Sick turkey mystery solved through divine inspiration?

The sick turkey in isolation in the barn stall is still about the same today. To help him reach the water even easier we blocked him into a corner just large enough for him to reach the water and food from where ever he falls. Hopefully this will allow him to eat and drink more and gain his strength back.

Today, we may well have solved the mystery illness he is suffering from. I have centered all my research efforts on bacteria, virus, or protozoa based illness. The closest match was a couple of illnesses caused by protozoans found in wild birds and dirt, carried by worms. However, it still bothered me that there was only 1 turkey ill out of 26, even though they all lived together. The one is very ill, but doesn't seem to be getting better or worse all week. If he "caught" something, it should have affected at least some of the others in a noticeable fashion.

Then this morning, out of the blue, I wake up with two words ringing in my head. "milkweed poisoning". Funny thing is, i know nothing about milkweed, and had never considered poisoning as the source of illness. I got out of bed and googled  milkweed to see what it is. Guess what! WE HAVE MILKWEED IN OUR PASTURE. There were several small patches in the area I found the sick turkey! Some of the leaves and stems actually looked like they were pecked. Many of the seed pods have broken open and the stringy insides are floating around the pasture.

Ok, so we have milkweed, and i now know what it is. but what does this have to do with a sick turkey? Well, it turns out that milkweed is poisonous to turkeys! If a turkey consumes just 0.2% of their body weight of any part of the plant, it is potentially fatal. The symptoms match perfectly with how this one turkey is suffering.



Whorled Milkweed

Milkweed is a very useful plant apparently. I produces a form of natural latex that can be used for rubber, the white fuzz from inside the pods can be used for string, flotation devices, or pillows, it can actually be eaten of processed properly, and it is the main food source for monarch butterflies. Unfortunately it is also very toxic to poultry (especially turkeys) and ruminants like sheep and horses. 


There is no treatment for milkweed poisoning  that I can find, so we have to keep the turkey as comfortable as possible and wait to see if he makes it without permanent damage.  I did manage to rid the pasture of all noticeable pants today. They filled the back of the gator there was so many!


Most importantly, we are very thankful that those two words popped into my head this morning upon waking. I would never have suspected this and was looking completely down the wrong path. I will give credit to our creator for pointing me in the right direction despite my ignorance on these matters. This is definitely a situation where help was needed from above.