help! I bought 12 keets yesterday and 5 are already dead. What to do?

[tazzy]

I bought 12 one-week-old guinea keets from a BYC'er yesterday at a BYC event. She hatched them from a broody guinea and took them from their mom yesterday morning.

They had a long drive/day yesterday - about 10 hrs without food, although they had water except for the drive time of 4 hours one way as the BYC'er brought them to the event, and then 2-1/2 hrs from the event back to our house. Obviously a stressful day for the keets.

They all made it home safe last night, but this morning, four were dead. I just checked, and one more was dead, and two others are laying on their sides and obviously about to die. I picked them up and they chirped a bit, but they have stiff legs and floppy heads and can't walk or get up.

It so heartbreaking. What can I do to help them, if anything? They are in the brooder where we've raised many, many chicks, with a brooder lamp to keep the babies warm. I found them together under the heat lamp this morning, so they know where to find the heat. They have food and water. I put a shallow dish of extra water in there this morning, just in case they didn't find the other waterer. I don't know what has happened or what went wrong.

Any suggestions on how to save my remaining keets? Four of the remaining ones seem fine, but one is staggering around a bit, so I think it will be the next to lay down and not get up.

Thanks...

 

[shelleyd2008]

Oh no tazzy! That's awful!

Do you have any electrolytes, or poly-vi-sol drops you can give them? I would think it's just from the stress of their day. Poor babies, I hope you don't lose anymore

 

[tazzy]

thanks, shelley. I have pedialyte. someone mentioned giving that to keets. have you heard of that option? I don't want to start putting weird things in their water...

we've now lost 7 of the 12.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Pedialyte is electrolytes. I'm sure it's because of the stress from their day. I'm so sorry that you are losing them

 

[Katy]

Are they eating and drinking? Several years ago I decided that I was going to steal some of the keets one of my hens had hatched. They were probably about that age. I could not get them to eat or drink for nothing. After several of them died I took the ones who were still alive out and turned them loose with the hen and the ones I had left with her. Maybe there's something to if they imprint on mom they don't know what do without her.

 

[tazzy]

Katy, I never saw them eat or drink. We dipped their beaks in the water, just like with the ones that arrive from the hatcheries, but they didn't seem to go back to the water.

I gave them each a few drops of a 50/50 mixture of pedialyte and water this afternoon, but it was too late. There were four left alive at that point, but they were already listless. They were dead when we went back out to the brooder a couple of hours later.

Poor babies. 12 out of 12 gone within 24 hours of arriving at our house.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Oh no, what a waste

So sorry that you lost them all

 

[Katy]

Quote:
That's how mine were....I dipped their beaks in the water to show them where it was and had feed scattered on the bottom of the brooder, but basically all they did was peep for mama and huddle.

Needless to say I've never stole anymore "mama hatched" guineas away from mama again.

 

[allanimals21]

Thats really strange...I've got 52 that I have stolen from the hens this year. All at about a day to two days old. They all started eating and drinking right away for me? I'm sorry to hear that you lost them all.

 

[tazzy]

allanimals, these were a week old and yours were 1-2 days old. I wonder if that is what made the difference?

katy, that sounds just like the babies we had. so sad.