guinea has string on its foot, help pls!!

[featherz]

Yah, all my guineas when in the run or coop (and I do mean ALLLLLL) run into a corner and squash up there so it's relatively easy to catch if I had to. Just in case, I do have a net.

My chickens don't have quite the same 'hive mind' so they are actually more difficult.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Certainly work at night, and be careful of his beak & claws, they're sharp! Put a sock over his head & neck, and wrap a towel around his middle to keep his wings still. I'd try to have 3 people, one to hold the bird, one to hold his legs still, and the third to do the actual string cutting. I wish you success!

 

[TennesseeTruly]

We leave the strings on the bags. I never take them off. We actually cut the bags open to remove the feed. They'll even eat the strings. Too dangerous!

 

[Aj1911]

ok it went well, it took a couple tries tho

we finally put a towel around him the second try and got him to calm down, first time he freaked out prolly cuz the light got in his eyes lol

the string was very tight and made his toe swell up but its off now so he should be fine

once we got him calmed down he didnt even move his legs so it went really easy.

we coated his toe in anti-biotic ointment as one side was open a little from the string.

 

[sfw2]

Glad you managed to get him taken care of!

 

[racuda]

Thanks for posting this! When I get home today I'm going to pick up all of my strings!

 

[Akane]

I've never had trouble with their legs (either lucky or ours have sturdy legs). If my guinea showed any distress I would somehow get the string off his leg.

They won't show distress until they lose toes and even then they might not show it. I saw a chicken get frostbite and then infected feet. He ran around all summer with swollen toes that eventually turned black and fell off and he still was running around freeranging. I would have put him down before spring. Most of the time when I've seen a string around their legs they've continued to walk fine for days and then you catch them, flip them over, and find they have a swollen toe, entire foot, or the string has embedded itself in the leg and is making ugly red infected areas. They could probably survive well in to the next year in pain if you didn't check them.

I recently found a head lamp flashlight with the night vision red led works great when capturing guineas. They are even worse at seeing in red light than humans so in the pitch black I flipped on the red light and walked up to them. I scooped the first one up without them even making a sound. Even after that the other 2 were just confused and sat their with their head against the wall while I picked them up to relocate.​

 

[Aj1911]

Quote:
They won't show distress until they lose toes and even then they might not show it. I saw a chicken get frostbite and then infected feet. He ran around all summer with swollen toes that eventually turned black and fell off and he still was running around freeranging. I would have put him down before spring. Most of the time when I've seen a string around their legs they've continued to walk fine for days and then you catch them, flip them over, and find they have a swollen toe, entire foot, or the string has embedded itself in the leg and is making ugly red infected areas. They could probably survive well in to the next year in pain if you didn't check them.

I recently found a head lamp flashlight with the night vision red led works great when capturing guineas. They are even worse at seeing in red light than humans so in the pitch black I flipped on the red light and walked up to them. I scooped the first one up without them even making a sound. Even after that the other 2 were just confused and sat their with their head against the wall while I picked them up to relocate.

mines toe was swollen pretty good and he was limping and laying down alot

i was hoping he would get it off himself but the one toe ended up with a knot in the string, the other foot with it on there all we had to do was clip it twice and he did the rest but we did have to help with the one that was knoted.