Turkey poult blind at hatch

[Kessel23]

I hatched 4 poults a few days ago and as they were all in the incubator drying off I didn't realize any issues with them. Once I put them in the brooder though I realized one was starting to walk very odd. It would slowly move its head forward with every step and was bumping into things. One of its feet was also curled. I picked it up and looked at its face closer and one eye is very small and cloudy, the other is normal sized but seems to be mostly covered by it's eyelid and just the top section of the eye can be seen when it's open. I'm not sure if it would be able to see with that one if it was uncovered.

I tried to figure out if he was completly blind or if he could see just a bit from his one eye. After testing him for a few minutes I figured out it is most likely completly blind or at most has extremely limited vision from the one eye. I sprinkled food around his face and got no reaction, moved my hands around him, wiggled my fingers around in front of him, all no reaction. I took him out and tried to get him drinking and eating but as you can imagine it didn't work because he is blind. So I put him back with the other poults and figured I would have to euthanize him. I decided to let him go for a day or two to see if maybe he could figure things out just from being around the other poults who were all eating and drinking well. And very surprisingly he did figure things out. First he figured out how to drink. He would wonder till he stepped into their water dish then he would start to take sips while standing in it. The next day he still had not figured out how to eat yet but was getting better at drinking and would just come to the edge of the dish and put one foot on it then start to drink instead of going into the dish. The 4th day I still had not seen him eat yet but he didn't seem to be getting any weaker so I statted peaking in on them more often to see if I could confirm that he was eating. Eventually I did see him eat, the same way he drank, wondered into the food dish and started pecking around. Today he is doing well and pecks around randomly at the ground too as he walks, most of the time there is nothing near where he is grabbing but sometimes he grabs a bit of food that got kicked out of the dish. I'm really amazed how this poult was able to figure things out while being blind when last year I had two perfectly healthy ones I couldn't get to start eating. I'm not positive he will live yet but I'm more hopeful now that he is eating and drinking. I have some videos of him that im going to try and upload but it takes like 5 minutes just for me to load a picture in so that might take a very long time.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Can you wet the eyelids with water to make sure they weren't just glued shut?

 

[Kessel23]

Can you wet the eyelids with water to make sure they weren't just glued shut?

It can open them fully, both of them. The one eye is just small and cloudy and the other seems to be normal but like the eyelids are too high. I'm not sure if it can even see out of that one either, it also looks cloudy. Neither is stuck shut or has trouble opening.

 

[R2elk]

It can open them fully, both of them. The one eye is just small and cloudy and the other seems to be normal but like the eyelids are too high. I'm not sure if it can even see out of that one either, it also looks cloudy. Neither is stuck shut or has trouble opening.

Personally, I would have already culled it. Of course I work on the basis that I do not want it as part of my breeding flock or anyone else's breeding flock.

 

[Kessel23]

Personally, I would have already culled it. Of course I work on the basis that I do not want it as part of my breeding flock or anyone else's breeding flock.

Yeah I'm not going to use it for breeding if it lives. I would be afraid that it's offspring would also be deformed. I'm fine with just keeping it as a pet though if it does survive.

 

[neo71665]

Good luck. I raised a blind dog once and that was more work than I was ready for.

 

[R2elk]

Yeah I'm not going to use it for breeding if it lives. I would be afraid that it's offspring would also be deformed. I'm fine with just keeping it as a pet though if it does survive.

It most likely is genetic. Good intentions don't always work out the way you think they will. Unless kept alone (not good for the turkey), there is no way to guarantee that it won't get bred and that someone might decide to hatch eggs from it.

 

[Kessel23]

Good luck. I raised a blind dog once and that was more work than I was ready for.

Thanks. I've never heard of someone with a blind turkey before but my friend has a blind quail and my grandparents a blind chicken. They both just have them with other normal birds of their species in a normal pen and they do fine. So I'm just going to keep this one penned with some other birds and see how it does. My turkey flock free ranges and sleeps in my loft so I can't have a blind bird doing that.

 

[Kessel23]

It most likely is genetic. Good intentions don't always work out the way you think they will. Unless kept alone (not good for the turkey), there is no way to guarantee that it won't get bred and that someone might decide to hatch eggs from it.

I understand. If it's a hen it wont be kept with any toms. If it's a tom I'm not going to hatch any eggs from the hens kept with it.

 

[Devils Flower]

It's nice of you to give the little thing a chance. I wish you luck with the little one. So many different animals do great with no sight.