My birds free range all day and return to their hen house inside the barn each evening.
One of my 13, 3 month old guinea hens had a very, very slight limp yesterday which has gotten a bit worse today.
I waited until she was roosting inside the barn tonight and caught her, brought her in the house and inspected her foot with my jewelers loop and found nothing. The foot was not red nor swollen nor was it warm to the touch. I did not see anything wrong that's visible to the naked eye with her legs either.
To be on the safe side, I soaked her feet in Epsom salts and warm water for 15 minutes, dried them off and put her in a large dog kennel filled with straw back inside the hen house. I am hoping that a few days rest will make her good as new.
My concern is that since the rest of my chickens, guineas and ducks all leave the hen house to free range every morning and only return at dusk with a couple of very brief "snoops" in the hen house, that they will forget that she is a member of their flock when I release her from the dog kennel in a few days.
I did not find any evidence of bumblefoot....any ideas of what else I should be on the lookout for?
Their hen house is filled with 6" of sand and they have high perches in there for roosting.
The guineas do fly up onto my fences, my roof, the barn and my gazebo....I'm assuming she may have a bit of hard landing outside.
...poor girl, she's soooo sweet and will be so sad to be in "jail" all by her lonesome.
One of my 13, 3 month old guinea hens had a very, very slight limp yesterday which has gotten a bit worse today.
I waited until she was roosting inside the barn tonight and caught her, brought her in the house and inspected her foot with my jewelers loop and found nothing. The foot was not red nor swollen nor was it warm to the touch. I did not see anything wrong that's visible to the naked eye with her legs either.
To be on the safe side, I soaked her feet in Epsom salts and warm water for 15 minutes, dried them off and put her in a large dog kennel filled with straw back inside the hen house. I am hoping that a few days rest will make her good as new.
My concern is that since the rest of my chickens, guineas and ducks all leave the hen house to free range every morning and only return at dusk with a couple of very brief "snoops" in the hen house, that they will forget that she is a member of their flock when I release her from the dog kennel in a few days.
I did not find any evidence of bumblefoot....any ideas of what else I should be on the lookout for?
Their hen house is filled with 6" of sand and they have high perches in there for roosting.
The guineas do fly up onto my fences, my roof, the barn and my gazebo....I'm assuming she may have a bit of hard landing outside.
...poor girl, she's soooo sweet and will be so sad to be in "jail" all by her lonesome.
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