Turkey Poult Droppings -- is runny ok?

[ScorpChix]

Hi team turkey -- I am new to this whole baby turkey world. I picked up 5 chicks (poults?) from the Feed store on Sunday. They were born on 7/6. They are cute as buttons but their droppings are runny like crazy -- more like water than anything.

Is this normal? or am I being a paranoid momma?

They all seem to eating and drinking fine. And running around from time to time.
Should I worry?

Oh .. there is one with only one eye open. Poor thing. Will he/she survive?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Denninmi]

Well, sometime just the stress of moving and handling causes this, and the whole hatchery to feed store to home transition is rough. At this point, I would definitely make sure they're like 95 degrees in the brooder, use an electrolyte solution in the waterer instead of plain water, and watch them closely. If they don't perk up, I'd consider doing more intensive treatment.

Believe me, I know how emotionally difficult it can be dealing with a sick little bird when you want them to do well. Right now I have a little baby button quail that hatched on Friday that is much smaller than the rest and struggling, and I've been trying to do everything I can to save it, including force feeding which is difficult on something so tiny. It seems to be at least holding its own if not improving.

Whever I've had issues like this, I've always found it to be helpful to do the following:

1) Keep the birds VERY warm -- for young birds of the age of your turkeys, 95 to 99 degrees is good.

2) Use an electrolyte solution instead of plain water. Like pedialy. If they're already sick, dehydration will do them in right away if they aren't taking in fluids. Force feed the liquids if necessary.

3) Add antibiotics to the water, a strong dose -- I use tetracycline at a minimum, but I prefer to use both tetracycline and either penicillin or a cephalosporin type antibiotic, because each type treats different bacterial infections. For a really sick bird that won't eat or drink on its own, you can always disolve a little bit of the antibiotic into a few drops of water and force it down its mouth using the barrel of a syringe WITHOUT the needle, or a clean tiny dropper bottle like the kind Visine comes in.

4) Add a vitamin to the water too. I use a kind from the pet store just for birds, but I have heard that children's liquid vitamins WITHOUT IRON work fine, too.

5) Feeding -- if it will eat, give it the most calorie and protein dense foods you can -- mashed boiled egg is very good, along with a really high protein starter mash (gamebird starter at least 26% protein). If it can't eat on its own, you can try force feeding -- I have made a slurry of boiled egg, peanut butter, a pinch of sugar, a tiny pinch of sea salt, a little vegetable oil, some high protein gamebird starter, and enough water to process into a runny slurry that will be thick enough to go into a syringe barrel (without the needle, of course) and then come back out again. I blend it all up in a small food chopper attachment that goes on my immersion blender until its a paste -- consistency of humus is good (if that helps, I know a lot of people have never had humus most likely). If you force feed, try to fill its mouth with a decent sized amount but not so much it chokes, and then try to get it to swallow it by closing the beak if you can -- force feeding is NOT easy, even very sick birds will resist, and you have to be careful not to

I hope this helps. I'll be thinking good thoughts for you and your little baby turkeys.

 

[Tunastopper]

They all seem to eating and drinking fine. And running around from time to time.
Should I worry?

I wouldn't worry. The only one I might worry about is the one with one eye open. Is it eating and drinking like the others?​

 

[ScorpChix]

Thanks for the responses. The really weird thing is that they are all eating / drinking just fine. Even the one-eye'd one. I did make them the ACV + molasses cocktail last night. They seem to like it.

I just wasnt sure if runny poop was normal for newborns or not.

Thanks

 

[Tunastopper]

If you are still worried you can give them a probiotic. Thats always a good thing to do anyway. http://www.probios.com/index.html