Young turkey Lethargic and breathing through his mouth

[4H Mom]

My son's wanted to try a 4H project and we were told turkeys were an easy first project. We are not familiar with raising poultry or birds of any kind.

Our turkey chick was robust and lively. He is approximately 7 weeks old. We usually let him roam around the back yard for an hour or so at a time. The rest of the time he is in a large dog crate in our garage, heat lamp at night, newspaper and shavings on the bottom of the cage. Last night he was eating up a storm when I went to check him before bed and I refilled his water.

However, today, we found him
- listless and not really moving. He is just sort of lying around with some of his wing feathers hanging out to the side.
- breathing open-mouthed.
- gullet is empty.
- I've looked down his throat and it appears clear (no visible worms).
- there did not seem to be as many poops in his cage as I would hae expected.
- even when he stands he appears uncoordinated and a couple of his wing feathers still hang out to the side

(now that the symptoms are more pronounced I may have noticed the wing feathers and somewhat diminshed energy and lack of coordination yesterday.)

I have been giving offering him sugar water and apple-cider-water out of small bowls which he will drink if I hold them in front of him.

He just pooped a runny runny mess with some turkey crumbles still visible in it.

Does anybody have any ideas of what ay be happening and/or how I can help him?

Thanks,

Barbara and Robert

 

[LuvinChickens]

Do you know how to feel the keel or breast bone? I would check his weight. If he is thin, I believe he has worms.

 

[4H Mom]

He does feel thin to me. He also has diahrreah. Is that consistent with worms? What is the best way to treat him?

 

[LuvinChickens]

This is a great article that I just found. It has to do with the symptoms and treatment of worms. http://madbushfarm.blogspot.com/2009/03/chicken-worms-brief-guide.html

 

[4H Mom]

Wow. What a learning curve. And I thought this would be an easy first project! haha.

After talking to many other more experienced turkey owners, i got a lot of "Gee, I don't knows."
But one very knowledgeable and helpful lady instructed me to do the following

1) get poultry electrolytes/vitamins and add them to his water (1/4 tsp per 4 cups)
2) get Sulban for any worms, although she felt he was pretty young for full infestation. (I couldn't find Sulban in our one-horse town but I did find some other sulfadimethoxine soluble powder which had a dosage for turkeys (1/8 tsp per 4 cups water)
3) give him 1/2 anti-biotic daily (down the gullet - that's fun [not])
4) keep him warm under a heat lamp. (he's in a large, well-bedded dog crate in our garage with a heat lamp)

I did all these things yesterday and made sure he drank some his medicated water by both peaking his interest in drinking on his own as well as giving him some in a medicine dropper.
He appears to be eating and drinking and he no longer has diahhrea. So that's all good.

WHAT I HAVE FURTHER DISCOVERED in the meantime: His left foot ball is swollen sore and warm. I have checked carefully for any lesions or scabs or thorns, etc and have found none (ie. bumblefoot). I manipulated his digits which don't appear broken. He doesn't want to put any weight on it, though, which is why he looks so unsteady, won't walk, etc. AHA!!!

SO, I've also added anti-inflammatory (1/4 of a plain old aspirin, crushed) to his drinking water.

oh my gosh. have I missed anything?