keet with messed up leg

Tom Kathleen

Songster
6 Years
Mar 18, 2017
53
55
136
I have a 3-4 week old guinea with what looks like a broken knee at the tibia/femur joint? I'm not great with anatomy -it's the part that's closer to the body than the lower joint. It hatched fine and was fine for the first 4 days, then one afternoon, the foot was behind it, but not twisted. It was struggling to move around, kind of flopping about. Initially, when it was a few days old and looked like that, we thought "that's a weird looking splay leg" and banded it to help with splay leg. That kept the feet under it and it learned to hop with it. The band came off a few days ago and my son forgot to tell me. I rebanded it, and its feet are under it, but I think it is a dislocated or broken joint. It must have gotten injured by another keet or jumped wrong or something.
 
I have a 3-4 week old guinea with what looks like a broken knee at the tibia/femur joint? I'm not great with anatomy -it's the part that's closer to the body than the lower joint. It hatched fine and was fine for the first 4 days, then one afternoon, the foot was behind it, but not twisted. It was struggling to move around, kind of flopping about. Initially, when it was a few days old and looked like that, we thought "that's a weird looking splay leg" and banded it to help with splay leg. That kept the feet under it and it learned to hop with it. The band came off a few days ago and my son forgot to tell me. I rebanded it, and its feet are under it, but I think it is a dislocated or broken joint. It must have gotten injured by another keet or jumped wrong or something.
Sounds like a slipped tendon. You can do a search in the Emergencies forum for slipped tendon. The treatment is the same as it is for chickens. The prognosis is not good.

Treating a slipped tendon as splayed leg will not work.

It is usually caused by insufficient nutrition but the tendency to it can also be inherited. It is one of the reasons that keets need a good high protein turkey or gamebird starter. It isn't just the protein that is important but also the higher levels of lysine, methionine and niacin.
 
Sounds like a slipped tendon. You can do a search in the Emergencies forum for slipped tendon. The treatment is the same as it is for chickens. The prognosis is not good.

Treating a slipped tendon as splayed leg will not work.

It is usually caused by insufficient nutrition but the tendency to it can also be inherited. It is one of the reasons that keets need a good high protein turkey or gamebird starter. It isn't just the protein that is important but also the higher levels of lysine, methionine and niacin.
Thanks! We had never had this before. Nutrition is spot on, we have high success with hatches and growing. It's frustrating because it's one of them my son wanted to keep. Glad to know it has a genetic component. Even if somehow survives or adapts, we don't want it entering the breeding pool then.
 
I have had two Guineas who had a leg destroyed by a raccoon reaching under a coop. It was down to culling them and or amputation. One had already had the leg removed completely from the hip and the other had the leg dangling from flesh with numerous breaks. It was a mangled mess.
Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners just wouldn’t have cut it.

So with great reservations I decided to remove the leg, wait and see.

After two days he was up on one leg hopping about. The bird who’s leg was completely removed by the coon didn’t make it through the night.

Pogo lived for two years but sadly an eagle got him in the end. I had to assume he couldn’t run fast enough into the brush for cover. He became my favorite guinea. He would come sit with me at times to mooch treats. My visitors always liked him and asked about him all the time. Like my one-eyed duck he became a favorite and a celebrity in the neighborhood.
 
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