Sick guinea fowl. Need help :(

[Noor Waqar]

My guinea hen had crop impaction 2days ago.So i treated her with olive oil and massaging her crop 5-6 times a day. And in the evening she was fine and eating and the next day she remains the same. But yesterday morning i let my guineas out and after thier return, the same guinea stopped eating and drinking and is confined to herself in a corner. I tried massaging thinking if its crop impaction. But she is in the same condition. Her crop is flat, so i guess its nOt crop impaction. She hasn't eaten anything from yesterday. But she prefer standing in her water plate. Im new to this so if anybody have any idea, please help.

 

[chooks4life]

Hello and

The fact that she is standing by preference in her water plate suggests to me that she has an internal temperature and therefore infection, most likely.

When you were massaging her crop, did you massage things out through her mouth, or just try to make them smaller? Did you feel large lumps in there? I suspect perhaps the blockage has moved into her gut and is blocking her up there, which is very serious of course... I would give her a big dose of olive oil or other laxative to try to shift the stuff again, but this may not work... However options are limited at this stage.

Best wishes.

 

[Noor Waqar]

I tried to massage things out from her crop but she was not throwing up, so i didn't force much also i did not want to take any risk causing any risk in the respiration. I gave her olive oil today. But their was no improvement. She ate some insects while roaming in the evening, but otherwise nothing. I am hopping that she will recover from it. I will keep updating her condition. Thanks alot for replying. I am new with guinea fowls so dont have much experience. Thank u again and do pray for my guinea, her name is timmy

 

[Noor Waqar]

Timmy is much improved this morning. Shee is eating own his own. Roaming around actively. I haven't even given her olive oil. She is not standing in water but only drinking it when required. Hopefully her condition will stay like this

 

[chooks4life]

Very good to hear, I hope she makes a full recovery.

I understand the worry about massaging things up their throat and possibly suffocating them, I've not done it myself but have heard others describe doing it, and there's a bit of finesse required.

Do you have some sharp bits of grit available for her? Not too small, too blunt, too round, or soft? I used sharp oystershell, but if they can't get sharp natural things they will eat glass, plastic, metal, etc.

Best wishes.

 

[Noor Waqar]

Sorry for the llate update, been busy with life. My guinea is doing just fine and he is healthy now. But my male guinea has started doing problem unfortunately. He is attacking my guinea hen frequently, bumping into her and plucking her feathers. Simply harrasing her, and she just got scare and hide from him. I have isolated the male. But when i allow him to roam around he does the same. My first thought was that he was trying to mate, but this doesn't seem like the way to me.

 

[chooks4life]

All good, I too get too busy to check sometimes, the main issue was dealt with already anyway.

You're right, there is a distinct difference between harassment and attempting to mate. If he is so bent on showing her aggression it's reasonable to expect things will only get worse between them, as this is generally how it goes when two animals that were fine together suddenly have a relationship breakdown like this and it persists beyond a simple fight or two. Left to continue eventually he will likely either kill her or bully her to the point where her health suffers. If that's the sort he is, getting him other guinea hens will likely only ever end up the same.

In this case it's probably because she was unwell, but regardless of the reasons, it's pointless and difficult behavior to deal with so I personally get rid of animals that abuse ill or injured animals because otherwise you end up breeding on a very intolerant flock which harms animals needing tending before you can tend them. I'm the master of my flock, so I decide which injured or ill animal needs to be culled, I do not allow them to take that decision out of my hands. Many good animals could be killed for something as simple as a small easily treated wound if I let the animals decide which ones die or live, and if I bred those sorts on.

Intolerance has a strong genetic basis in animals and just like bullying it's something that can make the flock's social life as well as your animal husbandry very stressful and wasteful in terms of resources like money, time, effort etc spent trying to fix wounds caused by bullies, and pointlessly destroyed lives of otherwise good breeders, etc.

So, depending on what your preferences are, your options are probably something like this: you could keep him and re-home her, or the other way around, or keep one of them permanently separately caged from the other. It's all down to what amount of extra work for the duration of your bird-keeping you're willing to deal with, if you breed on from his bloodline.

There is a very slight chance he will relent but personally I would not bet her life on it.

Best wishes with your decision and flock.

 

[Noor Waqar]

Hello, thanks for the advice. Just checked the blog. I had to get rid of the male, he was getting out of control, and i couldn't just risk the life of my hen. So i decided to give him away . Now my hens are in peace thankfully and also healthy

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Thank you so much for all the help, i hope to stay in touch with you

.

 

[chooks4life]

Hello, thanks for the advice. Just checked the blog. I had to get rid of the male, he was getting out of control, and i couldn't just risk the life of my hen. So i decided to give him away . Now my hens are in peace thankfully and also healthy

.
Thank you so much for all the help, i hope to stay in touch with you

.

You're very welcome, it's good to hear things are improving. Best wishes.