Guineas seem to be bloodying each other? WHAT IS GOING ON? Help please

[EllieMaeKs]

Ok, I am not new. For some reason I was apparently deleted from this new system? However, I have 6 guineas, 5 of which sleep together every night in their house. Yesterday one came out with a little blood spec on it's neck. I checked it out and it appeared to be a blood feather as there was no wound on the neck. This morning I let them out 3 males 2 females and everyone had bloody necks...OMG...there were spatters of blood all over the place but I once again really couldn't find the wounds....I am in the twilight zone. Help me please, do they bloody each other, we never had guineas before. Needless to say that tonight although it is cold we have left them out for the night so they can get away from each other. What in the world are we to do??? Please

 

[terrilhb]

Oh my. I do not know. I hope they will be ok. Hopefully someone with alot more experience will chime in.

 

[PeepsCA]

Guineas are attracted to the sight of blood, and very prone to cannibalism... they will typically continue to peck at a visible wound, making it worse, to the point of killing a bird, if it's allowed to get that far. There has to be a wound on one or all birds, so you might wanna take a better look. They typically do not fight at night in the dark, because they cannot see.

If it's a blood feather that is still bleeding or getting pecked at and starting to bleed again and the bird is shaking it's head... then that could account for blood splatters everywhere, so if you can find the blood feather again, then pull it out and clean up all the blood.

If you do find an open wound then it's best to clean it up and coat it well with a medication like Blu-Kote (stains everything purple on contact) and keep the reapplying the med until the wound is well healed. (Most feed stores that sell livestock meds will also have Blu-kote, in a bottle with a dauber, or in a spray can). You can also cage/crate the injured bird, to prevent the others from pecking at it/re-inuring it and just use something like plain neosporin ion the wound, but it's best to keep the injured bird near everybody else, but protected from further injury so that they do not reject the bird once it's healed and let back in with the flock.

I don't know if you have minks or weasels in your area, or how predator proof/secure your coop is, but it's possible it could be a night time predator attack. IMO... letting them out at night will most likely draw other predators in, to the smell of blood... so hopefully they make it thru the night!

Good luck, hope you get to the bottom of it and don't end up losing any birds.

 

[EllieMaeKs]

Thank you guys so much. I think you are right Peeps, the white had a blood feather on the neck and I was unsure of what to do. So I put some triple antibiotic on it and stuck them back in. Sooooo...I will be checking them again tomorrow and gently removing the culprit. I could not find a wound? I think he shook the blood off onto the other birds. They don't fight, they choose the lesser bird and we separated her and now they have been fine. I was really worried...but it all fits your description perfectly with the blood splatters and them only housing at night. HOW MANY TIMES CAN I SAY THANK YOU??? Infinity....thanks. I will keep you informed.

 

[PeepsCA]

Hope that's all it is!

If you can locate the blood feather, grab it with needle nose pliers (or something similar that lets you get a good grab on the feather) and pull it straight out with a quick yank. Then wash off all the blood and dab on a little more ointment. If there's no blood visible the others should leave it alone and it should heal fine.

 

[EllieMaeKs]

Fingers crossed. The night went great. They perched in a high tree and came to the window this morning at 5:30am whistling so I would let them in their house. I can see the one with the bleedy feather it is all dried up and I don't really want to screw with it and get it started again. So, They really like each other and I don't want to jack that up so I am trying not to make any blood. I will update keep those fingers crossed for me please.

 

[PeepsCA]

It's been my experience with the "leaky" blood feathers that if you don't pull them out, they usually end up bleeding again, because the birds constantly groom each other or groom themselves and can end up opening the blood flow back up. When you pull them out tho, the skin around the feather shaft closes up and stops the blood flow, then a new feather eventually grows from that spot.

So I'd just watch for any more blood, and if it happens again you won't have to panic, you'll know what to do Glad it hasn't gotten any worse for you/the bird and nobody got chewed up/badly damaged. I can only imagine the look on my face the first time I walked into a blood everywhere situation, frantically scanning each bird for a sign of injury, and looking for a dead bird. It was a blood feather, one of the flights, so it was a LOT of blood, lol. Had a similar episode from a broken toenail too. Those dang Guineas are bleeders!

Glad they wanted back into the coop in the morning... but I'd be careful about letting them roost in the trees, you could eventually end up with the whole flock refusing to come in at night now because they like the trees better... eventually becoming early breakfast for an owl!

 

[EllieMaeKs]

Update...everyone is still fine. They solved their own issues, thank goodness. They still live in the trees. Again, thank goodness. These buggers are going through the hormone spurt from hell. OMG,We have 6 and we just found a nest of 18 eggs. The guineas belong to my husband who heard they would be good watchdogs, little did he know they would be attacking him, ROTFCU....bwahahahaha. He has daily been going on an egg hunt, says he refuses to wake up one day with 25 of those little dinosaurs running around his house, skulking about trying to attack him and the neighbor when their back is turned. I AM IN STITCHES!!! Guinea eggs sure do taste good though, He wants to know if anyone has a good guinea recipe. There is no way I am letting that happen, but it sure is funny. ROTFCU....just an update, all is well.

 

[PeepsCA]

LOL, poor Hubby!

Glad to read all (or almost all) is well with your flock. And hope it stays that way.
Owls love to pluck Guineas right out of the trees at night/and early AM tho.
Hope your flock is spared!

 

[Joe.G]

What is a Blood Feather?

And you Guineas used to live in the coop, and then decided to take to the trees?