sick Turkey poult kind of doing better next steps ?

[smlguk]

Hi We decided to take home two sick turkey poults from a store and try to save them. having no experience with turkeys I used this forum to see what I should do ( only background -we have 4-month-old chickens)
-sickest one had butt pecked and was super swollen and the poor thing was very dehydrated, refusing to feed, wings down barely moving, barely standing
-the second one was dehydrated moving around wings not down

The sick one was refusing to feed or drink
-started syringe feeding "save a chick" with room temp water mixed giving 3ml every 2 to 3 hours after 3 water-electrolyte feeds started to force three small (1/4 pea-sized) mashed/wet food ( game starter feed), ( we were easily able to get save -a-chick, if not we were going to do Pedialyte or gatorade)
-no feeds past 11pm , gave feeds 7am-10pm *( more every 3 hours then 2 hours)
-after 2 days still wasn't drinking on its own, gave a drop of nutri-dench
-gave room temp egg yolk for 2 days once a day ( gave 6 mini drops from a 1cc syringe)
-tried to put yolk on feed -didnt work
-used a paper towel on ground and scatter feed -didnt work
-placed marbles on water
-didn't try using aluminum paper for the food plate with the shiny side up
on day 3 started to drink water from a spoon the 3ml still not eating and now giving 6 small half pea sized amounts would spit out and eat some , crop was never full
on day 4 started to drink a bit (marbles helped also placed aluminum foil made balls in water feeder) and eat a very tiny bit, and continue to feed with the spoon he would peck at the spoon and drink , force-feeding with checking crop to ensure it wasn't full
-had another issue the swelling from butt had gone down the store had used blue kote, and i started to clean the area with veetricyn plus once to twice a day and place the safe kind of bacitracin on the area keeping vent without cream, on day 4 the area was super swollen and had a bad smell, and he would spread his wings and lower himself and make a weird noise, could it be pasty butt ( didn't seem like it my chickens had pasty butt and it was different), cleaned area with warm water and gave a message to lower aspect near but above the vent to area poor thing took three large formed brown stools and also noticed clear fluid on the paper towel ( ANY THOUGHTS what was this)
on day 5 started to feed from the food plate i would use my finger to peck at the plate and he drank water but not as often, we have gone down to 2ml per every 3 hours we checked his crop seemed full so no force feeding done, wings still down but chirps now which he wasnt doing
temp is kept 90-95 degrees ( recorded from the bottom of the box)
we placed a mirror inside so turkey wont feel alone
The second one we saw eating and drinking and didn't force feed, by the morning wings were down and we started force-feeding and syringe feeding water but he/she passed

QUESTIONS:
How long should I continue to do the water syringes I don't want to think we are ok as I did for the one that past away, since the wings are still down
Any ideas about what was going on with the stool was the turkey just backed up because it had a pasty butt, i read about cecal dumping ?
Any suggestions on what my next steps should be for this turkey baby
Thank you sorry for long post

 

[Aunt Angus]

Sorry you haven't gotten a response. I hope they're hanging in there. I have no experience with turkeys, either, so I can't help. But I will bump this thread so that others may see it.

Good luck!

 

[jmurno]

I don't have much knowledge to offer but here is the little tiny bit I know.
Turkeys are meant to learn from older birds and also imprint heavily. The bird may have imprinted to eat/drink in a certain way. I had a sick turkey poult that did this: it would ONLY eat from my hand. I could take the food out of my hand and place it right in front of the poult but it would just keep trying to eat from my hand. Perhaps putting the poult in with other birds that can show it how to eat and drink could help. My chickens were completely tolerant of poults. Also, the poult being alone is a problem. I bet it chirps this high series of 3 or 4 chirps? That would be the turkey saying 'i'm over here where are you' -- calling to its flock.

Sorry I don't now anything about the butt issue. One easy piece of advice is make sure it has access to sunshine. It might not help, but it can't hurt. Like many other animals turkeys need sun to make vitamin D3 and D3 is important for a strong immune system.

 

[smlguk]

Thank you the Turkey is now eating on its own and drinking and gaining weight. It definitely chirps and hates being alone. I’m considering adding it to chicken coop but concern regarding if that what is best for the Turkey, given that chickens can get the Turkey sick. I went back to the store to see if there were still Turkey to get another one but they were all out for the season. The butt thing stopped and the Turkey is doing very well. Should I be concern regarding adding the Turkey to the chickens the chickens have ample space and during day I leave them out and they go back in during the night to there chicken coop

 

[jmurno]

Thank you the Turkey is now eating on its own and drinking and gaining weight. It definitely chirps and hates being alone. I’m considering adding it to chicken coop but concern regarding if that what is best for the Turkey, given that chickens can get the Turkey sick. I went back to the store to see if there were still Turkey to get another one but they were all out for the season. The butt thing stopped and the Turkey is doing very well. Should I be concern regarding adding the Turkey to the chickens the chickens have ample space and during day I leave them out and they go back in during the night to there chicken coop

Glad to hear that the turkey is doing better. It sounds like you put so much time and energy into taking care of it, that must be a big relief for you.

I can't be sure, but I would say it is probably fine to put a turkey poult in with chickens. You know, keen observation will reveal how it goes. My turkeys and chickens brooded together but that is a bit different from full grown chickens. The other way around I would be more hesitant about -- putting in chicks with a full grown turkey.