Guinea Foot Trauma

[ChicknCharm]

Hello! We had 7 healthy (we thought) guineas yesterday, today we have 6. One died this morning in my arms as I was treating a very puffy toe which was bleeding. Two others have deep gashes on the fronts of their feet (in the middle after the incline to the ankle). I am not sure what is happening. They live in a metal gage with a very sturdy metal bottom, I am worried something is attacking at their feet. We have them in the "vault" since there are so many coons and foxes in our neighborhood. The two with the gashes on the tops of their feet look much worse than did our poor puffy toe fellow. We have raised these since hatchlings, they are now about 6 months old. Could the bleeding toe have caused that much blood loss? I have treated the worse of the remaining two injured foot guineas with a round of penecillin injections (10 days, ending a few weeks ago), the gash is better, but not completely healed. They are just so difficult to keep clean and then they get so upset when seperated from their friends. Any suggestions?

 

[DACIFarmGuineas]

That is really strange. Yesterday I found one of my guineas with a gash in the top of the left foot, right above the left claw. I didn't know what the heck was going on when I looked in the cage and there was blood everywhere. All over the perches on everything. It took me a while to figure out who it was coming from. The blood was just dripping and it was all over his bottom and feathers. I got him cleaned up and put him in one of our large dog crates to separate him. It was so hard to hold him and clean him up that I waited to do a better job when my husband came home from work. By that time it looked okay except the hole is pretty bad. No way to suture that thing at all. The guinea is still separated from the rest of the group. Should I put some type of bandage on his foot. I hope he doesn't lose his claw. The hole looks bad. We have 12 guineas in our garage. My husband built a large cage that can be rolled out on nice days and put back in the garage at night. It has been raining here so much they haven't been able to go outside for days. So I know that no kind of animal got to him in the garage, and they were all just fine when I went to bed the night before. Is it possible that the birds are fighting and doing this kind of damage? My other problem is our barn is not finished as of yet, so they have to stay in the garage until it stops raining long enough to dry up and finished their guinea room. Help! I don't know what to do either.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I am not a vet, but I am a nurse and I use my skills to treat my animals. Which means I probably did somethings that I really shouldn't have in the past. Like when I was desparate to save my chickens from this terrible respiratory problem they all seemed to have and I poured a bunch of tussin in their water. However I did a few things that apparently worked.
Well in this case, I would ask myself, first what is causing this problem. I mean you can treat the wound and have it happen again anyway. Is there any chance that something small enough is getting to them?
Now bleeding can be controlled with cold compresses if you can keep them still long enough. If they are dirty you might want a little bleeding while you are cleaning first. But if you can't stop it with cold compresses, you might need to move on to more drastic measures like a quick touch with a very, very hot metal object. And I do mean quick. I use human topical medician on my birds. I might put triple antibiotic ointment on a wound. I might even bandage it and cover the bandaged claw with duck tape. You might wonder how would I accomplish all this. Well I would have to restrain them, of course. You could wrap them up in a large bath towel and secure the towel so they are trapped, except for the injured leg.
I try different things myself, because they are not going to the vet. The value of one single bird wouldn't pay the vet. Oh and if I have to clean and heal something, my favorite soak is salt water. I use epsom or regular table salt.

 

[ChicknCharm]

Oh no, I am so sad other guineas are having foot problems, too. The one that died this morning had lost the claw on his toe. I am really stumped why he passed so quickly, I must not have seen the warnings. Today I took the other two with the gashes and put them in with our chickens. I have scrubbed their gashes and used anitbiotic ointment. The bleeding has stopped, but I do think they are infected. One good thing to stop bleeding is called "wonder dust"; activated charcoal stuff that you powder on the deep wounds. I just cannot get the sores to heal, and I do not want to do another round of antibiotic shots when the first did not work. I am keeping them isolated and hoping for the best. If anyone has any suggestions, please post them. I just wrestle with keeping the buggers clean. Good luck everyone.

 

[ChicknCharm]

Thank you (Rhoda) for the duck (duct) tape idea over the bandages...they always chew off my bandages. Our guineas are pretty tame, my children have more will power than they. So, it is not a huge wrestle to catch and clean them...I just cannot get the sores to heal and I do not want to loose another bird. I feel terrible. But, we did have our first chicken eggs today...two perfect little pearls of eggs. Life is amazing in its balance. Please share any advice on how to heal deep foot wounds on dirty birds.

 

[DACIFarmGuineas]

Yes I'm pretty sure nothing could have gotten to my bird unless a mouse got in. But I'm almost sure it was the birds fighting. I caught one of them trying to peck the head off of one. When I looked closer, the poor thing had blood running from above his eye. A nice tear. Looking at the other bird's foot, there is a hole almost down to the bone. It's where the digit would be on your finger above your own nail. I hope he doesn't loose his claw. I don't think he would be able to perch very well. But mostly I hope he doesn't die. I'm still keeping him in the dog crate and he seems to be eating and drinking well. I have him facing the other birds so hopefully he won't stress too much being by himself. Have any of you seen this type of thing from birds pecking at one another?

Cindi

 

[ChicknCharm]

Cindi: I do notice that ours will peck at each other more when they don't get "outside" time. I think they get bored and start pecking. That is awful if our birds pecked the toe of the one poor guinea and he bled too much. How sad. But, I am still clueless as to how the wounds started. I still have not been able to close up the foot wounds on our two remaining injured birds, so please let me know if you have success. I scrubbed everyday and sanitized, used the injections on one. Blahch....Good luck!!!

 

[DACIFarmGuineas]

I checked on my Guinea this morning and she seems to be doing okay so far. The toe is swollen and the wound is not bleeding anymore. The problem is keeping the whole toe. She can't bend her toe at all poor thing. I think you are right about the birds getting on each others nerves when being kept up and not getting out. There has been so much rain here and my husband can't finish the one part of the barn that the birds will go into to. The barn was already here and the previous owners did a bad job building it. The stalls are always full of water every time it rains. I've come home to my horses standing in ankle deep water at times. Now we are expecting snow this weekend. Good grief! But at least the birds are comfy in our garage and I don't have to go out in the cold to take care of them. I'm going to our local Southern States feed store today. There is a woman who raises Guineas, peacocks and other fowl that works there. Hopefully she can take a look and tell me what to do. I will let you know what she says. She was referred to me by a friend who says that everyone she sells her stock to has been very happy and that she really knows her stuff. So hopefully she can help. This kind of stuff really freaks me out. I can't stand the feeling of not being able to make it all better instantly. I'll keep you posted.


Cindi

 

[ChicknCharm]

Oh yes, please let me know if you find any good advice! Thank you and Keep warm and dry.

 

[maine chicks]

Use a red party light in the coop the same way you would in a box when they were keets. The less blood they see the better. They do get bored if they are inside because of the weather. Try putting some mirrors up inside so they have a distraction from each others toes.