New Babies Arrived Today!

[vlflower]

16 Happy and healthy Jumbo French Guinea Hens. This is our first years with guineas. Last year was our first years with chickens! Can't get over how tiny they are!

 

[JLeigh]

Those are cute keets. I just love looking at pictures. I don't think I can get enough of looking at everyone's cute little keet additions. To me, they're cuter than puppies, and that's saying something! Congrats on your 16 cuties.

 

[vlflower]

Thanks...I'm a little concerned about one though. It seems her/his eyes are cloudy so I'm thinking it may be blind. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be okay.

 

[JLeigh]

Poor little thing. I'll bet PeepsCA knows what the problem is; I think she's just about seen and done it all when it comes to keets. I wonder, though, is the keet finding the food and water? Please let us know how it goes.

 

[PeepsCA]

It's possible that it's blind... I have never seen or hatched a blind keet so I can't say if cloudy eyes indicates that (seems fairly obvious tho). Is there any discharge or tears from the eyes? I've used a dab of plain neosporin in my keet's eye (or eyes) twice a day that have had goopy or injured/swollen eyes (just dab some on your clean finger then hold your finger up to the keets eye and let the neosporin melt and put a coating on the eye). Some disagree with the neosporin tho, since the label says do not use in the eyes... but I have never had a problem with it and haven't had to use it more than a couple days at a time.

Another suggestion... If you have any of the 3-in-1 contact lens solution you can add a drop to each eye twice a day and see if that helps with the cloudiness. I have never tried this, (for myself or my keets) but a lot of experienced bird people swear by it for eye issues in birds. The 3% hydrogen peroxide seems like it would sting tho...

And like JLeigh mentioned, you'll want to make sure the keet is eating and drinking.

 

[vlflower]

Right now it will drink when I put its beak to the water. I held it cupped in my hand with food in my hand and it really didn't seem interested. My daughter and I are keeping a really close eye on it. Hoping for the best. What is the best way to get it to eat? I've never had keets before.

 

[PeepsCA]

Try sprinkling some starter feed crumbles in front of it on a paper towel, the other keets may come running and start eating too, so maybe the noise will stimulate the keet to start pecking... or maybe it can see enough to be stimulated by the movement of the food crumbles bouncing. How is it acting? Is it peeping a lot? Moving around at all?

 

[vlflower]

I will try putting the food in the middle of where they are huddled. I was just holding it and was able to get it to drink when I dip its beak in the water. When I put it back in with its siblings, it just goes over to the corner with the rest. I had some food cupped in my hand with the keet in it...it just kept falling asleep with its beak in the food in my hand.

I hope we can get it to pull through cause unfortunately I'm getting attached to this one! I'll let you know how it goes with the food in the middle of them all. I'll do it after I change their paper towel in a little while.

 

[vlflower]

So we tried sprinkling the crumbles in the middle of the group....little one didn't eat it. She is drinking when we dip her beak in water. I ran to the store and grabbed some yogurt. She did eat some yogurt when I dipped her beak in it. I don't know how much is too much...I just kind of dipped helped her until it seemed like she didn't want any part of it anymore.

She/he is the sweetest little thing and when I hold her it just falls asleep in my hands. It was chirping happily after eating the yogurt and is pooping normal...(it pooped in my daughters hand twice so we knew which one it was...lol)

I'm putting in a picture of it. You can see a bit of the cloudiness in its eye. Don't know if there is anything more we can do. We plan on helping it drink and at least eat yogurt until it figures it out on its own. Hopefully!

 

[PeepsCA]

Yah I see some cloudiness to her eye, aww, I feel sorry for her too.

You may try making a mash of soaked starter feed boiled egg yolk and get small bites of it into her beak and see how she handles that. I would keep dipping her beak in water often, and if you have any plain pedialyye or sav-a-chick electrolytes, that will help keep her hydrated. Some people have successfully fed keets with the Kaytee baby bird hand feeding formula, but unless you really know what you are doing you can end up with the formula down the keet's windpipe and that easily can kill it. Might be something to try tho... the keet really needs to get some protein into her one way or another or she's going to fade quickly.