Guinea Hen Had to be Euthanized

[badflash]

I'm not sure what happened. Last night as I was getting ready to close my birds up for the night I noticed that one was still outside the fence. I picked her up and put her over the fence and my rooster ( I keep chickens too) mounted her, I'd seen this before and had read about it here. I chased him off and when the guinea hen moved towards the coop I saw that her insides were hanging out. Her vent was torn out and her intestines were hanging out.

I also keep goats and the hens were in with the goats yesterday. They were able to push their way through the fence. The hen was healthy before then as far as I could tell.

Did the rooster do it? Was she stepped on my a goat? Could squeezing through the fence do something like this?

I'm just sick. I want to stop this from happening to my other birds.

 

[JLeigh]

I doubt the rooster did it by just trying to mate with her. It's possible I guess, but I'd think any injuries from a rooster trying to mate would be to her back/wings, not her vent or abdomen. If he attacked her to kill her, then yeah, their spurs could cause that. But my guess is you'd know that if you saw it happen. If you could pick her up to put her over the fence, I'd think she'd be injured already since guineas don't let you pick them up without a chase and/or a "fight".

Could have been goats, could have been the fence, or a stray dog, or a hawk....no way to know. If it was the fence, you'll see skin and/or feathers where it cut her.

Sorry this happened and for the poor girl. It's horrible, but you did the only thing you could. You have my sympathies.

 

[badflash]

My hens were raised by me from chicks and are pretty tame. They let me handle them but don't really like it.

No damage that I can see other than it looks like she was popped. I'll look closer now that she is gone from the living.

 

[PeepsCA]

Were you actually seeing her insides (intestines etc), or was it possibly a severe prolapse from straining to lay? If prolapse wasn't the issue, then my guess is that a goat squished her. Sorry for your loss.

 

[badflash]

I saw her intestines. it could have started as prolapse, but something completely ripped out the vent and everything was hanging out. pretty gruesome.

 

[PeepsCA]

Yuck, poor Hen, and poor you. If it did maybe start out as a prolapse, the other birds may have started cannibalizing her/what was hanging out, hard to say. Whatever happened I hope that's the only case of it you have to deal with

 

[badflash]

I turns out to be bad genetics. 3 more hens did the same thing. Lots of the hatcheries have way too inbred stock. When we clean them we found other deformities.