Trixie the luckiest turkey in the land

Meet Trixie — the only turkey in Ireland looking forward to Christmas.

Trixie the turkey was destined for the dinner table at St Mary’s Nursing Home, Galway City, and was supposed to be the centrepiece of the Christmas Day feast for residents and staff.

But fate and a broken wing intervened to save Trixie from the Christmas chop. The reason for the reprieve is because Trixie was put on a course of antibiotics . . . and turkeys on meds cannot be eaten.

So Trixie, who is now officially the luckiest turkey, has become a household pet at the nursing home and is the residents’ new favourite feathered friend, joining a rooster and two hens living there.

Trixie, said St Mary’s director of nursing Yvonne Carpenter, was a gift from a farmer out in Boleybeg in Barna. She was seven months old and weighed about six kilos.

“She was the runt of the litter. The plan was to eat her; she was for the dinner table. But she stopped eating, and we said there’s something wrong with her. If she doesn’t eat, she wouldn’t be fat enough to feed 10 never mind all of us, so we decided to bring her to the vet.

“The vet thought we were joking. We were in and there were people with dogs and other pets — they couldn’t believe that we came in with a turkey this close to Christmas.”

Trixie was found to have a damaged wing, and she was given painkillers and antibiotics. It is not yet known how the wing was damaged, but fowl play has not been ruled out.

“The problem is the turkey can’t go into the food chain with antibiotics, so she was saved — she’s our pet now.”

Not all of the 60 nursing home residents and 64 staff at St Mary’s were happy to agree to the pardon.

“Some of the residents were saying it is EU regulations gone mad. They wanted to eat the turkey, they didn’t care about the antibiotics. They’ve lived through wars, famine, rations and recessions and some of them thought it was a shame not to eat it. We had a vote, and Trixie was spared,” says Yvonne.