sick turkey

[waygood]

I have two golden giant turkeys, one tom and one hen that I raised from chicks this March. The hen is fine, but the Tom is sick. He just lays around and can barley get up to walk. His stools are just liquid. I have seen him go to the water to drink, but I don't know if he is eating. He has been acting this way for a couple of days. I'm afraid that he is going to die and I don't know what to do for him. I change their water nearly every day and have been feeding them meat bird crumbles from Rural King. What can I do. I don't know if he has a disease or just cannot handle the heat. The turkeys have ample shade and shelter from the rain. These are the first turkeys that I have ever tried to raise and don't know much about them. Please help if you can. Thanks in advance for your help.

Bill Thompson

 

[ScoobyRoo]

I'm sorry I cant help you out. But I want to follow this thread so that I may learn something from this (hopefully positive). I'm not familiar with golden giant turkeys but perhaps his time has come to be butchered?

Some are bred just for meat birds as I am finding that out with my Bronze breasted. My tom is 23# at 5 mos. old and he eats and drinks well. He just cant fly or move very fast. His legs looks as if they are having trouble holding up his weight. I hope the best for your turkey. Don't give up and whatever happens, think of it as a learning experience. I did! Make sure the turkeys I get are for pets not the table.

Btw----

 

[ivan3]

How much does he weigh? Is he panting and, if so can you hear any wheezing? Have you had heavy rains during the days preceding this `exhaustion'?

A cheap box fan outside of run will move air around a bit (our toms like to hang out on either side of the one we put out).
Also, place a couple of rubber hog water basins in the run on the ground and fill them twice a day (if possible) turkeys like to keep cool by standing in water.

Try some watermelon, gallon jugs of frozen water, you can add some pedialyte to drinking water (electrolytes), two tablespoons of Orgainic (unpasteurized) vinegar to a gallon of drinking water (Barg's/Specrum are common brands).

Observe closely when he is walking (limping), stiff, etc. Check for swelling in hocks.

 

[threehorses]

If you're feeding him m eat bird crumbles, you're feeding him feed that is supposed to grow a bird to slaughter weight. I'd reduce the protein and reduce the amount immediately. Meat crumbles aren't made to build long-term living pets unfortunately - just put weight on them, nevermind the skeleton.

As for the diarrhea, do you keep your turkeys with chickens? Are all the droppings runny or just some of them? Are the runny droppings sulfur in color, yellow?

Has the turkey lost weight or does he have 'cleavage'? Are his legs normal sized or thickened?

I love ivan's recommendations and agree- you can't keep our turkeys out of the water pans! Or baby pools! I have one who does have big feet, potential weight issues, and she particularly loves the pools.

Keep him up in a more cool place, give him some yogurt or probiotics to help reduce his diarrhea. Let us know what that looks like, his droppings. Give him electrolytes in his water and give him some feed - try wetting it with the electrolyte water. Then we'll see if a little diet might help.

p.s. By baby pools, wading pools, I mean the shallowest one for little bitty kids. Making it a small pool makes it easier to clean twice daily. And since he can't step high, I would definitely recommend the shallow rubber feeding pans as ivan shows in the picture first. You can work him up to baby pools later. They really love it.

 

[waygood]

Thanks for all of your suggestions,but my turkey died just hours after I made my first post. I really appreciate all of your help. To answer some of the questions, he weighed about 25 pounds. His legs and feet were very thick(I never could figure out why that was). He panted all of the time, after he got sick. His stools were basically just white and yellow water. Aside from his legs and feet being thick , he only started showing these other symptoms 3 days before he died. Once again, thanks for everything.

Bill

 

[ScoobyRoo]

Bill,
Sorry for your loss. I never did read if the golden giants are bred for the table. If they are then I'm learning that they are not meant for pets and don't live long. Another poster has mentioned what to look for before they are to expire (which is the heavy breathing) and have the axe ready. Our BB's have very thick legs and feet also. I can not eat our tom as we have grown very fond of him. However, he will serve a purpose for our neighbor. I'm okay with that. We have 11 turkeys all together and 3 different breeds. We really like them the best out of the chickens, ducks, and geese. They follow us everywhere! They talk to us all the time too. I hope you plan to get more.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
I'm sorry to hear of your loss. Basically you were feeding him to live to about that weight and then be slaughtered, so he did. It's not your fault - they're meat birds so we think "oh meat bird feed" but these guys really need diet management in a big way to get them to live as breeders and pets.

His feet were very thick because he was slaughter weight, too heavy, and it caused issues with circulation and more. He panted all the time because he was heavy and it's hot. His stools were showing liver issues, probably fatty liver, before he died so they were working on shutting down. I'm so sorry to hear it.

If you raise another, always monitor their weight carefully. They should be fit, not have free choice feed, never be fed meat bird anything - or turkey finisher. Then it's still hard to keep them from blowing up as they're meant to do.

I really agree with Henry that it's worth taking on the extra chores for them to have them, if you wish, as pets - maybe try a non-table breed. (I say that and have four BB Whites for pets - and we're really having to always be on their weights). But they are very personable, super friendly, and fun! I also hope you give some a chance later. Maybe try the heritage breeds - they could use the help staying around.