3 dead guineas in a week!?

[GandalfGoose]

I had a flock of about 18 guineas that were about a year or so old. Everyone was healthy as far as I could tell, in good weight, had nice feathers, eating, drinking, walking, being generally bad

. Last week I came home to find one dead in the coop with nothing externally to indicate why it was dead, still in good weight and in good physical condition, well despite being dead. I was upset, but animals die and I couldn't figure out anything that would have caused the death that I could change or fix. The next day, same thing, all of them looked fine when I left for work, came home, and one was dead in the coop. I was much more upset by this because two dead guineas in 2 days without any visible cause of death. A few days later, another one died just like the other two. The third one is at the vet for a necropsy, but the results aren't back yet. The guineas are allowed to free range during the day and then they all come back to the coop at night for their treat and to get locked up. We also have geese and they have been acting completely normal and healthy. Does any one have any ideas on what this might be?

 

[broody rooster]

do any show signs of respiratory infection ? there's also the possibility of eating something poisonous ?

 

[chickbird]

I had a flock of about 18 guineas that were about a year or so old. Everyone was healthy as far as I could tell, in good weight, had nice feathers, eating, drinking, walking, being generally bad

. Last week I came home to find one dead in the coop with nothing externally to indicate why it was dead, still in good weight and in good physical condition, well despite being dead. I was upset, but animals die and I couldn't figure out anything that would have caused the death that I could change or fix. The next day, same thing, all of them looked fine when I left for work, came home, and one was dead in the coop. I was much more upset by this because two dead guineas in 2 days without any visible cause of death. A few days later, another one died just like the other two. The third one is at the vet for a necropsy, but the results aren't back yet. The guineas are allowed to free range during the day and then they all come back to the coop at night for their treat and to get locked up. We also have geese and they have been acting completely normal and healthy. Does any one have any ideas on what this might be?

Could it be from a poison snake bite?

 

[GandalfGoose]

Quote: They don't seem to have any respiratory problems, but I am thinking that they may have gotten into something at the unpleasant neighbors house.

Quote: I don't think it was from a snake as we don't really have many snakes around, but it is a possibility.

 

[lakebound]

Well whatever it is, that sure does stink! I hope it wasn't your neighbor.... So sorry for your loss. Please let us know what the vet finds out please

 

[NBKOC64]

We've had guineas die for no apparent reason, too. We recently had one die and we think it was from being egg bound.

 

[GandalfGoose]

When the first one died, I had assumed that it was egg bound, but after the second one in 48 hours died I was worried

So we got the report back from the vet. They had a E. coli based respiratory infection and a slightly elevated worm load. According to the vet, neither of these things by themselves would have killed them, but in combination was just enough to do it. He did say that they were in surprisingly healthy looking condition given what was wrong with them. He gave us Panacur to worm all the guineas and geese with and a prescription for everyone for the respiratory infection. Here's to hoping that fixes everything and no one else dies.

He said that he thinks that they picked it up from the wild turkeys that will some times hang out with the guineas during the day.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Wild turkeys?

 

[GandalfGoose]

Yeah, we have a flock of them that lives around our house. They come up to eat out of the neighbor's bird feeder and then they travel along with the guineas for a while and then disappear off into the woods at the back of the property. This is a common sight out off our back porch.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Hmmm. I asked because we have tons of wild turkeys around here so that concerns me. I am expecting at some point my guineas will mingle with them a bit (though it may take a while since they are such drama queen scaredy pigs). Have you ever dewormed your guineas (before now)?