Farming Friends Forum » Guinea Fowl

Leg Problems In Guinea Fowl

(14 posts)

  1. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi All,
    One of our farmingfriends members (Hazlia - Mike) has some guinea fowl and one seems to have a leg that has reversed itself.

    "3 have 'wonky feet. Once had splayd legs so I tied its legs together with string so that it could walk (sort of). I was then worrried about circulation and found some old 'chain' ear rings which I cannibalised so that they became 'feet shackles'. It seeemd to do the trick and I removed them after a couple of days. It walks ok but has one foot turned out. Anoher keet has slightly inward facing feet but can run quite fast, and one other cant seem to stand up properly (one leg seems very weak), but it scrabbles around. I am going to try bracing the leg so that it is straight......The elastoplast solved the 'splayed' legs but now one leg seems to have reversed itself and the keet hobbles around - actually quite fast! The other keet with the weak leg seems to be slowly getting some strength and also moved quickly when startled."

    Mike has sent me some photos.







    Mike says that the guinea fowl's whole leg is dragging behind.

    If anyone has come across this leg problem before then please let us know how you dealt with it.
    Kind regards
    sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. hazlia
    Member

    Hi Sara

    I have just returned from a week at the farm. Sadly one of the 'limping' Guineas has died. Because it can only flap and hop around on the ground (or whatever surface it is on), I think it gets picked on by the chickens. There is one particular group of large chickens (I have no idea of the proper name, but they are brown and little or no feathers on their necks). Anyway they are now earmarked for 'the pot'! That leaves one flapping and hopping around and 5 in good order. I let them out last week and they flew off - I thought that was the last I would see of them. I came back after lunch and one was on the roof of their house (sqawking loudly) and the others were sitting by rhe door! Now I have to drive them out to get them out but they return as soon as my back is turned!!

    I have just got another 10 keets from West Malaysia. It was 15 but 3 died on the plane trip here (2 1/2 hours) and 2 died over the course of last week - I don't know why. One looked a bit 'tired' so I put in the incubator to islolate it and keep it warm - it seemd fine the next day but was then dead a day later. The other was fine but then dead one morning when I cam to check. The remaining 10 seem full of beans - I hope it stays so.

    At what age do they start to breed/lay eggs?

    Regards

    Mike

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Mike, Good to hear from you. I have your other photos to add when I get a spare minute but wanted to get the guinea fowl with leg problem photos on as I think that was a high priority.
    Sorry to hear that one of the guinea fowl didn't make it.
    Guinea fowl will return to their hut if they have been kept in it for a while.
    Female guinea fowl can start laying from 16 weeks old, although if free range can start as early as 12 weeks. If they reach 16 weeks in the Autumn and Winter months then they usually start to lay in the following Spring.
    In the UK guinea fowl tend to lay between March and September. http://farmingfriends.com/when-do-female-guinea-fowl-start-laying/
    Guinea fowl hens start to mature about 12 to 16 weeks.
    If you have a couple of males and a female then the males will have a ritual of the chase to win the female and then the guinea fowl will pair up and be monogamous although if you have more females than males then a male can have a group of females with him although he will show loyalty to one of the females more than the other which leaves the other females more susceptible to predators. I have lost 6 guinea fowl hens this year to the fox and I am very careful about getting them in and have changed the time I get them in to try to avoid the fox.
    Hope your new keets do well. I look forward to hearing more about them.
    Kind regards
    sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. hazlia
    Member

    Hi Sarah

    Thanks for all the info. Sadly the other leg problem guinea was attached by a rodent which ate most of its head. It was left on the ground in a confined area and so it was an easy prey. The other 5 are doing really well although I have to keep chasing them out if the hut to 'find their own food'!! They are just about to sprout their wattles (i think) and are about half their final size. They must be about 2 months old now. The new keets are doing ok, I lost another one to 'pasting' (I think). It became very detached from the rest of the group for a few days and did not seem to get as big as the others and its wings alo hung very low. One day it was lying on its side but alive and so I brought it up to the house. It was dead by T time - so sad when they don't make it. I have 9 remaining in that group which so far seem to be full of beans. I hope it remains so. They are in a cage with some baby Campbell cross ducklings - all seem to get on fine!

