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Just curious.... is this because they are with chickens? Do Chickens carry it but are immune?

deb
Blackhead actually is a worm in the ground that does not hurt chickens but it will kill turkey since the FDA took the only treatment labeled for food comsumption off the market. Chickens can simply be wormed to get rid of it. It is either in your ground or not. Your local co-op should be able to tell you if it is in your area.
 
I know a couple people who raise quail for one reason, dog training. You can raise a lot of them with low cost in a minimum amount of space. Great for training bird dogs. Shooting them and eating them is a bonus.
First time we tried it a buddy had a new young bird dog. He bought a cage full of them of a guy we know. Took them out on state forest land and released them. There was a good six inches of snow on the ground. When those birds flew out of the cage they disapeared into the snow and woods and we nor the dog saw one all morning, waste of money Lol!
 
I keep them seperate for the following reasons:

Quail and Chickens require different nutrition.

Quail fly and will escape through coop doors if you give them a chance

Keeping quail in cages makes it easier to collect eggs. They often get buried in chicken bedding as they will lay on the coop floor
 
One thing to anyone considering raising turkeys but want to keep them with your chickens, you can find out if blackhead is in your area. If it isn't, you do not have to worry about raising the two types of birds together. I have had my chickens and turkeys together four years and not a single death to blackhead but we do not have it in my area. My tom turkey actually is in love with one of the chicken hens. She will stay by him but does not let him mate her (probably good because I think she would get squished).
 
Blackhead actually is a worm in the ground that does not hurt chickens but it will kill turkey since the FDA took the only treatment labeled for food comsumption off the market. Chickens can simply be wormed to get rid of it. It is either in your ground or not. Your local co-op should be able to tell you if it is in your area.

thankyou.... Though I have had them in the past, I dont have turkeys now but I do want some again eventually. My flock will be Guinea Fowl and Sumatras to begin with. I dont live in a heavy agricultural area... When I moved to my land I was the first one to bring in livestock... And I only ever had one flock that was not raised here initially. But it was raised on the same kind of land as mine. HOT and very dry.

Will Ivermectin be a good prospect for treating for Blackhead? I have used Ivermectin for both internal and external parasites on my horse. Its a good option for instance for certain types of mange caused by mites. Same goes for mites on Chickens.

And is there a treatment for the ground that could kill it in its encysted state... Dormant in the ground.

Also We have only a very few days of the year where there is moisture. but the humidity here runs 15 percent quite often and sometimes down to almost zero on fire watch days. There is no real topsoil here. Nothing to keep moisture in.



deb
 
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Ok I found a couple of sites online I keyed in a search:

ivermectin for blackhead in turkeys

Several of the top sites say Ivermection is used....

The one below was the one that was the most informative for me

http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/resource000811_rep844.pdf

another

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Animal-Care-Turkeys.pdf

the last

http://fluffybottomsfarm.blogspot.com/2012/07/blackhead-in-turkey.html

Not only does it define what Black head is.... a protozoa.... different from a worm. It also covers the main parasites that poulrty get.

Like I said I havent ever had experience with poultry getting sick but now after reading the last article I wont be getting them.

deb
 
Ok I found a couple of sites online I keyed in a search:

ivermectin for blackhead in turkeys

Several of the top sites say Ivermection is used....

The one below was the one that was the most informative for me

http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/resource000811_rep844.pdf

another

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Animal-Care-Turkeys.pdf

the last

http://fluffybottomsfarm.blogspot.com/2012/07/blackhead-in-turkey.html

Not only does it define what Black head is.... a protozoa.... different from a worm. It also covers the main parasites that poulrty get.

Like I said I havent ever had experience with poultry getting sick but now after reading the last article I wont be getting them.

deb
The State Vet told me it was like a worm that lived in the ground and chickens eat it and poo it out and turkey will get it from the chickens. Now Jeffers carries a med called Fish Zole
the active ing. is Metronidazole and according to the diagnostic lab here in Auburn, AL. the FDA has banned it from use in any animal intended for the food chain. I got no explanation as to why. I just had to cull two turkey for blackhead. I had but them in a pen that had chickens in it and they got the sores on their head and neck area.
The rest of my turkey are in the new pens that chickens have never been in so not a worry there.
 
@getaclue Nice bird! Good Luck!
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http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/resource000811_rep844.pdf
Cecal Worms
"The Cecal worm is a common parasite of backyard poultry flocks. As the name implies, the cecal worm
inhabits the cecum of the bird. Cecal worms cause little or no damage to chicken flocks but the cecal
worm can carry the organism that causes blackhead disease in turkeys.

Earthworms ingest the infected cecal worm egg from poultry litter; turkeys that consume the earthworms
become infected with the blackhead organism. Turkeys can also become infected with the blackhead
organism from direct oral contact with the infected cecal worms. Turkeys and chickens shouldn’t be
housed together and turkeys shouldn’t range where chickens have ranged.

Leviamisole and Ivermectin are both effective in the control of cecal worms, though both require a
veterinarian’s prescription for use in poultry"

Studies show that ivermectin is *not* an effective poultry wormer, so not sure why they have that in their article. Per the recommendation of my vet, I treat cecal worms with Safeguard (fenbendazole) at 0.23 ml per *pound*.

-Kathy
 
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