Guinea Fowl Hurt Leg

[SiobhanAG]

HI, I have a guinea fowl that fell to the ground and hurt his leg. I do not think it is broken, does not appear to be any swelling either. I think maybe its the joint...? Its been almost a week, he will not walk or stand. He just sits around in his cage and then plops over to the food and water. He eats and drinks normally and is very lively, but I do not know what to do. I confined him hoping he would get better but now I am afraid his leg will atrophy since he just sits there. I do think it is still painful. Any suggestions?

 

[JLeigh]

I don't know about the injury, but I'd suggest (if you aren't doing this already) taking him, still in the cage, out to where the rest of the flock is, where he can see and be seen by the others. You don't want to have to re-introduce him to the flock later. It also might also motivate him to use his leg. Poor thing. Sorry he's hurt, and I hope he gets better.

 

[SiobhanAG]

JLeigh, I raised my guinea in the house. He is a pet and hasn't met the others. He sits on my lap with my husband and I watching tv and perches on my shoulder when I do chores. I still take him out, he seems quite happy to be out, he just wont walk. Thank you for responding to my post though!

 

[JLeigh]

Wow. He perches on your shoulder? That's a big bird for a shoulder, but we gotta get pictures of that. That photo could go in the BYC Calendar. LOL.

 

[kickenchicken13]

hello. I am new to "byc" I also have a guinea who has a hurt leg. it does stand up but, it does not put the hurt leg on the ground!? it hops like a bunnie! I don't know what to do with her!? any ideas?

 

[PeepsCA]

HI, I have a guinea fowl that fell to the ground and hurt his leg. I do not think it is broken, does not appear to be any swelling either. I think maybe its the joint...? Its been almost a week, he will not walk or stand. He just sits around in his cage and then plops over to the food and water. He eats and drinks normally and is very lively, but I do not know what to do. I confined him hoping he would get better but now I am afraid his leg will atrophy since he just sits there. I do think it is still painful. Any suggestions?

You might want to compare his hocks and make sure the tendon has not slipped off to the side on the injured leg... if it has most likely that's not fixable without surgery (which is expensive, and would need to be done by an avian vet). If it's just a sprain or some bruising he will eventually heal, and he will baby the leg as long as he needs to in the meantime.

Since he is a pet and is used to be handled (and if you don't mind going to extremes) you could try soaking the leg in a warm epsom salt bath and giving him 1/2 to 3/4 of a baby aspirin (or the equivalent liquid dose) AM & PM to help manage the pain... that might help get the bird to start using his leg again a little at a time, and hopefully avoiding any atrophy. If he's ok with you massaging the leg and doing some physical therapy with the leg you could do some of that as well.

 

[PeepsCA]

hello. I am new to "byc" I also have a guinea who has a hurt leg. it does stand up but, it does not put the hurt leg on the ground!? it hops like a bunnie! I don't know what to do with her!? any ideas?

How long has she been hopping on one leg? Do you know how she hurt her leg? Have you caught her and checked her leg, foot/toes and the sole of her foot for any obvious breaks, injuries, swellings or sign of infection?

If you don't have her confined to a cage or a coop/pen keep in mind she may be getting around ok by hopping, but she's a lot more vulnerable to predators on one leg...

 

[SiobhanAG]

I have tried to look at his hocks, they seem to be normal. If it was a slipped tendon, would it be clearly visible? I did give him some baby aspirin at first, just a couple of times but I stopped because I wasnt sure if that was a good idea. I will start giving it to him again though. He seems happy, I take him out of his cage (in the house of course) and put him on the ground hoping to encourage him to get up, but he just scoots around throughout the day. Like I said before he is eating and drinking and seems normal except for not walking. He definitely does baby his leg, I do think it still hurts him. My husband tells me to just give it some time and eventually he'll get better. I saw a post from someone awhile ago who said they had a guinea with a hurt leg and it took about six weeks then it started to walk again. Don't know what the injury was but I hope we get that lucky. I am now trying to decide if he can still have a quality life if he cant walk. I think so....as long as he stays in the house with me. BTW...he doesn't want me to massage his leg. For a few days I was making him stand up trying to get him to use his leg a little so it doesn't atrophy, but he didn't like that at all and I think because his leg still hurts it might do more harm. Well, time will tell I guess. :/

 

[v10fanfancys]

Hi
Our lead Tom just got hurt today. He is kinda limping but what we noticed is the 2nd lead guinea picking on him(body slamming) him. So we removed him, put him in the infermary and he llaid down immediately. We don't buy Aspirin, so can we use white willow bark? To reduce the pain?

 

[v10fanfancys]

Couple hours later.
Our children say buck our male lead tom looks like our boy is crying. We need help. Could he be in pain? How do we diagnose what is going on?