Turkey Poults Flip Over Syndrome-F.O.S.-My experience and what I did.

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Steve, I certainly appreciate your comment, and it makes perfect sense for "normal" purposes. However, my birds are strictly pets, just to complete my "farm" feeling on my couple of acres. I would only be breeding for replacement purposes as/if these were to age or otherwise be lost, and I could definitely control which ones would be the parents.

And yes, I'm sure that breeding these weak ones could possibly result in perpetuate and even increasing the odds of this happening.

Denninmi, I'm in the same boat with you. My pets are strictly pets and I enjoy having them on my few acres. And I also breed for replacement purposes.

Please keep us posted on your little ones.
 
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Glad to hear that your babies seem to be doing better. I hope that they continue to get stronger and show even greater improvement. Please keep us posted on their status. Thanks for the update.

Well, good news and bad. The first "flipper" is now acting completely normal. The second, weak poult is rapidly gaining strength, eating and drinking on its own and trying to stand.

I made up a food slurry mix of 24% chick starter, a boiled egg, a bit of peanut butter, a bit of plain yogurt, a little extra virgin olive oil, a dash of sugar, a dash of sea salt, about a 16th of a chewable vitamin, and enough water to blend into a slurry/thin paste. This seemed to work well. I was force feeding with a syringe barrel for a while. By last night, the "flipper" was eating chick starter on his own, and the second weak one was taking the slurry by himself in little bits from the end of the syringe barrel with gusto, and is pecking at chick starter for himself today.

However, when I came home from work last night, one of my 5 apparently healthy poults was floppy, with wings out and seemed to be gasping for breath.

So, I put him back into the Brinsea incubator (which is still going with 2 duck eggs due to hatch today), gave him a strong dose of tetracycline mixed into pedialyte, and let him rest. He gasped for a few hours, and then seemed to perk up. I've been continuing the tetracycline and pedialyte, and this poult is now eating and drinking on his own and is back in the N.I.C.U. with the other 2 weak ones. Acting pretty normal this morning.

I also put tetracycline in the water on the other 4 healthy poults just to be sure.

I've always heard that turkeys are a lot harder to get going than ducks or chickens. This is my first, and hopefully my last for a few years at least, foray into trying to raise them, but at least it's a learning experience.
 
Wow. You have your hands full. Sorry to hear about the new problem. Sounds like you're a real trooper with working with them in helping them get through this tough time. I know it's time consuming and I certainly understand when you say that this will be your last try with turkeys for a few years. I enjoyed reading the ingredients for your food slurry mix. I will have a food mixture to refer to in the future if I need a turkey mixture. I agree that it is definitely a learning experience. It is also a learning experience for all turkey lovers and owners as well on BYC. We are all learning from all of these posts. It will help us all learn and understand turkeys and how to raise them.

I hope that all of your little ones pull through. Please keep us posted on how things are going.
 
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How does it weaken your flock? Besides the obvious which would be you stand a chance of having more "flippers" and you may have to do the same thing as far as separating them while they get stronger, do they transmit any diseases, etc. to the rest of the flock and kill everyone else? I'm no expert, so I'm still learning all I can about turkeys. I was just curious to know.

By saving the weak and infirm it does weaken the flock. Natures way is only the strong make it. They don't "tramsmit diseases" as you say. Post again next year and the year after and keep records of your number of flippers. By not culling them your % will increase but there is no way to prove that other than by years of breeding.
Steve
 
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Steve, thanks for much for the lesson. I always love learning from others. I have my assignment for comparison and I will post again next year. Thanks so much for your advice and knowledge. I enjoy reading your responses.
 
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Well, the turkey poults have been hatching over the last few months. Just comparing my numbers from last year about the flip over syndrome and reviving this post in the even others are experiencing F.O.S. (Flip Over Syndrome). It's not quite a year yet. I still have 2 more months to make a year (6/2010 to 6/2011). So far, 9 poults have hatched and there are 0 poults that had flip over syndrome. They are from the same Tom from last year and 1 additional young male (from the same Tom) from last year. No new males from another blood line in my group. All the same blood line. My girls are still laying and setting on eggs, so who knows how many more poults will hatch. I will keep track of any flip overs that I have this year and post to let you all know.

So far, so good.

I hope that no one else is experiencing any problems with their turkey poults

Happy Hatching to All !!!!!!
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Nice post kuntry girl
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Sweeterdeeter42: I think that your baby poult needs to rest a little bit and the next day you will see if he has F.O.S.

I hope not but wait and see.If it has try the methods above
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