Male Injured by Fighting - Treatment Advice?

We have 10 quail, 6 white and 4 brown. They recently started crowing and laying (2 eggs yesterday). As of now they are kept in a large cage on the ground just outside the house, with some greenery and branches for cover. They seem much happier since we put that stuff in the cage. Yesterday one of them got a bloody eye and was fluffed up in a corner. We -thought- it was female and might be egg-bound. After some "treatment" she seemed better and was moving and eating again. Couple hours later, "she" crowed. So. male! The eye looked only cut a bit and we thought he'd be fine.

Then this morning the eye was horrible cut and pecked and so swollen he couldn't see from it, and the other eye was cut too, as well as the nostrils in the beak. We dabbed it all with some healing spray recommended by vet, and isolated him in a box with a low-heat light, since he was fluffed and shivering. I read some different stuff regarding giving them heat: Sick birds need heat light, injured birds need darkness?

And yes, I also found/read that males can't live together or they fight, so we're trying to think of how to separate the rest of the males.

Here are some pictures. If anyone can suggest something else I can do please let me know. I wouldn't like to put him down, but I would if he's just going to suffer. He's drinking on his own, don't know if he's eating yet, but he is pooping, and after we treated the eyes he can just -barely- open that right one. Left one isn't nearly that bad, but still a bit bloody. Temp is currently 84 and gradually rising.

poor little thing. you will have to separate all the boys as they will all start fighting and you will have more injured birds.
i would carry on bathing the wounds and using the spray and keep the wound clean.
it will heal.
you can keep a pen of boys together but they will have to be well away from the girls.

If you have a big enough cage boys can live happily together, but it's best that they can't see the girls as that is what causes conflict. I have three boys currently living with my bantam chickens, though in my country there are less diseases carried by chickens that I have to worry about so I can get away with it.

I separate boys as they start to crow (from around 4 weeks old) as they mature faster than the females and may start to cause problems trying to mate with females that aren't ready for that, which can lead to birds getting beat up.

Quail are very tough birds and he should recover no problem. I've had a boy attacked through the cage wire (I'm thinking it was a rat) who seemed paralysed. He recovered - he just walked a bit funny. I've had one scalped very badly and I thought there was no way he would make it. He did. That was my fault for putting three boys in too small a cage.

i would clean it with water and vinegar every day for two weeks or until healed.

Thanks, good to hear he should recover.
Sure enough about the fighting, about an hour later another male got his "ear" pecked and bloody. So now he's also in "sick bay." He's much more lively than the first one, who got worse injuries.
I gave them and all the quail some veggie yummies: home-grown carrots with greens, diced grapes. Also got mangos and pears for later.
So the males -can- live together as long as they're away from the females? But we want them to breed! Already got 2 eggs yesterday (don't know if they're fertile, but we -did- see males trying to breed them).

that sounds exciting!

I don't think the one with the eyes and nose injuries has been eating all day, so getting a big concerned. I read sick/injured birds lose appetite, but also that starvation can kill as fast or faster than the sickness, with their high metabolism. I mashed up a hard boiled egg for him hoping he'll try it, but he just sits there. Well, he does move around and stretch his legs, so maybe he's ok for now? What do you think? We bathed the wounds again tonight with the spray. The right eye is gashed just above and behind the eye itself, so hopefully he won't be blind

The other one, with only an injured "ear," seems fine, alert and crowing and everything, eating too. He even flew right out of the box just after we put him in, so we put netting over both boxes.

Happy to say that this morning he was much better! They both ate all the hardboiled egg, and their regular food too, and both were crowing. The one with eye injuries, right eye was scabbed over and closed, but after we cleaned it, he could open it just a crack.

neosporin for a few days until it starts scabbing and then apply it every other day.I have this issue all the time and thats the regular thing I do with.

I just got my first injured male too. Bless his heart! His eyes and head are covered in dried blood. I have a hospital set up for him and just waiting for hubby to get home to help me clean him up and put meds on. Right now, he cannot see so I don't know if he can eat or drink. Hopefully, cleaning up the blood will help his eyesight.

The thing is, we just want eggs to eat...no babies. My sons gave me 20 Courtnix (2 males) for Christmas (yes, it was a total surprise (shock)). A few days later I convinced them that it was way too many quail for the pen size they gave me. Late one night they came and took 1/2 to a friend. What are the chances that they would not get a single male in the process.

Do Courtnix lay eggs without a male present? My sons think no but it seems that if chickens do, so would quail.