Recent Issues with Chickens/Turkeys

[Charata]

We've had chickens for 3 years at our current location SE Idaho, and have about 8 years experience with them overall. We only have 2 years experience with Turkeys.

We lost two chickens about a month apart a few months ago for unknown reasons, we have 16 hens left. They slowed egg production during the winter to about 2-3 eggs a day, down from 11-13 eggs a day. Around January we added a light/heater to the coop and brought production up to 5-6 a day. They have not increased egg production since. Slowed egg production and two dead chickens has us keeping a close eye on them. One note, the local tweety birds shared water with the chickens all winter. Also, the last chickens to enter our flock were July of last year.

We have two Royal Palm turkeys that shared our garden space with them all winter to keep them safe from hawks. There's no indication of illness in the RP turkeys. They also share the water with the chickens.

In April we received 15 BB Poults from Cackle Hatchery (where we get all of our birds) and raised them in a brooder for the first 6-8 weeks. After that we put them out to pasture with our Llamas. They share a fence line with the chickens and RP turkeys. Every now and then a chicken gets out to the pasture, we catch her and put her back into the garden area.

2 Weeks ago one of the 2+ month old BB turkeys became lethargic. We tried to nurse her back to health but lost the battle. We noticed a second one following the same path earlier this week, but had to put her down today.

Our fear is blackhead, it seems to fit the slowed egg production in the chickens and all of what we are seeing with the BB turkeys, (we didn't know to look for yellow feces until this morning so we'll keep an eye on that).

Any thoughts to what else it could be? Why are the 2 year old RP turkeys, who have been with them since October, not sick? What diagnostics could we do to try and determine the cause ourselves?

Sorry for the long story, thank you for any information/experiences you could share that can help.

 

[nuthatched]

What are you feeding them? Any toxic plants in the area?

 

[Charata]

What are you feeding them? Any toxic plants in the area?

We are feeding the chickens layer pellets, and the turkeys game grower pellets. There is some milkweed that will be removed and burned tomorrow. I don't know of any toxic plants other than that. Are there some famous ones I can look for that you know of?

 

[dawg53]

It sounds like Blackhead to me. Worm all your birds to get rid of the cecal worms which are host to the protozoa that causes Blackhead. Metronidazole will treat Blackhead. I recommend separating your chickens from the turkey's.
I also recommend using Valbazen to get rid of the worms.

 

[Charata]

It sounds like Blackhead to me. Worm all your birds to get rid of the cecal worms which are host to the protozoa that causes Blackhead. Metronidazole will treat Blackhead. I recommend separating your chickens from the turkey's.
I also recommend using Valbazen to get rid of the worms.

What does having blackhead mean for the long term protection of my flocks? Is it going to be on my property forever now? Am I looking at having to worm at appropriate intervals forever?

 

[Eggcessive]

There are 2 listings for UT labs in the list below, and one of them should be able to do a necropsy on a bird that dies, to look for a diagnosis. The body should be kept cold and taken or shipped overnight to arrive on M-F during office hours. Call them and discuss details. That will help in finding the problem. Turkeys can get blackhead disease when kept with chickens that may have cecal worms. Valbazen (0.08 ml per pound of weight) shaken very well and given orally can treat cecal and other worms. Have you seen any bright yellow droppings in the sick birds?

 

[Charata]

There are 2 listings for UT labs in the list below, and one of them should be able to do a necropsy on a bird that dies, to look for a diagnosis. The body should be kept cold and taken or shipped overnight to arrive on M-F during office hours. Call them and discuss details. That will help in finding the problem. Turkeys can get blackhead disease when kept with chickens that may have cecal worms. Valbazen (0.08 ml per pound of weight) shaken very well and given orally can treat cecal and other worms. Have you seen any bright yellow droppings in the sick birds?

We haven't seen the yellow droppings yet, but we haven't been looking closely at those until now. We have one more that is seeming lethargic. We are going to track down some medicines this morning and will keep an eye on the birds droppings.