In spite of my own yuckiness yesterday, Lucky did seem better....She preened herself ALL day yesterday (something I haven't seen her do since I brought her in the other day) and that was encouraging. I'll write more after I get her up and around today when I soak her foot some more and we practice standing again. Thanks again for all of the posts. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad you are feeling a little better, and that Lucky is okay. Please have a nice holiday. Denagard or tiamulin is hard to find at most farm stores, and is pricey. If you choose to get some here is a link for it (also QCSupply.com has it for a little more, but I'm not sure whose shipping is better):http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07f7f-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

 

[Turkey Mamma]

You were right. They don't have it. I checked the link out but it's pretty expensive. I'm going to see if I can buy it in a smaller bottle. Thank you for the link though. She is doing better today. We tried standing twice and both times she is now actually putting her feet flat on the floor (where before she wanted to curl her toes on one foot). She's also stopped dangling her one leg out from behind her when she's laying down. Still doesn't want to put any weight on her legs but I see progress here. I have stopped the aspirin as she doesn't seem to be in pain anymore. She's actually quite content letting me wait on her...lol We are going to watch her over the next week before we make any big decision. Hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'll let you know how things turn out