My brother has several guineas that are about a month old. He feeds them a homemade mash he makes for all his chickens. Last week he noticed they were sitting around. Then he noticed they were walking funny. Now, they sit around and act as though they are paralized and a couple have died. What could this be? All the other chickens he has show no signs of sickness at all. The guineas also act cold. He said they don't feel as though they have fever but shiver and huddle together. They also poop watery yellow brown. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Help! Need advice on sick Guineas
Looks like it might be Fowl Typhoid.
http://www.sabong.net.ph/forum/showthread.php?p=845790 This is a quote from their site.
"Fowl typhoid is an infectious, contagious bacterial disease that is usually acute but sometimes chronic. It affects most domestic and wild fowl including chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigeons, pheasants and other game birds. It must not be confused with typhoid fever in humans that is caused by a distinctly different organism.
The cause in the bacterium, Salmonella gallinarum. Methods of transmission are the same as for pullorum disease, including egg transmission. However, mechanical transmission is more prevalent with this disease than with pullorum disease.
Any age bird can be infected, but the disease primarily occurs in young adults (usually those older than twelve weeks of age). Mortality varies from less than one to about forty percent, but higher mortality has been observed. Signs include sudden or sporadic mortality, listlessness, green or yellow diarrhea (accompanied with pasting of the vent feathers), loss of appetite, increased thirst and a pale, anemic appearance of comb and wattles.
e Fowl Typhoid.
This site says this is a treatment for it:
http://www.vetcareindia.com/poultry_medicaments.aspx
Enrocare contains enrofloxacin which belongs to fluoroquinolone antibiotic, exclusively used in vaterinary medicine. Enrocare exerts broad spectrum of activity against gram positive, gram negative oganisms, Mycoplasma spp and Rickettsia.
Indications :
•To treat bacterial infections like
◦Fowl Cholera
◦Fowl Typhoid
◦Infectious Coryza
◦Colibacillosis
◦Mycoplasma
When I searched for an alternative or natural medicine I found this: http://japr.fass.org/cgi/reprint/14/3/455.pdf
Korean Wild Ginseng (TCMKWG)
(Panax ginseng) as an alternative medicine in the control of FT. (Fowl Typhoid)
hmmm , one of hte symptoms of that is increased thirst and he said he can't get them to drink at all.
Could it be Newcastle?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8219339
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w1722557h6143rv4/
This message was edited Jul 26, 2009 12:53 AM
That is something I thought it may be. So far none of the other chickens he has show signs of it and some were together with the guineas. Thanks for the links.
He was thinking maybe a parasite of some sort.
Were the chickens possibly vaccinated for it?
Endemic Newcastle seems to have a considerable amount of respiratory distress associated with it--so if they aren't showing any, that might rule it out. Although the symptoms vary with the strain and age of the chickens.
The only thing that made me think of it was the apparent paralysis.
I hope this is a self-limiting situation for your brother.
Marek's would also cause paralysis--but it usually hits only a couple birds at a time and except for the paralysis, they don't seem very ill at first. I don't know how (or if) it affects guineas.
No he doesn't vaccinate his birds and he feeds them a homemade mash of very good stuff. He treats them all with natural stuff. He has tried some natural remedies on the guineas and some has helped a little.
Smedge: could you give us an update on your bro's guiness'?
I emailed and ask for an update. This is what they sent me....
Ahh...well 5 are still alive. Not completely well, but not getting any worse either. Not sure what they might have. None of the things I looked at completely sounded like what they have. It's really weird! Like therir legs don't want to work right.
That does sound like Marek's, but I looked it up and it doesn't seem Guineas get it. I really wonder what it could be.
I wonder if it could be botulism poisoning. What is in the homemade mash he makes and how does he feed it? "Mash" makes me think of a wet mixture, but even if he feeds a dry mix, and it gets wet and sits around, it can start to grow bacteria.
Botulism in poultry presents with paralysis and diarrhea.
That is an excellent suggestion, gallesfarm. I forgot about botulism.
You know I thought of that because when I looked stuff up that is the one that jumped out at me. I'm not sure what all is in the mash. I know he grinds corn and other stuff and puts I think oils in it and I forgot half of it when he told me because I even asked what he fed them. He won't feed them commercial feed at all. But whats weird is he gives all his chickens the same thing and none of them are sick or acting strange except the guineas. Could it be lack of a certain nutrient?
Are the chickens older? The guineas are young - perhaps they are more susceptible to whatever is affecting them? Maybe the chickens are able to deal with whatever it is, but the young birds cannot.
I think there were 4 Cochins, same age, in the pen with them. And I believe he also had some others about the same age, the rest are older. The Cochins are now in their own pen but are fine.
Just to update all of you...
Thanks for all the advice though we may never know for sure what the cause of the illness was. It may have been something they had from the hatchery, not sure.
All the guineas did die. They were fed not a wet mash but a dry mixture of high quality organic grains/seeds etc. He was aware they needed a high protein diet and they did get one. None of the symptoms they had matched completely with any illness so it is very confusing.
Thanks again to those who posted here trying to help.