I need HELP QUICK - Guinea with a broken leg.

[BritinMO]

Ahhhhhhhhh - new day, new problem, I've been warning the guineas to STAY AWAY from the horses at feeding time, they insist on getting under the horses feet picking up the dropped feed - and this morning one of them got stomped on - I'm pretty sure it has a broken leg, its a bit bloody and droopy, the poor thing cannot walk. I've picked her up as one guinea already gave her a hefty peck - and put her in the cage on a bed of hay..................what do I do now?????

Any chance they can survive with a broken leg?

 

[PeepsCA]

Dealing with a broken bone on a Guinea is a pain in the rear, a lot of work. I've done it (I think the bird I dealt with also got stomped by a horse, being a pest for feed scraps)... and the bird did not appreciate the fact I was helping her at all. She was one of my free rangers and a mean wicked one at that. I used cotton leg wrap (for horses), popsicle sticks, duct tape and vet wrap to splint her leg, and believe me... an extra pair of hands are needed to doctor the bird. Basically it all depends on how much you want to deal with. A vet will of course splint it for you, at a hefty office visit fee.

If you can confirm it's broken... and it's possible for you clean up the leg, put some meds on it and then splint/immobilize it in a way she can't constantly re-injure it or prevent it from healing (and then keep her caged/penned for up to 6 wks) there is a possibility she can heal. My main concern would be infection, so antibiotics in her water might help. I'd feed her a layer feed so the extra calcium is available to help the bone heal. A heat lamp will help her stay warm so her body can concentrate on healing. You may need to change the splint a time or 2 until she's healed well enough to walk/limp on it.

Guineas can get around fine on one leg too tho. And if you are not sure it's broken she may adjust fine if you just clean the wound, cage her for a while with a heat source until her external wounds are healed up so the others do not cannibalize her wounds, and then let her back out to hop around after the flock. She will of course baby it and hop around on one leg until she completely heals, or for the rest of her life from that point on if it's actually broken. Without splinting it tho (if it is broken), it will have a difficult time healing and may be a constant source of pain for her. The others in the flock may reject her from the flock after you let her back out with them, because they may see her as the weak link.

Aren't Guineas FUN!!!!?!?!

 

[BritinMO]

Thanks Peeps - I knew you would help! She's pretty badly injured in my opinion, I've taken a closer look at her leg (with my glasses on!) and its cut pretty bad, and I am sure its broken. She's not even trying to move, just lying on her hay.

I'm here on my own this week as hubby is working out of town, my gut feeling is that this is going to be hard choice for whats best for her. I kind of think I know whats probably best, but haven't reached that decision yet

 

[startingover]

Don't give up on her if you are willing to put in the fight for her too.

Several years ago I had (as usual) a guinea hit by a car on the road. This was a usual thing at our old house and they always died on impact or within a few seconds. This particular day I saw the bird get hit. Got up there and was upset because it was one of my original birds, Loco. I looked at him and said "Oh Loco" and he opened his eyes! I ran him home and put him in the bathtub wrapped in a towel. Had to go to work and figured he would be dead by the time that I got home. When I got home he was alive and by the amount of all the blood had been all over the bathtub. He couldn't walk because he'd never had to hop before.

Anyway - long story short. Loco's break was a complete break. It was barely barely hanging on by a small amount of skin. We cleaned it, splinted the wound with pretty much exactly what Peeps used and kept him in in the house. Within a few days he had learned to balance and could hop a few feet. He did fight off a massive internal infection. I syringe fed him antibiotics and electrolytes to get him through. He did come out of it in about 48 hours. We started letting him out of the dog cage when we were home and he had the roam of that part of the house. He learned to hop really really well. We changed his bandage every 2 weeks. At about 5 weeks we started putting him outside for short periods to be with his friends. Since he was an elder, he was accepted right back in, no questions asked. We would always let him out about an hour or so before dark so he didn't have time to run far and the other guineas were home for the night. At dark he would come to the door of the house to be let back in his cage. Within a few more weeks he stayed outside all the time. He still had a splint on because it break was VERY slow to heal due to the amount of damage. He went everywhere the other guineas went and he just hopped around. He did fly downhill though!

