Turkey Injury

[Houstocl]

My female turkey has an injury on her side and I’m lost on what is actually injured. I believe it is a mating injury and our Tom is huge compared to her. She is walking, eating and acting normal. I’m hoping someone could look at the pictures and help me decipher what exactly I am working with so I can best treat her. I ended up cleaning the wound tonight and putting some blue kote and microcyn on it. Store was out of vet wrap so I put my daughters old tee shirt to keep it clean. I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts. I included a couple pictures.

 

[The WinterWolf]

My female turkey has an injury on her side and I’m lost on what is actually injured. I believe it is a mating injury and our Tom is huge compared to her. She is walking, eating and acting normal. I’m hoping someone could look at the pictures and help me decipher what exactly I am working with so I can best treat her. I ended up cleaning the wound tonight and putting some blue kote and microcyn on it. Store was out of vet wrap so I put my daughters old tee shirt to keep it clean. I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts. I included a couple pictures.

~Sommeboddeeeeeeeee pleaseee reeeplyy~

i have zero idea but i'm posting so other people will see this and help
hope he gets better

 

[Adams1]

Flush the wound with warm soapy water a t shirt or vet wrap will do to keep dirt out, would be good to separate her and watch your Tom to make sure nothing like this Happens again, but other than that can you pin point what’s injured is it under the wing? and some base made antibiotic ointment along with what you put on it daily will help it heal quick, hope she recovers soon!

edit: so it’s just under the wing and on her side? it should heal fast then

 

[R2elk]

My female turkey has an injury on her side and I’m lost on what is actually injured. I believe it is a mating injury and our Tom is huge compared to her. She is walking, eating and acting normal. I’m hoping someone could look at the pictures and help me decipher what exactly I am working with so I can best treat her. I ended up cleaning the wound tonight and putting some blue kote and microcyn on it. Store was out of vet wrap so I put my daughters old tee shirt to keep it clean. I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts. I included a couple pictures.

It does look like a mating injury. As long as her internals aren't exposed she will heal fine with just the Blu-Kote treatment. Turkeys are very resilient and can heal from quite severe injuries without outside interference.

If her internal organs are exposed, I would put her down but you could try to get a vet to treat her.

Keep the tom from having access to her until after she has healed. Even after she has healed, make sure that the tom does not have access to her when she is on her nest.

 

[Houstocl]

Flush the wound with warm soapy water 1once a day or as needed a t shirt or vet wrap will do to keep dirt out, would be good to separate her and watch your Tom to make sure nothing like this Happens again, but other than that can you pin point what’s injured is it under the wing? and some base made antibiotic ointment along with what you put on it daily will help it heal quick, hope she recovers soon!

edit: so it’s just under the wing and on her side? it should heal fast just make sure she gets a bit of extra protein, you do you have to cleanse it really well and as it might hurt her a bit during the process if it gets infected it could make it a lot worse so make sure to clean it well!

Thanks for the reply. It is just under/behind her wing. I should be able to get some better supplies today so I’ll clean it and continue with what we are doing.

 

[Houstocl]

It does look like a mating injury. As long as her internals aren't exposed she will heal fine with just the Blu-Kote treatment. Turkeys are very resilient and can heal from quite severe injuries without outside interference.

If her internal organs are exposed, I would put her down but you could try to get a vet to treat her.

Keep the tom from having access to her until after she has healed. Even after she has healed, make sure that the tom does not have access to her when she is on her nest.

I don’t believe her internal organs are exposed… actually pretty sure they are not. I am just stumped at what looks like a tube structure that is shown in the picture. Definitely does not seem to be an organ but I can’t for the life of me figure it out. I spent hours yesterday looking up poultry wounds and turkey anatomy and I am just as lost as before. When I cleaned it last night it did not seem to hurt her which makes me nervous that she does not have any blood flow to the area. I’ll keep a close eye on her tonight, I was not able to reach our vet so hopefully he will have some idea of what I’m working with.

 

[Molpet]

I had a BBB with a similar mating injury.
I separated and she healed. I got her a hen saddle and that helped.

@OneMountainAcres sells hen saddles

 

[R2elk]

I don’t believe her internal organs are exposed… actually pretty sure they are not. I am just stumped at what looks like a tube structure that is shown in the picture. Definitely does not seem to be an organ but I can’t for the life of me figure it out. I spent hours yesterday looking up poultry wounds and turkey anatomy and I am just as lost as before. When I cleaned it last night it did not seem to hurt her which makes me nervous that she does not have any blood flow to the area. I’ll keep a close eye on her tonight, I was not able to reach our vet so hopefully he will have some idea of what I’m working with.

I am not seeing what you think is a tube structure. The wound is in an area that has ribs underneath it. Based on what I can see in the photos, I would paint it with Blu-Kote, keep the tom away from her and let her heal on her own.

In the future, a hen saddle is a good idea. This type of wound usually occurs under two circumstances. One is if there are multiple toms in with too few of hens because the toms will knock each other off of the hen's back during breeding attempts. The other is when a tom has access to a hen's nest. The tom will take the hen laying down as an invitation to breed. The hen will resist the breeding attempt and the injury will occur as the tom scrambles to keep his perch on the hen's back.

A hen saddle can help. Keeping the tom's claws trimmed can also help. Using young tom's can also help. Older tom's aren't as limber and can struggle to get in proper position. Choosing your breeding tom by his mating attempts can also help. In my experience, a tom that has poor breeding technique when young does not get better with age.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I had a BBB with a similar mating injury.
I separated and she healed. I got her a hen saddle and that helped.

@OneMountainAcres sells hen saddles

Thank you for the referral



@Houstocl Everyone has given you excellent advice for treatment here already. If you would like a hen saddle for her, please send me a message and we'll see what size she needs. I'm currently sold out of broad breasted size but can get one put together for you in a day if that's the size she needs. Here's a link to my Etsy shop if you wanted to look at reviews or anything like that. One Mountain Acres Etsy

 

[Houstocl]

It does look like a mating injury. As long as her internals aren't exposed she will heal fine with just the Blu-Kote treatment. Turkeys are very resilient and can heal from quite severe injuries without outside interference.

If her internal organs are exposed, I would put her down but you could try to get a vet to treat her.

Keep the tom from having access to her until after she has healed. Even after she has healed, make sure that the tom does not have access to her when she is on her nest.

Thank you for the referral



@Houstocl Everyone has given you excellent advice for treatment here already. If you would like a hen saddle for her, please send me a message and we'll see what size she needs. I'm currently sold out of broad breasted size but can get one put together for you in a day if that's the size she needs. Here's a link to my Etsy shop if you wanted to look at reviews or anything like that. One Mountain Acres Etsy

I found your Etsy page on another turkey injury forum here and I ordered one last night. I might have ordered the wrong size not realizing it.