My hurt and sick guinea hen

[Mariakaz]

We got 4 baby keets in April 28 2020. On August 23, two of our beautiful guineas, one male and one female, were attacked and killed. We think it might have been a hawk. About 6 piles of feathers spread around the huge open pen. Their bodies were intact. The 3rd one (a male named Gater) was hiding in his barn stall. The 4th one (a female named Chokey) was hiding in the goose home and we think she had been attacked too.

These 4 guineas has become extremely friendly with the 3 ducks and 2 geese. Although the hens had 6 acres to roam plus all our neighbors many acres, their favorite place was to fly over the 5’ fence into the goose and duck 1/4 acre open pen. They’d hang out and at night they’d fly back over to go to their barn stall where I’d feed them dried worms and lock them up for the night. Every morning, they fly back over the fence to hang out with their buddies.

One of the geese had wounds on her head and beak — we were only inside for 1/2 hour when we heard the 3 dogs going nuts (they have a separate 1/4 open fenced yard with free access thru a doggie door to our home). I found the two dead guineas right away and my husband disposed their intact and fully feathered bodies.

The female looks like a turtle since then with her neck tucked into her body. She has barely eaten and is getting worse. This morning, August 29, she is barely breathing and is not even making and effort to eat or drink or move. Previous days at least she tried to peck at the food. She did not eat last night or this morning.

Also — does a hawk attack seem likely or could one of the geese killed them? Since the fence was not compromised, they had to be attacked from within what was already in the pen or from overhead.

I have fallen in love with these precious babies — what can I do to help my female guinea, Chokey?

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC.
I'm so sorry you are joining under such terrible circumstances.
Did you closely examine the bodies before burying them to look for punctures? A goose cannot puncture but I still doubt a goose would have done this. If a coyote or raccoon couldn't get into the pen, I'd lean towards an aerial attack.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. I’m sorry that it’s not under better circumstances that you join us. I hope the ER / guinea folks - Guinea Fowl can assist.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

We got 4 baby keets in April 28 2020. On August 23, two of our beautiful guineas, one male and one female, were attacked and killed. We think it might have been a hawk. About 6 piles of feathers spread around the huge open pen. Their bodies were intact. The 3rd one (a male named Gater) was hiding in his barn stall. The 4th one (a female named Chokey) was hiding in the goose home and we think she had been attacked too.

These 4 guineas has become extremely friendly with the 3 ducks and 2 geese. Although the hens had 6 acres to roam plus all our neighbors many acres, their favorite place was to fly over the 5’ fence into the goose and duck 1/4 acre open pen. They’d hang out and at night they’d fly back over to go to their barn stall where I’d feed them dried worms and lock them up for the night. Every morning, they fly back over the fence to hang out with their buddies.

One of the geese had wounds on her head and beak — we were only inside for 1/2 hour when we heard the 3 dogs going nuts (they have a separate 1/4 open fenced yard with free access thru a doggie door to our home). I found the two dead guineas right away and my husband disposed their intact and fully feathered bodies.

The female looks like a turtle since then with her neck tucked into her body. She has barely eaten and is getting worse. This morning, August 29, she is barely breathing and is not even making and effort to eat or drink or move. Previous days at least she tried to peck at the food. She did not eat last night or this morning.

Also — does a hawk attack seem likely or could one of the geese killed them? Since the fence was not compromised, they had to be attacked from within what was already in the pen or from overhead.

I have fallen in love with these precious babies — what can I do to help my female guinea, Chokey?

Welcome to BYCs - I’m sorry that you’re joining under such difficult circumstances! It’s so hard to lose your birds... If your guinea hen has gotten worse over a six day period after a predator attack, that is very concerning. I guess the first thing you need to do is to figure out what her injuries are. You need to restrain her and check her over for wounds. A towel can be helpful for restraint. If they are not very tame, then guineas don’t like to be restrained. So, it is possible that just restraining her and checking her over will send her over the edge and kill her due to shock. I had one this past summer that was very ill and died while I was restraining to get a throat swab to test for influenza. I don’t think that hen would have lived if I hadn't handled her either though. I’ve treated and handled other injured Guineas with more success. If your guinea hen is getting worse after 6 days, then she’s likely to die without treatment too.

As for trying to figure out what happened, a predator seems most likely to me. It could have been a hawk, though I think hawks usually kill one and eat what they want in one sitting, rather than killing again immediately. To me, multiple killed birds suggest something that could climb your pen fencing, like a fox, coyote, or raccoon. It may have left quickly when it heard your dogs and people coming towards it or had difficulty getting the birds back over the fence. Setting up a game camera would help you figure out what predators you have. Again, sorry for your loss.

 

[southwind00]

We got 4 baby keets in April 28 2020. On August 23, two of our beautiful guineas, one male and one female, were attacked and killed. We think it might have been a hawk. About 6 piles of feathers spread around the huge open pen. Their bodies were intact. The 3rd one (a male named Gater) was hiding in his barn stall. The 4th one (a female named Chokey) was hiding in the goose home and we think she had been attacked too.

These 4 guineas has become extremely friendly with the 3 ducks and 2 geese. Although the hens had 6 acres to roam plus all our neighbors many acres, their favorite place was to fly over the 5’ fence into the goose and duck 1/4 acre open pen. They’d hang out and at night they’d fly back over to go to their barn stall where I’d feed them dried worms and lock them up for the night. Every morning, they fly back over the fence to hang out with their buddies.

One of the geese had wounds on her head and beak — we were only inside for 1/2 hour when we heard the 3 dogs going nuts (they have a separate 1/4 open fenced yard with free access thru a doggie door to our home). I found the two dead guineas right away and my husband disposed their intact and fully feathered bodies.

The female looks like a turtle since then with her neck tucked into her body. She has barely eaten and is getting worse. This morning, August 29, she is barely breathing and is not even making and effort to eat or drink or move. Previous days at least she tried to peck at the food. She did not eat last night or this morning.

Also — does a hawk attack seem likely or could one of the geese killed them? Since the fence was not compromised, they had to be attacked from within what was already in the pen or from overhead.

I have fallen in love with these precious babies — what can I do to help my female guinea, Chokey?

I agree with Mixed, a hawk would kill and either take off or eat there. A predator like a raccoon sounds more like it. What kind of fencing or mesh do you have around your coop and is there anyway something could dig in, under the fence or wall to get in. And again trail cameras provide a lot of information. Your hen may have sustained head injuries just trying to escape. Good luck and Welcome to BYC