Another Guinnea Got Stuck!!!

[peepsandquacks]

I know they are cute...I know they are helpful...but they are STUPID!

I checked on my guinneas and counted them....13....looked around their pen and found one on its back behind the brooder (I have a tote with a hole in it, inside a bigger pen). It was awake, but shivering. I put it into the brooder so it can warm up (the light is shining in it) and noticed it wasnt walking. Its wings were spread out and it was just flopping around. So I took it inside with me, and using the advice I recieved from a similar issue on sat (stuck guinnea...but he died) I took the ducks light and put the guinnea in a bowl with a washcloth and I am shining the light on him. I also took a bulb and filled it with mushed up food and water and gave him some sips.

It has been 1/2 hr and he is now up looking around and squawking (he was only cheeping quietly before), and he is standing on both legs. Well now as i type he is sleeping, but sleep standing, so thats good.

I will keep him here for another half hour or so and see if he can walk again. If he can I will put him back in the pen and HOPE he doesnt do it again.

This guinnea thing is alot of work! You know what they remind me of? Dodo birds. Seriously.

 

[peepsandquacks]

And hes back in the pen with the others, like he didnt almost die. Go Farmer Me!

 

[PeepsCA]

Glad ya saved the little guy

Sounds like you need to keet proof your brooder for things they can get stuck in or behind. Hoping it won't happen again probably won't work, lol. If there's a way a Guinea can kill itself... it usually happens

 

[robin416]

Quote:
All it takes is to have enough information and we can move mountains. Keep an eye on the wanderer, he/she might be physically challenged for the next day. Make sure it is eating and drinking.

 

[peepsandquacks]

I will go out there now and check on him. If he was able to get on his back and get stuck...I am assuming there is already something challenged about him.

 

[robin416]

Quote:
Don't move to quick, that's why I warned you that it might struggle a bit for the next day or so. That was a big deal to that little body and big deals take a little time to get over.

 

[peepsandquacks]

Well I checked on him and I cant even figure out what one he was (I have 14). They all ran around the same, and none of them looked sickly. So I am assuming he is healthy!

I moved the brooder away from the back of the pen more, so if one goes back there, it can get out.

 

[Cadillac Jill]

One thing I've figured out, this guinea thing is fraught with obstacles, and you never know what will be the source of the next one.

So early Sunday morning DH and I go out to do some work on operation Guinea Garden (or perhaps Fowl Fiasco...time will tell). We drape a 50' x 50' aviary net over a greenhouse frame that's adjacent to the current guinea run. This will eventually serve as the center of our guinea habitat/vegetable garden, with the netting extending to the perimeter and attaching to a picket fence that's being erected specifically for this purpose.

But since we don't have the picket fence up yet, the excess netting was bunched up between the end of the greenhouse frame and one side of the temporary guinea run. I go off to enjoy the Lord's Day and come back several hours later. The guineas are at the far end of the run and will not move up into their coop no matter how I coax them with scratch. I finaly decide to round them up in that direction with a couple of sticks and they completely freak out. They're squawking and flying about wildly, almost injuring themselves on the fencing to avoid going up the ramp to the coop where their food and water is available. After a few minutes I realize that they're terrified of the bunched up netting. They had apparently been out in the run in the sweltering heat all day. I felt terrible! It's a wonder they weren't severely dehydrated.

After a day and a half of intensive net therapy, they finally decided it was safe to pass within a couple of feet of it. But the experience left me saying, yet again, "You have GOT to be kidding me! What next?"

 

[peepsandquacks]

LOL THAT actually made me LAUGH OUT LOAD. Netting? I am suprised none of them ran into it and tangled themselves into it. Thats what my keets would do. Its like they see something dangerous and TRY to kill themselves. How the heck would one get stuck UNDER the water dish without trying, and this last one belly up behind the brooder.....it has to take some serious effort to even do this.