advice on broken turkey wing?

[bibliophile birds]

so, i was moving the turkeys from their tractor into their new pen and i broke one of their wings. i grabbed her and she threw her wing out and it just snapped! it was pretty loud and made me nauseous. i knew instantly what it was.

naturally, it was the hen from the pair of Bourbon Reds i was planning to keep and breed. the break is in the humerus (bone 21 in the schematic below) pretty close to the body. it has made a tiny puncture in the underside of the wing.

she's obviously a bit disoriented by it and i'm sure she's in some pain, but she's walking and eating with the others. should i just splint it and hope things go well?

 

[FarmerDenise]

I would definitely splint it. Also don't forget to clean the wound with saline solution, betadine or hydrogen peroxide.
My understanding is that turkeys heal as fast as chickens. Don't wrap her body too tight, because she will still need to be able to expand her chest cavity or rather along her back (where the lungs are) to be able to breathe.
I would splint the wing and then loosely tie it to the body to prevent her from flapping.

 

[bibliophile birds]

how fast would you expect something like that to heal? i've had no experience with broken bird bones before.

 

[bibliophile birds]

i'm pretty sure i did nothing but cause more pain trying to splint the wing. it's a bad transverse fracture and i simply cannot get the bones to realign OR stay still. poor girl.

i'm calling my dad's friend who is an avian vet tomorrow, but i have a bad feeling that our options are going to be wing amputation or euthanasia.

 

[xpc]

Its an unfortunate accident, I don't think I'd try to set it insomuch as to immobilize it - Being a city boy I could not cull my roo's and put them to sleep first with car starting fluid (ether) a quick spray in the nose holes put them to slumber in 30 seconds, you could then set the arm (#21) that was broken without incident or struggle. When i broke my metacarpals in my hand i was told 6 weeks to heal but was done in 4 weeks.

 

[patandchickens]

If it is a displaced fracture (the ends of the bones are no longer properly lined up) and the bone has penetrated the skin, I have read of a number of people in those circumstances trying to amputate the wing, often successfully. I am not *urging* you to do this -- and I really don't know whether I'd do it myself, I am glad I am not in your shoes, it is a really tough decision -- but if you were going to do it, I think the time is NOW, before infection sets in.

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[bibliophile birds]

it is a displaced transverse fracture, but somehow it didn't break the skin (i thought it had cause the bone was so pointy... but it's just poking my finger through the thin wing skin). setting it is impossible unless i drill a pin into it and i'm not about to try that!

i've got the wing bound up and to her body and she seems to be dealing pretty well. she's a bit lethargic, but she's eating and chatting with the others.

for now, i'm just going to keep and eye on her. amputation of the wing is a possibility, but i want to give her the chance to show me whether that's needed or not. if she continues to do well, i'm just going to let the bone heal however it can. if she looks like she's in a lot of pain or takes a turn for the worse, we'll probably amputate.

 

[Blackbird]

Many years ago we had a duckling that broke it's leg in three places. I don't even remember how anymore, but I insisted that we needed to help it, so we called my vet tech aunt to come out. She insisted there was nothing we could do for it and left. So, through good ole fashioned benign neglect the duck went without anything special and although it had trouble walking for a while, it's leg soon healed and it made a full recovery.

I think they are often stronger and more resilient than we like to think.

If your turkey's wing is staying in place with the splint, all will be well. Some pro-bios or electrolytes would certainly help with the stress though.