Guinea Not walking - possibly hurt?

[Jem1721]

Hey everyone -

I have had guineas now for just over a year; 2 females and 4 males (im pretty certain). Recently, all the birds have been going crazy with the nice weather and are beating each other up quite a bit . I believe this to be normal. Yesterday however, i noticed that one of my females did not go into the coop at night. She puffed up on the ground and wouldnt eat or drink. I did pick her up and put her into the coop where she still remains today, still without eating or drinking (not that i can tell anyhow). She flaps her wings to move around, but not very much. Both females lay quite a few eggs, and up until this week the bird was free ranging with the rest of the flock. Im not sure what happened, but I am worried. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Im not sure what to do next- getting hands on her is not an easy task, and even if i did im not sure what im looking for. Help!

 

[PeepsCA]

You're going to have to catch her, wrap her in a towel and check her over well. Then cage her for a while (in the coop with the others is best, so they do not reject her if she recovers and rejoins the flock). I'd give her water with poultry vitamins and electrolytes in it and tempt her with her favorite greens and treats to see if you can get her to eat. Maybe even try some scrambled or crumbled boiled egg.

If she doesn't have any injuries (from a possible predator attack escape) then my next guess would be that she might be eggbound... but if she has a messy vent then I'd guess that she may have had an egg burst inside of her and now may have an internal infection from it. You can do a search for eggbound or egg binding and egg yolk peritonitis here on BYC so you will know what to check for (the info will be for chickens, but will still apply).

Other than that I don't have any other suggestions... but definitely keep her confined so you can watch how she's doing. Otherwise she may get taken by a predator, or wander off to go die

 

[nailladi]

I have a buff dondotte hen doing the same thing for about a week now, she flops around like that and then by evening she is recovered, I took her out and checked her all over and saw nothing, Kept her in another small cage for the night, seems like she has a pinched nerve when she lays but then several hours later you don't notice anything wrong. Upped the protin in the pen and vitamins, still doing it. The first eggs she layed was soft shelled and broken by the time I got there. They got firmer as days went on but when I go to write on them it breaks. Maybe it will take time to get protein and vitamins going? She acts like her legs are broke.

 

[PeepsCA]

I have a buff dondotte hen doing the same thing for about a week now, she flops around like that and then by evening she is recovered, I took her out and checked her all over and saw nothing, Kept her in another small cage for the night, seems like she has a pinched nerve when she lays but then several hours later you don't notice anything wrong. Upped the protin in the pen and vitamins, still doing it. The first eggs she layed was soft shelled and broken by the time I got there. They got firmer as days went on but when I go to write on them it breaks. Maybe it will take time to get protein and vitamins going? She acts like her legs are broke.

Yikes nailladi... that's horribly thin for Guinea egg shells. Sounds to me like your Hen is pulling way too much calcium from her bones/body to the point it's effecting her muscles too. I have had Hens lay a few thin shelled eggs before, but I have never experienced the walking/mobility issues. Do you have them on a layer feed, with access to free choice to oyster shell? If not, I'd change all of that right away. I'd also feed her greens that are high in calcium and offer them fine stem leafy alfalfa hay... and make sure she's getting plenty of sunlight (Vitamin D) so she can absorb the calcium. Hopefully that will fix her issues.

 

[Jem1721]

Well everyone, I appreciate the responses! I was able to put hands on the bird (which means she really wasn't feeling well as I caught her) and did not find anything alarming - I isolated her and gave her separate food and water, and she did drink and eat. I kept her isolated for 48 hours and then let her back into the coop. She still does the flop around thing... Maybe she just hurt her leg an hopefully will heal and be ok.. Thanks for everyone's help!