- May 9, 2011
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Today I lost my male guinea. I am hoping my female does ok with just chicken companionship (one of the chickens hatched and raised her, so I think she will be ok).
My question is, are there diseases that guineas are more susceptible that chickens? Four years ago we purchased 6 guineas. One of them (a lavender) got very ill and died. I thoroughly disinfected everything and none of the other five guineas became ill. Well, we had a bunch of eggs incubating at this point, and got eight keets from those. They all lived to be about 7 months old, then had the same symptoms and all died within a week of each other. The five adults survived. I ended up later giving them away because they kept going up and sitting on my neighbors truck and he hated that (the fact that he spread about 20 lbs of bird seed every day had NOTHING to do with that, of course). Now we have chickens and last year I had one of the hens go broody and I gave her a couple guinea eggs to raise. This has worked fabulously, the guineas act like guineas but stay closer to home like chickens.
Well, a few days ago my male guinea started acting lethargic and his neck feathers were all puffed up (really the only solid symptoms--his feces were a little loose, but nothing that I would consider totally out of the realm of normal). I isolated him, giving him terramycin and such. He seemed to be doing better, but when I came home from running errands, he was dead.
We have never lost a chicken to disease, and out of three "generations" of guineas, all three have had disease. So I am wondering if there is something in my environment or if it could possibly be genetic (there is a chance this guinea is descended from the other flock since I got the eggs from the same guy I had given eggs to a while back--but he has lots of guineas, so probably not).
Anyway, I appreciate any insight you guys might have. I LOVE guineas, and am frustrated with the problems we have had with their health.
My question is, are there diseases that guineas are more susceptible that chickens? Four years ago we purchased 6 guineas. One of them (a lavender) got very ill and died. I thoroughly disinfected everything and none of the other five guineas became ill. Well, we had a bunch of eggs incubating at this point, and got eight keets from those. They all lived to be about 7 months old, then had the same symptoms and all died within a week of each other. The five adults survived. I ended up later giving them away because they kept going up and sitting on my neighbors truck and he hated that (the fact that he spread about 20 lbs of bird seed every day had NOTHING to do with that, of course). Now we have chickens and last year I had one of the hens go broody and I gave her a couple guinea eggs to raise. This has worked fabulously, the guineas act like guineas but stay closer to home like chickens.
Well, a few days ago my male guinea started acting lethargic and his neck feathers were all puffed up (really the only solid symptoms--his feces were a little loose, but nothing that I would consider totally out of the realm of normal). I isolated him, giving him terramycin and such. He seemed to be doing better, but when I came home from running errands, he was dead.
We have never lost a chicken to disease, and out of three "generations" of guineas, all three have had disease. So I am wondering if there is something in my environment or if it could possibly be genetic (there is a chance this guinea is descended from the other flock since I got the eggs from the same guy I had given eggs to a while back--but he has lots of guineas, so probably not).
Anyway, I appreciate any insight you guys might have. I LOVE guineas, and am frustrated with the problems we have had with their health.
