Sick Guinea Fowl
I have received an email from Ruth who has a sick guinea fowl.
We are raising guineas for the first time. Every condition seems to be by the book. However, one of our guineas seems to be dizzy - unable to walk without falling over. It is just laying there. We can’t get it to drink. We don’t know what to do - can anyone tell us what we can do? We did separate the sick one from the rest. Thanks for any help. Ruth
I sent this reply.
Hi Ruth,
I too have found it very difficult when I have a sick guinea fowl because many of the symptoms are described in a number of illnesses.
What you are describing could be coccidiosis but I am not a vet and it is difficult to tell. I recently had some poorly quail and I phoned the vet who was sure it would be coccidiosis but when we sent in a quail that had died it turned out to be trichomonasis. if you are prepared to spend money on a vet bill then you could get your vet to look at the bird or if the bird does die then you could have a post mortem done s that you know what the disease was and can treat the others.
I am sorry that my advice is not very positive.
I hope that your guinea fowl does pull through. You could try giving the sick guinea fowl some yoghurt mixed with chick crumbs or you could try to use a syringe to get water into the guinea fowl.
I would also thoroughly clean out the guinea fowl accomodation so that if the illness is in the environment then the chances of the others getting it are minimised. I would also thoroughly disinfect the water and feed containers and provide the others with fresh water and feed as regularly as possible. It is also important to try to prevent the feed from going on the floor and the guinea fowl from eating it off the floor as this can lead to illness as the birds can also eat faeces as well as the food. I am sure that you know all this.
I will keep my fingers crossed for your guinea fowl. Let me know how you get on.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends
If anyone has any advice for Ruth about sick guinea fowl, then please leave a comment, thanks.
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I also have two sick guineas. They are approx. seven weeks old. One has a injured foot that we’ve been watching, then last week we noticed another one has a limp also. Is there a disease or condition that these young guineas could be contracting? Does anyone know what to do?
Comment by Carrie — October 3, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
Hi Carrie,
I am so sorry to hear that your guinea fowl have leg problems and one has died.
There is a condition called perosis which is a deformity of the leg bones. i have read that it is caused by a nutritional deficiency of manganese. it isays the birds are crippled and usually die of starvation or need to be culled.
I would suggest ringing your vet and mention that you suspect that your guinea fowl have perosis and see what the vet says. They may suggest taking the guinea that has died in for a post mortem, which will help identify the problem which is useful as you know what they died of and can look out for this in other guinea fowl and if it is a treatable illness then your other guinea fowl can be treated. I recently had post mortem done on some quail and it wasn’t too expensive about £17.
I hope that you find this information useful and that your guinea fowl get better.
Let us know how you get on.
Kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — October 5, 2008 @ 11:40 am