Turkey Poult Deformity

[ccrawf]

Thanks to every one for their input. Learned a lot that I hope will be beneficial in the future. So here is the plan.
I’ve been working this weekend, and have Monday and Tuesday off. And I agree with every one, this is a hopeless cause, and so tomorrow, it goes. Been putting it off, it has still been standing, etc, but I can definitely see that it is weaker today, and if I don’t put her down, she’ll starve to death. Not a good thing.
And in the spring, I will definitely use a special feed. Wasn’t planning on eggs this winter, and I’ve had the turkey on the same layer pellets the chickens since they were a month or so old. Yes, my birds all live together and so separating the feed would be an issue. But next spring…..
About a necropsy. Who does those, and is there a cost associated with them? Don’t mind contributing to the body of knowledge, but not sure what it is worth, if you know what I mean. I’ll try to take some more pics and send them off. I’ll also have time to look some one up and see what I can locate. I’ll try UC Davis.

On a separate issue for those of you that breed turkeys, how do you have things set up, or how do you plan to set them up? I’ll have 3 hens (2 bourbon reds and the one slate) and hope to be down to 2 toms, a spanish black and a bourbon red). Not sure if I should pen the hen up and let the tom in once in a while, or pen the tom and hen together. And should I put the 2 red in the same pen with the red tom. The black and the slate will mate. Guess I could let both toms on one red hen and see what I get, but I kind of wanted to know the parentage so just like this, if there were problems, or things I really liked, I would know what to do to get them on a regular basis.
And as for incubation, I had the eggs pretty much on their sides. I had numbered all the eggs as I collected them, so I used a pencil to write the number on one side an X on the other side. Then I chopped down the cardboard insert to a flat of eggs and put it in the incubator to hold the eggs from rolling around. I would turn the eggs several times a day, and either all the numbers were facing up or all the X’s were facing up. Made it very easy to determine how much to turn them and which ones had been turned.
I used a borrowed incubator that had no auto turner. I hope to build my own for the spring and want to include an auto turner, just not sure how much the egg has to turn. Does it have to rotate a whole 180 degrees like I turned them, or will just 30-40 degrees back and forth be sufficient? Any ideas would help.
I found a link about converting a small desk type fridge into an incubator, and that is the plans. Don’t remember if it was on here, but I can supply the link if any one wants it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2636

It was from BYC, and sounds simple and wonderful.
Thanks to every one. Feel like I know you all and it makes things easier.

 

[ivan3]

As far as a necroscopy: Depends on your state's regs (if done at a University vet school - usually the cheapest). If you have a vet you might email a shot to the doc and ask for suggestions. It is also possible they'll just look and say `oh, an anomalous poult, we're not interested' (ran into this attitude myself).

 

[Frosty]

If you can list what state you are in, I can check the info that I got when I went through the Poultry Testing course in MN and see if they tell where to get necropsies done. Be aware that a lot of places that do those need a 'fresh dead' carcass, so might want to decide what you want to do before you euthanize. I believe some states do necropsies for free, I had some problems going on here and our state wanted $50 to do one.

I have a GQF cabinet style incubator, bought it on eBay fairly cheap. The trays tilt side to side so no, the eggs aren't turned 180 degrees but not sure if 30 - 40 would be enough? Personally, I think that at least for now I would separate with the reds in one pen and the black and slate in another. My guess would be if you crossed the black with the reds you would probably end up with bronze (looking like the wild turkeys) though I don't claim to know anything about genetics.

Best of luck and hoping that you have a terrific spring hatch!

 

[ccrawf]

Well, went to check on the little one and it is dead. So don’t think it suffered too much and solves that problem for me.
I’ve seen some of the auto turners and they don’t seem to rotate the eggs very far. Just not sure how much is enough, or how far you can go with out the eggs falling out, etc.
As for mating them, my plan was to have two pairs, the reds and the black/slate. Pretty sure the chick that hatched was black/slate cross. If I have a third hen I might also try a red/black cross just to see what I get. Plan to get some BBB in the spring and see if I can keep a female over the winter next year and mate with a red tom. I would think an older tom would be able to mate with her. At least I would assume it is the size of the male that prevents them from mating naturally more than the hen. Had a few BBB toms this year and last, and they could hardly walk near the end. Totally understand why they can’t mate.

Oh, I live in Missouri, near Springfield.
We've gotten about 3 inches of snow today and expect the temp to get down to 2 degees tonight. So far hasn't affected any of my birds.

 

[Frosty]

Missouri... you might want to copy this for future reference. They mostly test for diseases and stuff, but may be a starting point if you have problems. The following information is from the 2005 Directory of Participants.

Missouri Department of Agriculture
Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
P.O. Box 2510, 701 North Miller Avenue
Springfield, MO 65802
Dr. Duke Dana
Phone (417) 895-6861
FAX (417) 831-4766

Missouri Department of Agriculture
Animal Health Laboratory
216 El Mercado Plaza
Jefferson City, MO 65109
Dr. Charles Massengill
Phone (573) 751-3460
FAX (573) 751-5279

School of Veterinary Medicine
University of Missouri
P.O. Box 6023
Columbia, MO 65205
Dr. Stanley Casteel
Phone (573) 882-6811
FAX (573) 882-1411

Your NPIP contact in the Dept of Ag may be of some help, too:
Rose Foster
Missouri Department of Agriculture
P.O. Box 630
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone (573) 522-3377
FAX (573) 751-5279

Here is a picture of a gqf with the turner: https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_listOneCategory.asp?idCategory=2 I have channels made from hardware cloth to hold eggs laying on their sides, but have also used newspapers rolled up between them. Something to just keep them from rolling away.

And we have 2' of snow, high temp today got up to around 10, and I was happy because it was actually above zero. My birds are doing fine, too. Since it was so nice out, I took time and was feeling the turkeys to make sure that they aren't getting thin or anything. Think I see a good candidate for breeding to my BB hens in the spring!

 

[ivan3]

Frosty wrote: Missouri... you might want to copy this for future reference. They mostly test for diseases and stuff, but may be a starting point if you have problems. The following information is from the 2005 Directory of Participants.

Thanks, Frosty. Since you were kind enough to grab the links, and are interested - you might want to add the photos from the surgery link, in this thread, to your collection: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=118315 (chondrosarcoma).​