molting or sick?

[artsyrobin]

guinea question, i have one that is losing shoulder feathers, and is shaking his head- any ideas? he has decided to sleep on the porch instead of the tree... so is by himself, just about a year old

 

[robin416]

Not normal. I would suspect more that he's been attacked by something especially since there is not a secure area to sleep in.

 

[artsyrobin]

thats kind of what i was thinking, if i had it to do over i'd train them to sleep in a coop at nite- sigh- i didn't see any blood, just the feather loss and periodic head shaking- he's not tame enough to put in a cage- which might just stress him out that much more

 

[sred98]

I agree. If any of my guineas act funny, it's usually because they are injured. I've never had a guinea be sick. One guinea, let me get right up to it. He seemed alert and fussed when I went over to him, but let me pick him up. When that happened, I knew it was bad. What I didn't know, was that something (dog, coyote, etc) have basically eviscerated him from the vent outward.

I ended up putting him down. Check him all over. If he is shaking his head, be sure and check his neck, eyes, beak.

It could even be an older injury that is healing badly. I had a female that was in the same dog attack and she was skinned behind her wings to her tail. It healed wrong and gave her a hunchback and made her walk funny. She was vicious and I couldn't treat her, but the other guineas were taking care of her, protecting her, bringing her food, etc. That was one that I just let Nature take it's course, and hope for the best. If she had gotten really down, I'd have ended it, but she recovered and ended up having babies later.

The only other thing could be mites, but I doubt it. Check for them and dust if you see any. If you only see a few, then assume there are a lot. The head shake makes me think of mites. That, and the losing feathers, but I've never had any personal experience with them, so I don't really know.

Good luck!

Shelly

 

[artsyrobin]

thanks shelley- he had no problem keeping up with everyone today, just he won't go to their tree, he is preening and eating, i can see him from the livingroom window, told all of them they need to sleep on the porch, its safer there, he just burrowed his head- hopefully i am just over reacting...

with other birds after an attack, antibiotics is a general practice, would this help in case of infection?

 

[cracking up]

Since he doesn't want to roost with the others it could be a disagreement with one of them. Mine separated one from the group because his favorite girl was brooding eggs and they didn't want him hanging around.
I don't know about antibiotics with guineas.