Two Poults Died -- what is wrong?

[PatS]

Thursday morning the midget whites I special ordered arrived at the feed store. I had ordered five but four came in.

They came home and all were eating and drinking and cheeping and running around. At first they spent a lot of time under the lamp, but by the second day they were running around like crazy, not spending a huge amount of time directly under the lamp except when they took naps. The thermometer says it is in the mid to high 90s directly underneath.

Friday we woke to find one poult standing under the light, eyes closed, wings drooping, swaying back and forth. When his broodermates took naps on the ground, he stayed upright, but was wobbly. He faced the side of the brooder, but I thought this was because the others were very active and bothered him. His poops were a little watery, mostly white with just a little of the normal green in them.

He stopped eating and drinking and I spent 24 hours feeding him with an eye dropper. He wasn't very interested and resisted eating, but managed to hold on another day. Yesterday he died.

I thought maybe he just never fully recovered from the stress of shipping.

The other three ran like crazy all afternoon. They seemed healthier than the dickens having fun racing around the brooder, smashing into each other and the waterer. They seemed the picture of youthful exuberance. One was already trying to jump out! (The chicks we raised last year didn't try that for weeks.) We went out to have dinner with friends and came back last night to find another poult standing, facing the wall, and swaying. This morning it was dead.

I raised chicks last year with zero fatalities, now I've lost half of my poults in four days. What am I doing wrong? Are they sick? Getting concussed from running around wildly? What can I do to help them?

Oh I don't know if this is a symptom, but there was always one very noisy poult. Very noisy. I don't know if it was a poult who later succumbed, because they all look alike, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. Now one of my survivors is cheeping loudly, and I'm hoping it is not the first sign of another one going down...

Does anything look amiss?

 

[longranger]

I will be curious to hear the answers to your questions as I have experienced the same with both poults and chicks I have incubated and hatched myself, many from birds in my backyard. Have not had infectious disease problems, fed the right feed and supplements etc.. Some hatches do near 100% and others as many as half just wither away suddenly during the first week or two. Have used the same brooder setups, incubators feed as appropriate for species etc.. can't figure it out at all.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

I can't really tell in the picture. Is your feed ground or mashed a bit for them?
What protein feed are they getting? That shouldn't have effected them in 2 days
but those that know more about Poults might need that info.

Good luck with the remainder,
David

 

[PatS]

The feed is 27% protein, medicated. It is in crumbled form, but I put it in the spice grinder to get it powdery for them, which I did for my chicks last year for the first couple of weeks.
I also put a splash of ACV (Braggs) into the water.

 

[zatsdeb]

are you sure they are warm enough? turkeys are sensitive, I have 5 in with 7 ducks I hatched, and the ducks don't seem to care about the light, but the turkeys all seem to sleep closer to the light, also we keep our turkeys enclosed, free from drafts. what kind of shavings do you use ? Looks like pine which is good. any cedar is toxic and will cause that mad running and worse. we also keep chicks in with turkeys, or ducks in this case, teaches them to drink, but if they get wet also they are not smart enough to go under the light and dry off.

 

[Effervescent]

It sounds like you're doing everything right. The only thing I can think of is if they aren't drinking water? I've never done turkeys, but I've heard that a lot of people put chicks in with them to teach them how to drink. Apparently they don't always do it on their own.

 

[PatS]

The shavings are pine and fir mixed. The first poult died while they were still living on paper towels, before the shavings went in.

They always sleep under the light but when they are playing they spend almost as much time at the cool end of the brooder as they do by the light.
I don't think they are cold -- wouldn't they choose to mostly hang out under the light if that were the case?

They eat and drink fine until they go into the "wobbly stance trance."

Thanks, everyone, keep those questions and answers coming. I'd like to keep these guys alive.

 

[zatsdeb]

my shavings say premium pine shavings.. I never heard of fir shavings in with pine? Shipping turkeys is hard on them, when I ordered royal palm from cackle, I ordered 5 and 2 dies within 2 days, I had chicks in with them, did you add some sugar to their water?

 

[PatS]

Nope, I gave the one I was feeding with an eyedropper sugar but the others get water with a bit of ACV. (About a teaspoon to a quart of water.)

Yes, the feedstore changed their brand of shavings and these may have some fir mixed in -- these smell and look like pine. I an going into the "big city" this afternoon and can pick up other shavings if necessary, but since only one of the two dead poults was exposed to the shavings and they both exhibited the same symptoms, I don't think it was the shavings.

I just put in a thermometer and directly under the lamp is 102, but just a couple inches away it is a few degrees cooler.

 

[zatsdeb]

Quote:
they could have just been stressed, don't have a clue about the shavings, I would think the fir is like a pine, but don't know if it is related to the cedar family or closer to the pine family. just that I had never heard of it, wonder if it horse bedding? but the pine shavings I have is horse bedding too.
I have heard that turkeys were hard to raise, easier if you hatch them cause they don't have that stress from the shipping.