Guinea with a compund fracture...

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My guineas have been being savaged lately. My friends dog killed two of them last week and yesterday on my way out the drive I had some ignorant person in a white car swerve to kill one and break anothers leg in half. Right now, I am feeling very angry with the general population of motorists. These birds were not IN the road, they were next to it!!!Auugghh!

Anyway, I couldn't catch the guinea with the broken leg at first. She kept going into some of the thicker prickly brush interspersed with greenbriar and I didn't want to chase her to death either, so when I came back from work I went looking and found her. The leg is broken literally in half. She seems to be in good spirits, as in alert and she still tried to run from me, but I caught her fairly quickly.

Has anyone ever nursed a bird back with that bad of a break? I loaded the severance with hydrogen peroxide and packed it with triple anti biotic ointment, bandaged it with gauze then layed over vet wrap and made a splint from a piece of soaker hose with some bends cut in it. The break is right above the bend in the joint.

I figure that if I can get her to live I will grab a male guinea and put them into total confinement so that I can incubate their eggs. I know it must seem ludicrous to take such time with a bird to most people, but guineas are very valuable to me, they are the best bug eaters ever! and also, I just can't not try when something is still alive. Any advice would be appreciated.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), February 20, 2001

Answers

Depending on where you live there are places that specialize in bird rehabilitation. Mayhap they could help you fix it's leg! Good Luck.

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

I've never done this, but my Dad still talks about nursing a favorite banty back to health years ago that suffered a broken leg. He would lift her up and down off her roost, and of course she became very tame and was a good broody hen for him for years. Of course, guineas being wilder might be more of a challenge to care for, but it sounds like you have done a good job of doctoring her up. Hope the splint stays on for you. Good luck, I know it is hard to lose a favorite bird, and I've yelled at a few drivers myself for this sort of thing. mary

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Doreen: I doctored one of my laying hens last year with a broken leg. Her leg was just dangling. I splinted her with gauze, popsicle sticks and medical tape, and had to lift her and carry her outside and to the feed and water several times a day until she could get around on her own. She is fine now, and if you didn't know which one, you wouldn't be able to tell. Good luck, and let us know how she does. Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Hi Doreen: Someone hit and killed my beautiful peacock last summer, not on the actual road but on the shoulder. My whole family was just devastated. Not a mark on him or a drop of blood. I swear, if I saw someone deliberately swerve to hit an animal, I would positively lose it. There's a special place in hell for those kind of people... As for your guinea, well, one of mine got her foot caught between two fence poles, and dangled there upside down for who-knows-how-long before I found her. The foot was hanging and all mangled. I got her out of her predicament, and she immediately got away from me. I couldn't catch her again. I observed her over the next few days, and she ate & drank and moved about with the flock, dragging that foot all the while. After about a week, it fell right off! Then she just got better, and managed fine without her foot. There was never any infection or obvious pain. Another guinea of mine had a broken leg that healed wrong, and she also managed okay with her crooked leg. So, I'd say that if your bird is spunky & eating & moving, she may be just fine in a couple of weeks. If I could, I would have kept mine confined for a while, but even though I couldn't they still recovered okay. As for going to the trouble of trying to save just one bird, well, if someone doesn't understand that, there's probably no explanation we could offer that would ever make sense to such a person!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Well it sounds pretty encouraging. She was talking to the other guineas this evening and seems to have eaten some and still has the old guinea spunk! I have doctored three broken legs on chickens, but this is an exception as it's akin to someone hacking your arm one real good whack with an axe. Sorry, but that's the best description of it. I'll keep you posted on how she is doing. So far she looks like she is in pain in the eyes, but she does have some warmth to the foot, so I am hopeful that the circulation will mend itself.

As for the special place in hell for those folks, I couldn't agree more. I now have a psychological block against white vehicles as a white pick up did the same thing and killed my 10 year old Border Collie a couple of years ago on the SAME day. I'll try to get over it, but ooooh....it does bring a desire for vengeance out. Thanks for your help, all!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), February 20, 2001.



Doreen, I am very sorry to hear about your guineas! I also have a "thing" about my guineas...they provide so many "services" for us! Keep us informed and Good Luck!

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), February 21, 2001.

She seems to be doing well. Tries to run from me when I put in her food and there isn't any smell to the wound at all. The leg isn't sitting quite right, but I have done all that I can with the splint. I think she's going to be okay, but perhaps not as quick as she once was.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), February 22, 2001.

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