So if you're willing to get through the first few days that are the hardest and your guinea wants to live - she does have a chance.
He got along fine.

 

[BritinMO]

Oh my goodness - what an amazing story about Loco, just wow. Its made me feel really bad now - I euthanized her late this afternoon after giving her another good look over, she was not interested in food or water, I think she had more injuries than just the broken leg, I saw her get stomped by my horse, he got her pretty bad. I just could not stand to see her suffering, and could not bear to prolong what I really think was going to be impossible to recover from. Don't think badly of me please - I would do anything for my guineas and all my other assorted animals. Oh yuk - what a Valentines Day

 

[PeepsCA]

Aww, poor you Brit!!! IMO you did the right thing for her if she was that mangled up. If they are off their feed, it's usually a bad sign. My Hen with a broken leg never went off her feed and got quite fat while she was caged and healing, lol. Sounds like your Hen had already chosen to give up on her own, and she would have been hurting the entire time during the process of giving up. So don't feel bad.

And yah, it's even more sad that you had to deal with it on Valentine's day. I'm sure she had a great life while you had her tho, even if it was a short one. I know how you spoil all your animals!

 

[tomingreeneco]

So sorry about your loss. If she was not eating or drinking you did the right thing. I had one last year with a bad leg, but she still ate and drank while I had her isolated. (she's fine now.) Yours probably had some internal injuries. Sounds like its time to put some eggs in the incubator this spring!

 

[perchie.girl]

Sometimes the humane thing to do is to euthanize. Its a judgement call we have to make.....

for what its worth I have a one legged Guinea.... Miss Peggy. Lost a leg clear up to the hip from a raccoon. Right through the wire of the coop. When I found her she was laying under a Saw horse I used to put the perches on. I started to pick her up and she tried to run away but wound up swimming with her wings. So I grab her up and put her in the little brooder cage I had on the floor of the coop. Its got a mirror. And I put in food and water and shavings. And figured if she was going to live she would.

The next day I found her in another part of the cage still buckwheating..... and I noticed she had figured out how to raise up a little and propell her self forward on one foot and her wings. Food was being eaten and so was water..... good good.

By the time two weeks was up she was demanding to come out of the cage. So I gave it a try. Outside of getting trampled every once and a while things went very very well. By the end of the month she was hopping about and perching on the perch and pretty much doing all things Guinea.

Since she cant roost with the others and they have now earned the nick name "Shock Troop" I moved her and another guinea who was getting picked on into a separate portion of the coop all their own.




deb

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

 

[BritinMO]

Thanks everyone - and LOOK AT MISS PEGGY!!!!!!! That's amazing!

Well I've had a think overnight and will change the feeding routine here in the mornings - the guineas and chickens will STAY IN THE COOP until I have fed the horses. I usually let them out on the way to the barn, then they follow me to the barn and scream for their breakfast and I do feed them first, then the horses, but there are always a few that decide to wait under the horses buckets for the tasty morsels of horse feed I have 4 horses, 2 of which are very impatient for breakfast and paw badly by their buckets, they stop as soon as they have feed in their buckets (poor starving things - NOT!)........so to cut down the risk of another guinea getting whacked, I'll let them out after the horses have been fed.

Evening routine is not so manic with the horses.........................so I think this a good plan and I really should have thought of it before - stupid me.

Tomingreeneco - LOLLLLLLL, the last thing I need is more guineas right now!! I think I have about 27, my number increased dramatically last summer when a hen hatched out 24 under our deck, a very magical day indeed! I'm pretty concerned as we are going to put our place up for sale soon, I can't even begin to think about people coming here to view the house and property, at least I know the guineas will give them a warm welcome, lol! And the thought of moving them to our new place - well that's a whole new problem I'm going to have to tackle sometime in the future..........

Oh yeah - we LOVE our guineas!

Have a great day everyone!xx