    I have 2 much older females whose wings I clipped (I think just as well). I have started to let them out but one evening they did not come back and I found them sleeping under a very small palm tree so I picked them up and took them back to the hut. If they had been able to fly I probably would not have found them as they would have been in the trees. I got those 2 as adults several months ago and kept them in for a long time. However, when I felt it was time to free range, I clipped their wings as a precaution. Now I drive them back late after noon - they are easy to find as they start their 'clacking' when you get near! Then it is a case of getting behind them with a long stick (like that idea), however, occasionally they escape into thick undergrowth and go into stealth mode! Then I have to wait for them to come out! Life is certainly busy when I go back to the farm.

    Regards

    Mike

    Posted 1 year ago #

  5. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Mike,
    I am so sorry to hear that the other guinea fowl keet was attacked by a rodent. Poor thing. I suppose it is survival of the fittest in the wild and it did well to have the life it did.
    Larger more cupped wattles generally signify a male and smaller, straighter wattles the female. They will start to call out from 10 weeks onwards.
    My guinea fowl go in a large hut at night with my khaki campbell ducks.
    Using a stick to drive them where you want them is a good technique. Will they be ok from predators with their wings clipped. I understand that you didn't want them to fly away but will they be able to get away from predators. My guinea fowl don't like to fly unless spooked. They don't often go into a tree unless I am abit late coming out to round them up and then they usually roost on the barn rafters or in the orchard.
    How often do you go back to the farm and how far is it from where you usually live?
    Kind regards
    sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 12 months ago #

  6. hazlia
    Member

    Hi Sarah

    I usually go back every 2 weeks and it takes about 3 hours (about 160 kms on reasonable roads). The clipped wing ones will be ok during the day, but I worry at night if I don't know where they are as they sleep on the ground (cant fly) and then very vulnerable especially to snakes unless they sleep with one eye open.

    Regards

    Mike

    Posted 12 months ago #

  7. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Mike,
    Wow a 3 hour drive. Just to say that I haven't clipped the wings of my guinea fowl and they rarely fly and none have ever flown away for good.
    Knowing where the guinea fowl are will give you peace of mind so that they don't worry about them. I bet there are alot of predators!

    I have got around to uploading your other guinea fowl photos.










    It's great to see the guinea fowl roosting.
    I will upload the turkey photos to a separate post! http://farmingfriends.com/forums/topic.php?id=272
    Kind regards
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 11 months ago #

  8. hazlia
    Member

    Sarah

    My daughter says "those birds look definetely 'dodgy'". With the ones on the branches, I had to be quick before they flew back to their cage. I am going down there this week and and will take some more pictures of them and the new brood.

    Regards

    Mike

    Posted 11 months ago #

  9. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Mike,
    I look forward to seeing more photos of your guinea fowl and the new brood. Hope all is well when you return to the farm this week.
    My guinea fowl are just finishing their laying season. I think I may have collected the last egg today but we'll see what tomorrow brings! Once the laying season is over the guinea fowl all start to hang about in a big gang again which is great to see and makes getting them in at the end of the day much easier!
    Kind regards
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 11 months ago #

  10. angela smith
    Member

    Hi Sara, Mike and Hazlia. I have just found this forum while I was looking for information on this problem. I have some newly hatched guinea fowl keets 1-4 days old, some of them have splayed legs and cannot stand up. I will try splinting them with pipe cleaners because I am sure they will certainly die if I don't do something to at least try and support them. Do you know what causes this splayed leg problem? I wonder if it has something to do with the temperature of the incubator?
    I have had guinea fowl for a long time but I have only hatched them with a broody hen before this. I was really careful with the incubator temperature but we had some very hot weather as well as some cool days here. My incubator is a very simple one but I have used it very successfully to hatch a lot of ducks and a couple of clutches of turkey eggs and a few chooks.
    Do you know if there anything else I can try to help fix their legs? Do you have any suggestions as to the cause of the problem? have you any ideas on how I could stop it happening again?
    I don't know how to attach a photo. I suspect it may be a hip joint problem because of the way the legs stick out sideways.
    I am pleased I found this site and I look forward to a reply. Angela

