Turkey fell off slaughter truck- Rescued but needs help!

[WVduckchick]

Sebastian is his name. I'm wondering how he is this evening!

 

[Teila]

I have no experience with turkeys but after reading the whole thread I have to join in on Team Sebastian.

You are all doing an awesome job and I will be keeping Sebastian in my thoughts. You can do this big fella!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Great. I'm about to have mac and cheese for a late dinner, and this is the discussion I decide to read? Maggots!!!

Anyway, wonderful work with your lovely fella. May he heal quickly and enjoy a wonderful life with his new family!

 

[Arya28]

I know nothing about turkey keeping. But oh my god this is amazing! This, this right here, is what gives me hope for humanity! Dude this is so awesome! Thank you for rescuing him! Good luck and please keep us updated on how he does with his happy new life

 

[GrandpaUtz]

Again, thank you all for your kind words of encouragement and advice! I have an update on Sebastian's situation this morning!

Last night I rushed to tractor supply then home with all my supplies: permethryn, some of the hexicyclone or whatever that was recommended on the previous page, and some clean wood shavings for his bedding. I forgot the pee pads in the rush, unfortunately, but he's getting some of those tonight.

We got in there and whoo boy he was not happy. First I rolled him over on his back so we could check out his underside- no feathers whatsoever. Overall there is a good bit of bruising but no real cuts or damage besides that. Which is good because if the area around his vent was bad, well I feel like that would be a whole 'nother deal!

Roll him back on his belly and have a go at what we are calling simply The Wound - it's a gash about two inches long and maybe an inch deep. It looks black but I can't tell if that is infection or healing/scabs or maybe even just dried blood from before. It's on the upper side of his tail and it is what was crawling with maggots before. At first we were psyched because we didn't see any maggots until I really shined the light in there and started looking. They are bigger than they were yesterday for sure, but they were way deep in The Wound. LUCKILY The Wound is the last of our worries. Everything else seems to be scabbing up and healing nicely! Unfortunately it really seems bad....

And let me tell you when we started cleaning that sucker out he. was. pissed! Poor little fella was hissing up a storm until he eventually went quiet. I think he was in a lot of pain because he soon went really docile and his head went white. :-(

I flushed out The Wound with the permethryn mixture and tried to pick out all of the maggots that I could but I KNOW I couldn't get all of them. I took a syringe that came extra with the pain medicine and flushed some fresh water in there trying to flush them out but I know I didn't get all of them. My only hope is that they 1) are killed by the insecticide, or 2) finish up their life cycle soon enough and die on the fly strips we are hanging up. I plan on going back at The Wound maybe tonight but poor Sebastian still seems so worked up over last night I'm nervous about sending him completely into shock.

So after I did that I rinsed it out with antiseptic and the vetrictyn fluid and let him relax. All of this, by the way, was done with the help of my mother and girlfriend - huge helps and I could not do it without both of them!

Then we cleaned out his pen, threw away all of the straw and laid down fresh bedding for him, repaired the lighting fixture above his head (the bulb had broken a year ago and, well, it was 1 of 4 in our shed so we weren't in too much of a hurry to fix it before now) and got him fresh food/water. He still is only lightly picking at his food, but he is sucking down water like you wouldn't believe!

Now The Wound didn't smell horrible like I would think an infected wound would, but feeling Sebastian's head it FEELS like he is running a fever. That being said, none of us know exactly what a healthy turkey temperature is.... I contacted my vet about possible antibiotics to combat this and she said she will look and see what she has available.

All in all, we are very cautiously optimistic. If we can get The Wound healed up, he is going to be just fine, I think. Here is a picture of him after his ordeal last night:

He is also getting a facebook page soon, so when that happens I'll post it here so whoever wants to can follow him on there! My mom and girl were super excited about making it to spread his story around!

 

[WVduckchick]

Wow! Just wow!!

Only thing I can comment on is I had one turkey and her head always felt hot! Others here can chime in, but I had to toss that out there.

Oh, I also recently watched some chicken surgery videos where they use super glue to close wounds. Maybe someone else can chime in on that also.

congrats on all you and the ladies have done!

 

[Kusanar]

Wow! Just wow!!

Only thing I can comment on is I had one turkey and her head always felt hot! Others here can chime in, but I had to toss that out there.

Oh, I also recently watched some chicken surgery videos where they use super glue to close wounds. Maybe someone else can chime in on that also.

congrats on all you and the ladies have done!

I wouldn't try to close the wound, if you do, and miss a few maggots, then you are in for some trouble.

 

[WVduckchick]

I wouldn't try to close the wound, if you do, and miss a few maggots, then you are in for some trouble.

True. I didn't mean yet, but good point.

 

[apryl29]

I'm wondering if he might eat mash more than regular feed. To make mash just mix water w/ the feed and let it soak in. You can also cook up some scrambled eggs and chop them up into small pieces (like what you'd put in fried rice) and mix it into the mash. I wouldn't make very much the first time, just so you don't end up wasting it if he doesn't care for that either.

 

[GrandpaUtz]

Wow! Just wow!!

Only thing I can comment on is I had one turkey and her head always felt hot! Others here can chime in, but I had to toss that out there.

Oh, I also recently watched some chicken surgery videos where they use super glue to close wounds. Maybe someone else can chime in on that also.

congrats on all you and the ladies have done!

I wouldn't try to close the wound, if you do, and miss a few maggots, then you are in for some trouble.

Thank you! And good point - I KNOW I missed some bugs in there, so I won't close it up for now.

I'm wondering if he might eat mash more than regular feed. To make mash just mix water w/ the feed and let it soak in. You can also cook up some scrambled eggs and chop them up into small pieces (like what you'd put in fried rice) and mix it into the mash. I wouldn't make very much the first time, just so you don't end up wasting it if he doesn't care for that either.

I'll try giving him some of this tonight then! I know he has to eat, of course, but hey even if he just picks at his food for a while, hopefully he'll lose some weight!

Poor guy tries to move by mashing his head into the ground and wiggling because he doesn't have the strength to use his legs :-(