I have hatched out 6 guinea chicks, and two EE last week. They are all doing well, eating drinking etc. However the smallest guinea seems to always have pasty butt and I clean it daily. I have started adding just a little drop of oil to his rear, in an attempt to clear this problem up. This morning I was cleaning him up and I happened to really take a closer look at his rear end making sure nothing was wrong.....I have found in the last couple days some poop over to the side of the vent, and didn't think anything wrong other than it happened to stick over there. Well, upon closer inspection, this little guy has two vents! when I cleaned the other one, and the one that is in the correct position at the back, both puckered. So I assume that both are being used. Anyone ever had this problem before and what should I do? this little one is the runt of the hatch, very tiny. TIA Jan
A photo would help. I have heard of this problem occurring in most domestic species but haven't seen it first hand. I thought perhaps it was an umbilical issue but if it's puckering it sounds like a real vent. It's probably not going to be a happy outcome, but I'm sure you guessed that anyway... Best case scenario is probably that with some TLC this little one can survive and go on to live a fairly normal life. But it's way too early to say. By the sounds of it, what with being a runt and the pasty butt issues, it's already a problem. There are quite likely other duplicate organs. If it poops out of both, something we're not yet 100% sure of, then there are extra intestines, probably, and who knows what extra stuff --- a second stomach? Duplicate sets of reproductive organs? If it's a female and it survives, this could be something that becomes terminal when it reaches point of lay. But, again, it's way to early to say. Best wishes.