Guinea sudden death

[Smr]

Hi Folks,
I'm new to this site, so greetings to all.
I have a small flock of 6 guinea fowl. I did have 8 birds, but two just dropped dead in the yard a week apart from each other.
I have two hens and the rest are cocks. My birds free range during the day and go in the coop at night with the chickens.
Since the breeding season started, my boys have been fighting and the birds at the bottom of the pecking order have been chased and bullied relentlessly by the dominant birds.
The two birds that died had no injuries, other than missing feathers on their backs, from the dominant birds pulling them out.
Is this a common occurrence in stressed out birds?
Help
Smr

 

[BlueShadow]

The level of bullying you describe among your guineas is unfortunately very normal for these birds.

Regarding the feather loss- How many feathers were missing on their backs? Are you sure the dead birds were males? The boys DO pull out each others' feathers, as you have seen. However, I have not found any of my boys to lose enough feathers to really notice anything at a distance. Some of my females, on the other hand, obviously get enough attention from the boys to make a thin spot on their backs (although none of them have lost enough that their skin was showing - it just was a spot where the feathers were noticeably thinner.) The only times I see bare patches of feather loss is from predator attacks, usually a raccoon that wasn't quite fast enough.

Regarding the sudden death - This has not happened in any of my guineas, despite the stress of them fighting. I suppose it COULD, but even then, I would be suspicious of additional stressors so that the stress of fighting was too much. Did you do necropsies on the dead birds? I would be especially be looking for parasites, either internal (coccidiosis, worms) or external (lice or mites). Since your birds free range, diet isn't completely in your control, but do you have feed available for them? I offer a 17.5% layer feed that they do consume, about half as much in the summer as they do in the winter. I don't know where you are located, but in much of the US, its been hot lately. Do your birds always have access to fresh, clean water? I know my kids like to play in the water bowls and sometimes they don't have much water in them, and then the guineas need to find other water sources.

 

[Smr]

The level of bullying you describe among your guineas is unfortunately very normal for these birds.

Regarding the feather loss- How many feathers were missing on their backs? Are you sure the dead birds were males? The boys DO pull out each others' feathers, as you have seen. However, I have not found any of my boys to lose enough feathers to really notice anything at a distance. Some of my females, on the other hand, obviously get enough attention from the boys to make a thin spot on their backs (although none of them have lost enough that their skin was showing - it just was a spot where the feathers were noticeably thinner.) The only times I see bare patches of feather loss is from predator attacks, usually a raccoon that wasn't quite fast enough.

Regarding the sudden death - This has not happened in any of my guineas, despite the stress of them fighting. I suppose it COULD, but even then, I would be suspicious of additional stressors so that the stress of fighting was too much. Did you do necropsies on the dead birds? I would be especially be looking for parasites, either internal (coccidiosis, worms) or external (lice or mites). Since your birds free range, diet isn't completely in your control, but do you have feed available for them? I offer a 17.5% layer feed that they do consume, about half as much in the summer as they do in the winter. I don't know where you are located, but in much of the US, its been hot lately. Do your birds always have access to fresh, clean water? I know my kids like to play in the water bowls and sometimes they don't have much water in them, and then the guineas need to find other water sources.

The birds that died are males. I have two hens that are in pristine condition. They have access to clean water at all times. The food is located in the coop, so they have access to it in the morning and again in the evening. I feed good quality layer pellets.
I managed to capture a male with extensive feather loss and this is what I discovered.
The feather loss involves the entire back. There are broken feather shafts and the skin is discolored, bruised and in various stages of abuse and healing, so it has been going on since the breeding season started and continues to escalate.
I have removed the remaining damaged feathers, cleaned this birds wounds and applied a fly ointment to the entire area. He has been separated from the flock.
I did not do a necropsy on the dead birds. If this one dies I will give try to do it.(YUCK)
I believe my dominant male is trying to eliminate all my other males.
All my birds are a year old.

 

[BlueShadow]

Sorry that you are experiencing such troubles with your guineas. What you described does sound like feather loss due to trauma, probably from the fighting. My guineas have never fought that severely, but I have had more favorable male:female ratios than 8:2. I am sorry that I don't have any better ideas for you on how to help your birds.

 

[Smr]

Sorry that you are experiencing such troubles with your guineas. What you described does sound like feather loss due to trauma, probably from the fighting. My guineas have never fought that severely, but I have had more favorable male:female ratios than 8:2. I am sorry that I don't have any better ideas for you on how to help your birds.

Thanks for trying.

 

[KarenMG]

The birds that died are males. I have two hens that are in pristine condition. They have access to clean water at all times. The food is located in the coop, so they have access to it in the morning and again in the evening. I feed good quality layer pellets.
I managed to capture a male with extensive feather loss and this is what I discovered.
The feather loss involves the entire back. There are broken feather shafts and the skin is discolored, bruised and in various stages of abuse and healing, so it has been going on since the breeding season started and continues to escalate.
I have removed the remaining damaged feathers, cleaned this birds wounds and applied a fly ointment to the entire area. He has been separated from the flock.
I did not do a necropsy on the dead birds. If this one dies I will give try to do it.(YUCK)
I believe my dominant male is trying to eliminate all my other males.
All my birds are a year old.

> another reader here from Catskills, NY: I had the same situation in our Guinea flock; after raising them from day olds for a year, the dominant male plucked out the back feathers of the 2nd tier male, trying to kill him. We isolated the wounded bird and treated him to health. (He is now imprinted on me, yay!) Yesterday, there was a big fight and I think somehow, the dominant male was attacked or got twisted in the air; I looked up to see him flapping wings on the ground with his neck/head twisted out. after scooping him up and righting him he still died, in my arms. The flock is so confused now. me too. heart attack? beak attack that I cannot detect, as there is no broken skin?
As to the broken feather shafts and dead skin: I used triple antibiotic ointment and bag balm, both moistened the skin and the antibiotic was key. He may need to stay in your 'hospital coop' for a month, but the feathers should all come back. Our flock ratio is also now 2:8/male:female, that may help.
So sorry to hear of the loss you and your flock have suffered.

 

[R2elk]

The flock is so confused now. me too. heart attack? beak attack that I cannot detect, as there is no broken skin?

Possibly a broken neck?

 

[red horse ranch]

Just a tip about abused guineas;

I have a 4 year old male that was badly abused this summer by the other males. He is partially blind and has always been at the bottom of the pecking order. But this summer I noticed that his back feathers were almost completely gone and his back was red and raw. After putting antibiotic ointment on his back I put a Hen Saver chicken saddle on him. The abuse stopped immediately. The other guineas didn't know what to think about the saddle and they left him alone. This fall I removed the saddle and his feathers are now completely grown back. And so far nobody is bothering him.

I've never used a chicken saddle on a guinea before but it fit him perfectly and he seemed to like it.