Sick button quail HELP

[PizzaBagelPie]

One of my button hens is sick. She was purchased as an adult from a pet store around 4 months ago to replace a hen that we suspect died of coccidiosis. Before introducing her to the male we sanitized everything. She was fine for around a month before she started acting sick. I suspected cocci but didn't know for sure so we gave her medicated food and ACV. She started acting completely normal again up until the last few days. She suddenly is always sitting fluffed up like this

and I noticed her last few poops had green tinted urate and her food is undigested and she feels skinnier than the other quail. This all happened in the last 3 or 4 days. Her mate is perfectly healthy, so are the neighbors, and all the other quail. I have given her more medicated feed, ACV,and a heat lamp but she doesn't seem to be improving. There are no vets nearby dealing in poultry. Any ideas what is wrong or the treatment for it? She doesn't sneeze and doesn't drink much but she eats normally and seems to have issues with balance. Her last few eggs have also had little to no she'll with uneven green coloring and "burnt" looking ends. She doesn't seem to have many symptoms in common with the last hen other than the fluffing and lethargy

 

[JaeG]

Are you giving them a calcium supplement such as crushed oyster shell? She could be egg bound but you may have to search for what to do for that as I'm not sure. Medicated feed won't cure coccidiostat, it can only prevent it. Good luck. I really hope she improves for you.

 

[ShangoBunny]

Poor baby!!

I've found a poop chart that could help.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

You should probably give her game starter feed and vitamin enriched water while you figure out how else to help her. She may need antibiotics so you'll need to find a way to source that.

 

[PizzaBagelPie]

Doesn't really look like any in the link. Much larger green urate and small amount of completely undigested food. She's currently on medicated game bird starter with 23% protein and a mix of finch "egg food",finch seed, dried meal worms, and fresh meal worms and eggs as treats and she has one drinky with acv water and one with "chickboost".also has crushed oyster shell

 

[Binki]

Aww poor thing :/ Just throwing this out there, do you give them grit to help digest food?

 

[PizzaBagelPie]

Aww poor thing :/ Just throwing this out there, do you give them grit to help digest food?

yes, they do get grit too. Care-wise I don't believe I'm doing anything wrong and it's either not contagious or my other birds are immune as no one else has gotten sick other than that first hen but she was a weak chick and had a poor immune system and that was before I got this one. Which is part of what made me think maybe coccidiosis but she's having pretty different symptoms so I'm not sure it's the same thing. There aren't even any reasonable vets nearby that work with parrots. The only one that does parrots nearly killed my parakeet when they were supposed to just trim her beak (didn't line up right so it didn't wear down), but they won't do poultry anyway. There are just no vets that will do birds of any sort and it's extremely frustrating

 

[Binki]

Hmmmm I searched for "Undigested food in bird poop" and came across this person with a bird who passed poop like this, they're thinking its a bacterial infection in the stomach? Perhaps you could look into that more and see if it sounds like your bird and try the treatment?

Full discussion: http://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php?threads/undigested-millet-in-droppings.30236/

I'm not experienced with it but I *think* I've read about mealworms being fed bad food and that "badness" can get transferred to the animal it's being fed to? Not 100%..

There's also some avian vets online if that's a possibility for you?

 

[PizzaBagelPie]

Meal worms are definitely not a problem as I raise my own and the freeze drying process kills any bacteria and parasites. And i imagine that's something that would effect the others as well. I will check out the link and last time i tried an online vet literally all they did was restate what I said and didn't actually help, but I guess it can't hurt to try again

 

[PizzaBagelPie]

Her behavior and symptoms are all about the same right now, slightly more active and less fluffed but only immediately after sitting under her lamp and still the undigested poops and she laid another weird egg and isn't drinking much.

 

[GrandmaBird]

You can only do so much then the bird will either make it or not. It sounds like you are doing the right things so it is up to her to get well. Is she warm enough? You could put her in with a little extra warmth. I would stop the acv and just give room temp water. No treats either. Sounds like a stomach or intestinal issue. Good luck.