    Posted 7 months ago #

  11. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Angela,
    Welcome to the farmingfriends forum. Sorry to hear about the guinea fowl with splayed legs. I have been keeping and raising guinea fowl for nearly 6 years and have loved it.
    Splayed leg problems can be caused by slippery surfaces in the brooder http://www.farmingfriends.com/splayed-legs-in-quail/
    A leg problem that poultry can get is something called perosis http://farmingfriends.com/perosis-in-poultry/
    Leg problems can be genetic due to inter breeding or due to poor nutrition in breeding stock or lack of nutrients.
    I think you are right that conditions in the incubator can also lead to problems - bacteria in the incubator can lead to hatching problems and if bacteria has gone through the shell then it can effect the keet or chick.
    Hope your guinea fowl get better. The sooner you splint their legs the better their chance of recovering.
    Hope they get better soon.
    I will drop you an email so you can send photos.
    Kind regards
    sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 7 months ago #

  12. hazlia
    Member

    Hi Angela

    I am really sorry to here about your splayed leg keets. I tried splinting and tieing legs together. I did not have a lot of success. Two survived a month or two like that and then fell prey to some rat as they could not really move that fast. To try and stop that happening in the first place, I now use a damp towel under the eggs in the icubator during the hatch period. I use a Brinsea Octogan advance 20 and the egg floor is plastic with holes but I think still a bit slippery. The leg problem occurs (or so I think) because when the babies hatch they are so weak they cannot stand properly and do the splits and once that happens it is 'game over'. A damp towel gives a lot more purchase until they have enough strengh. My Quail and one chicken also suffered a similar fate. If you do try a damp towel you need to keep it damp by spaying regularly or it will dry out and suck the moisture from any unhatched eggs and possibly kill the unhatched chick.

    Not much comfort I know. Try splinting as I have heard that it can work (i think my keets were too far gone).

    Good luck

    Mike

    Posted 7 months ago #

  13. angela smith
    Member

    Hi Sara and Mike

    Thank you for your replies to my plea for advice.

    My little chicks legs were very very splayed, I tried to prop them up with pipe cleaners but they could not walk and ended up on their back. I sadly came to the conclusion that they would not get better. The well keets are doing very well now they are 6-8 days old and I have good expectations that they will survive.

    Next time I put guinea fowl eggs in the incubator I will try the wet towel as they are hatching. I have always used paper over the wire floor and keep it damp so it is not too dry or slippery.

    We had some very hot weather here and I left the eggs in the nest until I had enough for the incubator. My guinea fowl can tell if I take eggs out of their nest and then make a new nest which I can't always find. Maybe the eggs were a bit exposed so that some of the little keets were not as strong as they could have been.

    I had some turkey poults that developed perosis a few years ago. After that I dosed the hatchlings on Vitamin E (people type capsules with oil in them. I nicked the capsule and squirted all the oil in their mouth once weekly)I put condy's crystals in their drinking water(just 1-2 crystals so the water was pink) and I also ground up Vitamin B complex tablets and added some to the turkey starter I was feeding them. I don't know which of these stopped the problem in later clutches but I did not have the problem again. I have not got turkeys now. This problem developed after a few weeks but the little guinea fowl had splayed legs from the time they tried to stand up.

    Vitamin E is a good remedy for stress and as far as I am aware it is very difficult to give an overdose, a friend gives it to the baby orphan kangaroos she rears, they can stress out very easily and she uses it all the time. Have you ever used it for any animals or birds?
    Thanks again,

    Angela

    Posted 7 months ago #

  14. admin
    Sara @ farmingfriends

    Hi Angela,
    So sorry to hear the keets with the splayed legs didn't make it. Thanks for sharing the information about the vitamins, that is good to know.

    I myself haven't used vitamins with my animals although I do sometimes give the poultry something called poultry spice which is a nutritional supplement that has a high mineral content.

    Kind regards
    sara @ farmingfriends

    http://www.farmingfriends.com
    http://farmingfriends.com/shop/
    Posted 7 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.

7,247 posts in 1,006 topics over 21 months by 301 of 410 members. Latest: The ferret lady, Kojak, MarriottsSmallH