my guineas are dying

[dugun]

A week ago one of my guineas died.
It started by the feathers on her neck looked like they were standing on end and separated. Then she started fluffing up like to keep warm. Then she started being by herself ,away from the rest. Then she wouldn't come out of the coop and her head would move from side to side and she would keep turning her head. The next morning, she was dead.
Now I think the same thing is happening to another female guinea. I noticed her neck feathers standing on end she is fluffing her feathers as if she is cold. Today she started going away from the rest of the flock. Mind you I only had 5.their coop is in the horse pasture. Now during the day , sparrows will fly in their coop to eat their food.that is the only time they are around other animals.we have 2 miniature donkey s and 2 miniature pony in the pasture.
The guineas do go in the horse barn and stalls and hang out. Please help with any information you have .I love my guineas

 

[StephensonC]

A week ago one of my guineas died.
It started by the feathers on her neck looked like they were standing on end and separated. Then she started fluffing up like to keep warm. Then she started being by herself ,away from the rest. Then she wouldn't come out of the coop and her head would move from side to side and she would keep turning her head. The next morning, she was dead.
Now I think the same thing is happening to another female guinea. I noticed her neck feathers standing on end she is fluffing her feathers as if she is cold. Today she started going away from the rest of the flock. Mind you I only had 5.their coop is in the horse pasture. Now during the day , sparrows will fly in their coop to eat their food.that is the only time they are around other animals.we have 2 miniature donkey s and 2 miniature pony in the pasture.
The guineas do go in the horse barn and stalls and hang out. Please help with any information you have .I love my guineas

Awww...I love my guinea's too. I'm sorry I can't be of much help, as I am pretty new at this. But there is a section here on Guinea Fowl. If you post this to that section, you will probably get more answers. Here's a link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/45/guinea-fowl

I hope you can find some answers and possibly treat them, so the other one will pull through.

 

[chooks4life]

Wry neck, sounds like, well that's one symptom of it anyway.

Could be a disease, a deficiency, or a symptom of a few things including toxicity... Could be lead or other heavy metals in their feed or water or environment, could be exposure to horse wormers, could be moulds in the grains or pellets, could be plants or insects they're eating that are naturally toxic or have been sprayed... What do you feed them?

If it's deficiency it should clear with multi-vit addition to the water or better food being supplied. But many things cause deficiency not just absence of the nutrient, they can and do become deficient on a good diet. If she's ingested lead for example, like paint flecks or shotgun pellets or whatever, that can do it. Neurological symptoms are often identical whatever the cause.

Necropsy would be helpful, if you're willing and able to go investigating yourself, or know someone who will, or can afford to send the bird off for a necropsy. Can cost between $20 and $70 on average from what I've been reading. Seems expensive but when you consider the cost of replacing a whole flock... You need to know what's happening before you lose them all. It's also possible your horses are at risk. Some agricultural sprays are still killing livestock decades after they were last applied, they remain almost perpetually. Guineas can tolerate much less in the way of toxins than much larger animals can, obviously.

Best wishes.

 

[dugun]

We feed them MAZURI extra egg. The same as what we fed our chickens and they are fine.
Where do you have this necrosis test done?
We put a heat lamp in there and they stayed outside of the coop that night.
So we took it out.we use pine shavings for bedding. We got the guineas in april. And the have been fine all this time.

 

[chooks4life]

Necropsy often gets done at vets or universities or state labs. If you look up poultry necropsy on the internet you'll probably find a few sites that will do it. I've never sent one for necropsy but people on this forum like Casportpony can give you advice on how to send or where to, you can find forum members by searching the forum using the search box.

Best wishes.