Sick turkey hen? Update: hen gone, now possible tom affected

[ninjapoodles]

Something is wrong with one of our Narri hens. All that is obvious to us is that she doesn't open her eyes quite as wide as she should (there is no discharge from eyes or nose), and as of today, she doesn't move right. Her legs seem weak, she walks around with them bent, low to the ground, and she can't get up on the roost with the others.

We've taken her out of the turkey pen, and isolated her in a crate in the barn with food and water. Any ideas what could be going on?

 

[warcard]

Worms?
Our girl was really droopy once and we took a stool sample to the vet (~$10 for the test). They gave us some meds to help out with a worm that the normal meds didn't treat.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Hmmm...interesting. We haven't even ever given them the "normal" antithelmintics as they're only 3 months old--should we be worming them already?

I'm really hoping no one else starts showing any symptoms.

 

[sandspoultry]

Check the poo, is it runny or have red in it? could be cocci

Steve in NC

 

[warcard]

If they have had contact with dirt they could have worms. Or the cocci that Steve mentions.

 

[ninjapoodles]

She was so bad by tonight that we went ahead and put her down. She couldn't move, just laid there. When we picked her up, her legs and feet were curled up underneath her, and wouldn't stretch out. It was sad. And now we have a tom down on the ground instead of up on the roost. Their preferred roost is about 12 feet high, and he can't get up there. He's not walking funny like the hen was, he just can't get up on the roost. Alex put him up on the next-highest roost, and he only sat there for a moment before trying to fly up to the higher roost, at which point he wound up back on the ground.

I don't know what other things could be contributing, but it is very, very wet out there--it hasn't stopped raining in days, and the ground is saturated. Not muddy, but damp, even beneath the roof.

What do we do at this point--put everyone on Selmet, or something else, or several things at once, and hope for the best? Help!

ETA: We have not seen any red poop or any but normal poop--when Alex put the tom on the roost, the first thing he did was take a big poop.

ETA clarification: The turkey took a big poop. Not Alex.

 

[ninjapoodles]

We went back out and laid down some plywood over the wet ground, and piled dry shavings on top of that. I don't know what else to do for tonight. The "grounded" tom is walking around bright-eyed and alert, just very wet and not flying.

 

[needmorechickens!]

I hope your Tom is doing better today... :aww
I hate it when I have a sick chicken...so sad.

~Rebecca

 

[ivan3]

Sorry about your girl. We lost one of our Slate toms following the heavy rains back in July. I'll post the link to the thread (not that I think it's the same problem, but because without a necroscopy it can be almost impossible to know, sometimes). I don't know how close you are to Little Rock, but you have a pretty big investment of time and care in your turks (have read your posts and wish we were set up as nicely), give the AG folks a call and be persistent. If, hope not, you lose another turk get a couple bags of ice into a cooler along with the turk and hit the road.

http://www.arlpc.org/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=77224

Good Luck!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
We were just discussing that we wished we had done that with this bird--we've had necropsies performed on horses by the state lab, but it just didn't occur to us with a bird.

We haven't put them "to bed" yet, so we're not 100% sure, but the tom who stayed on the ground last night looks TOTALLY fine today. We're wondering if he just lost too many feathers somehow. A couple of them have tangled with the mini poodles.