Sick Bourbon Red...Advice Welcome

[Lagerdogger]

One of my BRs is holding its head funny. Bent toward the right with the head tilted so the left eye is up. The left eye is sometimes closed. It walks and eats well, although I have not yet seen it drink. Sometimes it stands a little upright and sometimes its wings droop slightly. I can get right up to it and cannot hear any breathing problems, although some other birds in the flock have been sneezing a little bit off and on. The other turkeys have picked at it pretty good. It is 14 weeks old.

I have separated it from the flock.

I have read Kuntrygirl's summaries on Crooked neck. By birds symptoms are not nearly as severe as her photos.

I have been through a couple other lists of some common diseases, but none of the descriptions match the symptoms. I only found one disease with twisted neck (newcastles, which is spreading in MN right now), but it is also accompanied by loss of appetite, and I would say this bird is eating quite well.

I tried for a picture, but of course the digital camera decided to fail tonight.

So, any informed possiblilities would be appreciated. References would also be helpful.

Thanks.

 

[dieselgrl48]

So sorry hope it get's well.I will post link it's a PDF format from ALBC.You might find some info there.It's a a lot to read but would be good to save infor for future reference.I raised Royal's and one pair of Narrgansett's and never had any health issue's with them.So sorry I wasn't more help.Huggg'''zzz for your turkey hope it get's well soon.


http://albc-usa.org/documents/turkeymanual/ALBCturkey-5.pdf

 

[Lagerdogger]

Thanks for the link. Read through it. Nothing sounded familiar.

In the meantime I have also read that some vitamin deficiencies could cause something similar. Can't get vitamins till Monday, but maybe will try that if symptoms persist.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

My suggestion was try vitamins, but you don't have any, I see. Do you have any human vitamins? If so, crish one & soak it in a couple of cups of water, & let the turk drink it till you can get the right vitamins.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Turkey is on vitamins. Getting worse. Her neck is sometimes twisted 360 degees or more. Can barely walk, I think due to coordination problems when it's head is upside down and backwards (you try it). However, there are no other symptoms. No detectable respiratory issues, good appetite, drinks well. The only other observation to note is that it is getting quiet. No calls or chirps or anything this morning. Kind of eerie for a turkey to not make noise.

I have been hand feeding and watering to make things easier for the bird, but it is eating and drinking when I am not there as well.

The rest of the flock looks great.

Any other suggestions?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Oh my! I have no idea what that is. I have experienced a few medical emergencies with my turkeys but I don't think I have had a turkey in that condition. The only thing that came to mind was the crooked neck but you said that you read my summaries but your turkey's symptoms are not as severe as my turkey. I have been trying to look your bird's symptoms up and I can't find anything. And no respiratory problem huh? I do not want to suggest a dose of Tylan because I don't know what the problem is. I'm just amazed at how you described the neck. So you don't think it's wry neck/crooked neck? I am not aware of any other neck problems. I'm getting worried. How is the turkey doing now? Did you pick the turkey up and place it's mouth close to your ear to listen for respiratory problems? That was the only way that I knew that my tom had a problem. I had to place his mouth/beak literally right next to my ear and I listened to his breathing and heard the respiratory problems.

Hopefully, Steve will see this post and try to give you more advice than I can.

I will be watching this thread all day to see if someone can help. I hope someone can come along soon and help you out.

 

[Frosty]

I found this link referencing wry neck... see what you think: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1109702/

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I have never seen anything like that. I hate to say it but culling is probably the way to go.

Steve

 

[Lagerdogger]

In response to kuntrygirl...this bird is very tame, and I practically put its beak in my ear listening. It sounded great (no noise at all). I have listened several times, but nothung. If I remember right, the wry neck you described was transitted at the egg stage (airsacullitis). Some other information I read about that suggested that most commercial hatcheries have eliminated this from their stock. This bird is from a large, well-known hatchery. Of course something could get through. But the lack of any respiratory distress causes me to have doubts. Also, most of the microplasm diseases seem to be accompanied by a loss of appetite, which this turkey definitely does not have (someone correct me if I am wrong about this).

I would post a picture but the digital camera just went berserk, and I am unable to photograph.

The good news is she is making noises again. She seems to be able to hold her head up just fine until she wants something, and it seems that when she tries to move, the wrong things happen. It seems like her motor skills are messed up. My wife and I both came up with the possibility that it could be something neurological. When you walk out to the coop, her head is usually up. When she tries to walk forward, her head twists around, like a corkscrew. You can see her trying to figure out how to untwist herself, but it takes great effort. Once untwisted, she can eat if the food is held under her nose. As soon as she tries to move again, she twists up. If you look at her whole body, it almost appears that the twist is starting well down her spine.

Steve...my wife agrees with you, that it might be time. But I think I will wait a couple more days. If we do decide to cull her, I will definitely be doing an autopsy to look for airsaculitis or anything else out of the ordinary.

Frosty, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I could not open the link. The link opened the website, but no text appeared. When I searched for wry neck, the results came back as no matches found. Don't know why.

Thanks for all the help so far. I'll be stepping out for her evening feeding.

Stay tuned....

 

[Frosty]

There is a picture of a turkey poult with it's neck twisted around... Here are some of the posts:

Try Vitamine E with Selenium. You buy it in gel caps...and it has to have Selenium. This is close to a miracle cure for Silkie's with wry neck. Haven't heard of it with turkeys.
You punch a hole in the gel cap and sweeze out the vitamines. Don't worry about the dose, just give it some twice a day
With Silkies they also advise massaging the neck with traction. You rub right behind the head and pull gently forward.

Apparently, if the disability is due to vitamin E/Selenium deficiency, you would be hard pressed to get in enough from the vitamin gel over a few days to be toxic.
It worried me a lot at first. I tried to get dosage instructions and they were never available for this use. But in Silkie chicks, where the syndrome is well known, squeezing some of the gel into their food or into their beaks twice a day for about 5 days always resulted in improvement without any sign of overdosing.
I am not sure the etiology is the same in turkey chicks, but I would at least try it.

Yes, it is the combination of vitamin E and selenium
If you call around or go to several pharmacies you should find them in the vitamin aisle.
I would try to get it already mixed, since there is some kind of biological synergy between the two and you want them in balance.
I looked on line. It seems that they use it for horses and other animals too...so you also might call feed and pet stores.

Interesting. It hatched fine. Right now it is eating and drinking well and seems to not have the neck flopped back as much anymore. Sometimes I really have to look to tell the difference between it and the other one. We were gone today for 2 hours and I was sure we would come home and find it on its back, but it was upright and looking okay. Every now and then it flops back the head but nowhere near as much as yesterday or even this morning.