Turkey wing compound fracture. Help with med dosage and treatment.

[Skyhead22]

It is a broad breasted bronze. Approximately 10 pounds. I noticed it hanging it's wing low a couple weeks ago. I inspected and found an open wound at its "elbow" on the inside. I do not know technical terms but say it has it's shoulder at the body the next joint would be the elbow. It's maybe a one inch by 1/4 inch opening. It did not get better. I noticed a bad smell and a clear/slightly bloody substance come from the injury. I assumed bad infection and death to come soon. But it hung in there so far. The last 5 days I have been giving it 1cc penicillin g procaine in the breast daily. I tried to clean and blu kote the injury but the turkey constantly grooms at te area and got a pure blue mouth and tongue causing it to drool so I didn't do that anymore. The bird is very powerful and difficult to control to treat the wound. So for the past 3 days I have only given it a shot and no cleaning to prevent further injury. Is my dosage correct? What further steps do I need to treat its wing? It's name is Lucky and is our pet. He has survived an array of coon and mink attacks and now lives on around and under the front porch with our mastiff and a barred rock. I looked into how to amputate but I fear infection may make amputation not worth it.

 

[Skyhead22]

Would like to add, he acts perfectly healthy other than hanging one wing lower. He tries to hop up onto things at times as if nothing is wrong and falls due to one wing not working properly, that really bothers me.
Eats, drinks normal. Normal brown/white poop. Occasional dark brown squirts that smell very fowl but mostly very normal poop.

 

[Skyhead22]

Checked today, yellowish drainage coming from wound. Any advice?

 

[Skyhead22]

Anything?

 

[Skyhead22]

Really thought this would be a good place to come for help and advice

 

[t2jws]

I'm having trouble with the same thing. Our turkeys wing is broke and the bone is protruding fromt he skin. The avaian vet in our area isn't available for a few days. I was told to go to the local tractor supple company and get something called EMT gel from the horse injury area. it is supposed to provoded a barrier for the pain and work like "new skin" the liquid bandaids for humans. it has been a week and the swelling and smell have gotten worse but the overall health of the bird is betterish... He is eating drinking, and gaining weight. He was completelty lifeless when i first discoved the problem. i was told to make a weak black coffee with sugar and serve it to the bird a room temp by an ole' timer friend of mine. it was a few hours later he was up and about. sorry im not much help we are still trying to find out what to do also. i know the bone sticking out this long cant be good and will never allow proper healing.

 

[t2jws]

we are also giving electrolytes and a basic water solubale antibiotic that the tractor supply employee recomended.

 

[suki'smom]

1cc dosage sounds right. I would post this in the turkey section as any non-chicken posts here dont seem to get many replies.

 

[t2jws]

I found this about a duck and it might help
"OK, I have seen many amputations (former vet tech). I will tell you what I would do and you can decide if this is what you would like to try. The site where the bone is protruding is probably the place and I would cut the rest of the wing off there. You can choose to go up higher on the wing to a joint but this will be more painful. You can deaden the area by holding ice on it for several minutes before making the cut. Do not use any antibiotic that has any kind of pain killer in it. Take large good scissors and quickly make the cut and then hold ice on it again. Do this with the ducks head under a towel, it tends to keep them calmer. You will def. need 2 people to do this. After you have removed the broken part, look closely at the wound on the wing. If the edges of the skin have started to heal, you may need to "debride" the wound which means to freshen the edges of the wound by cutting the edges of it off (just a very tiny, thin area of skin from around the wound). This way it will close better. I personally would put a stitch or two in it. Pull the skin over the end of the bone and stitch it. You can use a strong thread. Soak a needle and thread in rubbing alcohol for an hour before beginning. Put a couple of stitches in the wound, do not make them very tight. A little loose in case of swelling. Keep using iodine before, during and after this procedure on the wound. cover the wound in neosporin and bind the wing to the body. Use bandages that makes checking the area easy. Do not let the duck swim or play in water for a few days. If everything goes well, remove the stitches in about 10 days.
Good luck!

Edited by chickensioux - 9/14/10 at 7:49am"