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Post by mikemurphy on Apr 22, 2009 9:39:44 GMT 8
I got back from holiday to learn another keat had died, and since then I've lost another. One minute they are running around as healthy looking as you'd want, then they start hunching their shoulders in, looked bedraggled and a day or so later they are dead. These did not have the same clogged rear ends as some earlier keats that died, and they were a lot older. I'm changing their water more often to ensure its clean, and I've put the remaining two with the hen that's mothering them in a new pen which I cleaned out first. I think I'll change their feed. try a lighter mash or something. Not much point hatching them out and feeding them if they're going to keep dying on me. Fortunately I don't have the same problem with the chicks, just the guinea fowl keats.
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Post by lakelands on Apr 22, 2009 10:11:38 GMT 8
That's no good Mike. I wonder what is causing it. Poor little guys. I hope the last 2 survive.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Apr 22, 2009 11:31:43 GMT 8
Hmm how frustrating Mike. So many people seem to have problems with keets dropping dead suddenly. I can't offer much help as *touch wood* I havent had this problem.
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Post by luv4ducks on Apr 22, 2009 15:11:44 GMT 8
I'm sorry to hear that Mike, i hope that the last 2 survive for you
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Post by beck on Apr 22, 2009 15:51:47 GMT 8
oh that is sad i wonder what it is have you looked online to see if they have a illness or common cause of death ( you probably did google it but just checking ) let us know Mike that is sad
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Post by fluffychook on Apr 22, 2009 16:44:12 GMT 8
Sorry to hear about your keats, do they suffer the same illnesses as poultry? It may be worth going onto BYP and see if anyone there can help.
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Post by mikemurphy on May 2, 2009 7:02:52 GMT 8
Only one keat left. The last to die became listless, head shrunken into its neck and that same dirty stuff around its vent, like dry sand packed together. Books I have read aren't a lot of help. One suggested problem could be damp litter and I have been spreading a lot of hay in the pens. Another said not to raise keats anywhere near hens because they are susceptible to chook-carried diseases. No way I can keep them separate because I use chook mothers to raise them, the guinea fowl mothers being so useless. So now I have one keat growing up with a chook mother and it probably won't be accepted by, or want to go with, my guinea fowl flock when it becomes adult.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on May 2, 2009 7:56:17 GMT 8
I dont agree with the not keeping keets anywhere near hens, as I also use broodies to raise keets sometimes and I've never had a whole batch of keets get sick when being around chookens. The damp litter is more likely to be the problem. The 3 keets that I kept last season were raised in a brooder then "fostered" by 2 pekin cockerels (one is now Brendons ). So the grew up thinking that they were chook and refused to leave the chook pens. But slowly slowly over a couple of months they have weaned themselves off of the chooks and are now part of the main flock.
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Post by mikemurphy on May 19, 2009 15:57:11 GMT 8
The surviving keat is still attached to the hen that raised it. It is also a very nerevous bird. If I go anywhere near it it flies up and crashes into the wire of the pen, trying to get away. I roosts with its "mother" and all the other hens and occasionally spends time with the other guinea fowl, but not often.
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