Turkey has maggots on her rear end.

[chickenlady18]

Need help. Our turkey was laying on a clutch of eggs till yesterday, she got off and didn't look right. we checked on the eggs and she wasn't there, Our neighbor came over this morning and he had her with him, and she has maggots on her rear end. Does anyone know what we ccan doe for her. And also would it be reasonable to put the eggs in an incubator.

 

[chooks4life]

Hi and

Whether the eggs need to go into an incubator depends on what's wrong with her. If an egg broke and she got yolk in her feathers and that fostered maggots, then all she'd need is a clean, but sounds like it's more than that. When you say 'rear end' what do you specifically mean? Her cloaca? If she's decided to quit brooding then just put them in an incubator, even if she wants to brood again chances are she needs to quit and have some rehabilitation before she's up for it.

What type of maggots are they, too? Normal blowfly ones, or segmented and hairy/bristle-covered, or not a species you're familiar with? There are some flesh eating maggots that will eat animals alive.

Best wishes.

 

[chickenlady18]

She couldn't eat or walk or drink, we had to put her down. she was just shaking and black stuff was coming out of her mouth, and her beak was all black, and she smelled like death.
It was a real hard thing to do. My hubby checked one of the eggs and there was a tiny fetus in it. So he put some under our one broody chicken. We are going to see if she hatches them or not.
Thank You.

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry for your loss, it did sound bad. There's a fairly good chance your chook can hatch the eggs and for that reason you should be aware that whatever killed the mother may be able to also kill the chicks.

If you've not buried the body --- or even if you have --- I strongly recommend that if at all possible you retrieve it, or even parts of it if that's all you can get --- and get it checked at a lab; some will do it for free. What use hatching new turkeys if what she had is contagious?

You may be wondering how maggots can be contagious, but it's likely the maggots were merely opportunists, a secondary symptom; I'd question how they gained such a foothold in her in the first place. Something immunologically suppressive is quite likely, going by the symptoms you describe, maggots in the rear end aren't generally known for causing black stuff to come out of an animals' mouth... That needs looking into.

What you describe sounds seriously, seriously nasty. There's also a distinct possibility your chooks are at risk. Some diseases can be carried through the eggs too and depending on what it was, the soil of your place could now be infected.

Hope this is a one off, not contagious, but I wouldn't count on it, I'd take very strong precautions if I were you and finding out what it was is a great and quite probably necessary first step as you cannot take relevant precautions if you don't know what you're up against.

Wish you and your flock all the best.