Guineas accidently hurting each other.(pics)

[Silkie-Guinz]

We have 2 Pearl guineas that are our oldest, that will be 10 weeks Saturday that we got from our local feed store. Then we have our youngest guineas, that we hatched out that are pied pearls, a lavender and some pearls. They will be 8 weeks tomorrow.

A little bit of back story about how it happened last time.
A couple weeks ago, we had the guineas and silkies together in our brooder in our shed, and we had a man outside building our second coop for the silkies. I went out to check on them, and I noticed a few of the younger guineas had some cuts on their face and around their beak, but the one that was bleeding the worse was the lavender. We thought that they may have been fighting each other, so we decided we would move the guineas out to the coop. (We were waiting for the man to finish the coop to move the silkies and guineas at the same time.)

So we went and put neosporin on their cuts, and moved all of them out to the coop so they could have more room and could eat grass, and with-in a couple days, the cuts had healed up and everyone was fine. We are now guessing instead of them fighting, while they are eating out of the feeder everyone has their heads down so we are thinking that the guineas are stepping on each other's faces while eating and accidently hurting each other with their nails.

Well, yesterday while checking on the guineas, I noticed that one of our oldest, who we call Private's(Got the name from a TV show) beak looked red.. So to get a better look I went in the coop, trying to get pass the swarming guineas that are at my feet, grabbed Private and got out and saw that it wasn't on her face, it was on her beak. It looks like somehow a small part of her beak or something below her left nostril had been torn off and was bleeding.(Not her nostril though, below it.)

So we took her in, dabbed some of the blood off and put some neosproin on it, and this morning it looked like it may have been trying to heal, but since it was red the guineas kept pecking at it. I also noticed that Private was acting more sleepy and actually flew up with Rika, the other oldest guinea to the perch and was falling asleep while the other guineas are below, running around. It seems like everywhere Private goes, Rika follows and Rika's the only one who doesn't peck at her, almost as if protecting her.

Because the lavender flew up and was bothering Private, I went and took Private out and put her in our brooder out in the shed and I brought along Rika as well, because she was already freaking out about being in a new place, being alone made her even more scared. I gave them food and water.

Now, what we are wanting to know is there anything else we should do about her beak other then neosproin? The last time this happened, no one actually ever had this happen to their beak, it was mostly cuts around the beak, and sometimes at the nose but that healed up pretty quick and none of them were pecking at each other that time. We're going to try to figure out something else to do about the feeder to hopefully perhaps stop them from stepping on each other so much.

Thanks alot. Here's a few pictures. Sorry they are so blurry. But to hopefully just to let you see what it looks like. Hopefully it doesn't hurt her too much.

This is a better quality picture, and shows what it looks like.


Sorry it's so blurry. My mom handed me the camera and I couldn't take pictures and hold the guinea at the same time easily. lol


Another picture from the front.


This is the other side of her beak.

 

[terrilhb]

I don't have an answer. I know someone with more experience will answer. Sending you hugs.

 

[chicmom]

I think those injuries look kind of severe to be from them accidentally stepping on eachother's faces. That seem kind of unlikely.....Maybe they are becoming agressive with eachother because they are too crowded? I am guessing here.......Please don't take offense.

I know chickens will start really abusing eachother if they don't have enough space. Could that be a factor? If you have time, a good thing to do would be to just sit and watch for a few hours. You might be able to see what's truly happening.

 

[PeepsCA]

It could have been an initial scratch that the others started pecking at due to being over crowded, (and even boredom or curiousity). Most types of poultry do lean towards wound pecking/cannibalism in that type of situation. Hopefully now that you have a bigger coop it will stop. Guineas need a lot more coop space than chickens do.

The site of blood attracts their attention, so they are going to peck if they can see blood. If you can get some Blu-Kote (a dark purple wound medication/antiseptic) and dab a little bit on the red wound it will disguise it, help it heal and the other birds should leave it alone. If they don't leave it alone you will want to keep the injured bird separated ina cage, but near the others until the wound is completely healed or they will just go after it again.

Also make sure they have enough protein in their feed and feed them free choice at this stage, lack of protein can exacerbate the wound pecking/cannibalism issues. 2 feeders and waterers helps too, so everyone has a spot to go to and not get stepped on.

ETA:
A red light in in the coop also helps hides blood

 

[terrilhb]

I knew you would help Peeps.

I am sending you my birds to train.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
LOL no thanks terri, I have somewhere between 50-60 keepers from this yrs' hatches I'm dealing with already

 

[Silkie-Guinz]

terriblhb,

Thank you.

chicmom, oh no, I'm not offended.

I go over sometimes and just watch, other times when I'm feeding and watering all the animals, and I've never seen them fight. In fact, I don't remember ever seeing them fight. At all. I do know from our first batch before we sold them of guineas(that were from the same place we got Rika and Private at the same time.) when they were like six or so weeks old I remember two in that batch fighting a couple times, but I haven't ever seen the 11 we have now fight. It's like their all buddies.

PeepsCA, It could be that. We couldn't figure anything else out on how it could have happened. It's a long feeder, but they act as if they haven't ate in days when I feed them once a day. The best way I could describe how they act when food comes along is if you got yogurt on you and feed sprinkled on you and you fall down in the coop, I'm pretty sure you'd lose a limb or two.

lol They go crazy if you even pick up the chicken's feeder and they see it.

Once the sun starts going down is when I go out to feed and water, and the guineas have learned when I do it and they know when it's that time it usually means food and they all pace back and forth on the wire, rubbing their beaks across it chirping at me. It could have happened and possibly Private got her beak hung on something perhaps? I don't know really.


We went out to go get groceries shortly after posting my post, and we had to stop by Tractor Supply to get feed, and I noticed while walking around in the store was Dr. Naylor Blu-Kote and I remembered reading about people using it for chickens, so I asked my Mom if she could get it. So we got it and once we got home, We went out and sprayed some on a cotton swab, I took Private out of the brooder and I was happy to see that the blood on her beak had dried up and was trying to heal. So I held her while my mom put the Blu-Kote on a very not happy purple beaked Private.

I took her down to the coop and put her in, and watched for a minute. The younger guineas came up and checked her out, and was curious about her purple beak, but didn't peck at it. Then we took Rika out and put her in the coop and now everyone's settled down for the night.

I also put in another feeder, this time instead of a feeder like we already have in there, I put in a feeder I had used when they were teeny tiny fuzz balls.

Oh how I miss those days! They've grown up too quick and in a few weeks will have to start being let out.

Hopefully she will heal quickly.

Thanks y'all!