Just gone to feed my turkeys and one is just laying on the floor very very week. Why? How can i help him? Hes 7 weeks old. At the moment is in a towlel on the boiler trying to warm him up, what else can i do?
Been to the vets an they gave me Metronidazole in tablet form, so iv crushed them up an mixed with water as they are quite large tablets, taken me nearly an hour i just hope they havent got too stresssed with it. What i did notice though was that most of them sounded a raspy in they breathing, i dont know if thats cos id cought them an they were stressed. Ill check on them later, but hopefully these tablets will save anymore from dieing. I forgot to mention that they are 8 weeks old. They are in a stable at the moment, now then the stable is half full with this years hay now could the hay cause any problems. They are bedded on straw, i didnt realise that i kneeded to wash my foot wear before entering them if id be walking on the area with my chickens, i was told this is how blackhead could have been transmitted, if it is that. The vet said the only way to tell would to be do an autopsy. Just got to see what happens.
Did the first one die? If so, a PM would have been useful. Did you check out their poo to see if it was yellow/green? Did the vet ask about symptoms before giving you the meds?
If they are making rattly breathing noises, they could have a micoplasma infection and may need an anti-biotic. Also, I believe that a previous infection can leave them with damaged air sacs causing breathing noises. This does tend to sound louder if they are stressed. Another possibility is aspergillosis if they are exposed to mould spores from hay, straw or feed. It is safer to bed them on shavings.
Yes the first one did die. The vet just said its a possibility it could be black head i mentioned that there was a few dropping which may have blood in it as it got red in, she didnt say anything to that but ' thats odd' she told me to worm my chickens and go back to her for some turkey wormer when they have finished there tablets. I dont think theres any mold as its fresh hay, any the straws pretty dry, but ill change there bedding tomorrow for shavings. Many thanks
If the droppings have blood in them and your turkeys are very droopy and lethargic you will need something like Baycox from the vet or Coxoid to treat for coccidiosis.