Eunie has passed. I’m sad but relieved she’s out of pain. She and I tried so hard. Thank you all for trying to help me. I didn’t know how to give birds fluids beside force feeding. I believe I wanted to save her so badly because we lost the Tom last week. We have one Royal Palm left. She’s kind of skinny, but not sickly. She’s the lowest in the pecking order now. The two big darker turkeys don’t let her eat much. I really want to see a Royal Palm in the snow.
She was weaker and weaker, head was getting more emaciated and blue, and she started breathing faster last night. I believe I did, however l, succeed in helping her sour crop with what I had on hand (two capsules grapefruit seed extract opened and stirred into water then also giving probiotic powder for baby chicks dissolved in water). My parents, who are the funding (I am the animal caretaker), told me they wouldn’t spend more money on Eunice’s care. I do understand them. I think she was a lost cause, but I learned a lot taking care of her these past few days. I know how to tube feed, have a better idea of what to tube feed, know grapefruit seed extract and probiotic powder CAN help sour crop in a pinch, know I certainly need more supplies. I never realized many places require a prescription for a catheter to use for feeding a bird. She needs a necropsy for sure to find out exactly what was wrong and if it’s contagious.
I can’t wait to get bourbon reds and blue slates next spring. I need more turkeys so losing two doesn’t make the farm seem so quiet.
Do call them and talk about staring enrofloxacin, They might give you grief because eit's banned for use in poultry, but if your hen has a gram-negative infection, this is really the best choice.
Will you be doing the necropsy?
Can you even eat birds with metal poisonings? I will NOT be eating them either way. But it would be a shame to waste their bodies.
