IdeaSmith
In the Brooder
- Mar 2, 2021
- 3
- 28
- 44
I hope this is the right place to post this, I'm sorry if I got it wrong.
Short version: I have a year old guinea who hops on one leg or flies to get around. It appears to be very painful for the bird to use the injured leg at all. Upon close examination, the hock joint is swollen about 3x the size it should be and it is very hot to the touch. I suspect this has been going on for at least a couple of weeks. The guinea eats and drinks about as expected and is still very fast getting around. The leg can fold up fine, but doesn't want to extend beyond about 90 degrees. It appears to be painful to touch the back of the joint, but there is little to no reaction to touching anything else. The foot is not swollen and the joint feels stable.
I have a flock of free ranging guinea fowl that are more wild than tame. They mostly roam our acreage and some of our neighbors as bug control. About 3 weeks ago, I started to see one that would limp, but it got around well enough that I couldn't pick it out of the flock to catch it, or identify it at night (they sleep on rafters about 12 feet up over a chicken run). The last week or so it has been spending more time near their roosts away from the flock, and today I was able to catch it to see what was wrong, as nothing was apparent by just looking. It hops on its good foot almost as fast as the rest of the guineas run, and it doesn't seem to try limping. I saw it able to put its foot on the ground while eating for some stability, but seemed unwilling to put any weight on it. It flies well, and has been eating with everyone else for their daily rations. The other birds don't seem to pick on the injured one, and it usually has at least one other guinea hanging around for company. I believe this guinea is a male? It doesn't feel underweight, and it seems generally in good health, however the hock joint on its bad leg is very swollen and hot. I can't see enough of the joint to tell if there is a fracture or a slipped tendon, and I am afraid to try and pop the tendon back in if something else is going on.
I'm hoping that you guys might know better than me what might be wrong. It wouldn't make sense for us to pay to take this one to a vet, especially when we have too many males as it is. My thought right now is that it probably needs antibiotics of some kind? If it is a slipped tendon I can try to put it back. I could separate it out into a cage to rest if necessary, but I'm worried about how reintroduction might go later. None of the guineas seemed to have any deformities when they were keets, or before they were released 8+ months ago.
Short version: I have a year old guinea who hops on one leg or flies to get around. It appears to be very painful for the bird to use the injured leg at all. Upon close examination, the hock joint is swollen about 3x the size it should be and it is very hot to the touch. I suspect this has been going on for at least a couple of weeks. The guinea eats and drinks about as expected and is still very fast getting around. The leg can fold up fine, but doesn't want to extend beyond about 90 degrees. It appears to be painful to touch the back of the joint, but there is little to no reaction to touching anything else. The foot is not swollen and the joint feels stable.
I have a flock of free ranging guinea fowl that are more wild than tame. They mostly roam our acreage and some of our neighbors as bug control. About 3 weeks ago, I started to see one that would limp, but it got around well enough that I couldn't pick it out of the flock to catch it, or identify it at night (they sleep on rafters about 12 feet up over a chicken run). The last week or so it has been spending more time near their roosts away from the flock, and today I was able to catch it to see what was wrong, as nothing was apparent by just looking. It hops on its good foot almost as fast as the rest of the guineas run, and it doesn't seem to try limping. I saw it able to put its foot on the ground while eating for some stability, but seemed unwilling to put any weight on it. It flies well, and has been eating with everyone else for their daily rations. The other birds don't seem to pick on the injured one, and it usually has at least one other guinea hanging around for company. I believe this guinea is a male? It doesn't feel underweight, and it seems generally in good health, however the hock joint on its bad leg is very swollen and hot. I can't see enough of the joint to tell if there is a fracture or a slipped tendon, and I am afraid to try and pop the tendon back in if something else is going on.
I'm hoping that you guys might know better than me what might be wrong. It wouldn't make sense for us to pay to take this one to a vet, especially when we have too many males as it is. My thought right now is that it probably needs antibiotics of some kind? If it is a slipped tendon I can try to put it back. I could separate it out into a cage to rest if necessary, but I'm worried about how reintroduction might go later. None of the guineas seemed to have any deformities when they were keets, or before they were released 8+ months ago.
