Crippled quail chick

Hi there. I'm looking for any help anyone can give me. I had a quail chick pip on Sunday morning. On Monday morning it stuck about 1/16 of an inch of it's beak out the pip hole and just stayed like that. Tuesday evening I noticed the membrane around the beak was severly dried, so I intervened a little and tore it away from the beak a tiny bit. The chick didn't seem to care, and just continued to stay there a tiny portion of beak through the hole. I thought it was dead, but learned that I shined a flashlight on the egg, or knocked on the side of my incubator it would move around a little, so I raised the humidity to try to keep it from drying out too bad and left it alone. Tuesday afternoon I saw it struggling some and assumed it stuck in a dried out membrane, so I intervened again. Come to find out, the chick was in the egg backwards. It had absorbed all the yolk, but the blood vessels in the membrane dried out, rather then being absorbed. It's legs were stuck up by it's head with it's toes curled up, I assume from it's head and legs being jammed in the small end of the egg. I didn't have the heart to dispose of it without giving it a shot first, so I got a soft cloth and put it in a corner of my hatching tray and set the chick on it. After about 3 hours I noticed it was moving its legs and able to propel itself around, however it appears to still be unable to straighten out it's feet and toes, and is unable to actually stand and walk. It has become profecient at propelling itself around the brooder once I have it there. It is defiantly eatting, though I'm not sure if it is drinking or not, though every now and then I try to assist it to get water and I 'think' it drinks when I do. I don't know what to do about it. Is there anything I can do to help it's feet and toes? Should I put it down sooner then later? It honestly seems otherwise healthy, though smaller then the other chicks. At this point am I am just waiting and watching, and assisting with water every now and then. Any advice or ideas would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks,
Larry T.

Hi, I am having the same kind of problem. I have many quail and know how to raise them but the one today is troubling. It hatched about two days ago. I was not there to see it so I'm unsure about how it was in the egg. It can not walk or stand. It just rolls around. Kind of like one side is messed up. It seems to be normal otherwise. It's lets stick straight out. I have it on a shoe box right now. The mom wants nothing to do with it. I had to give it water with an eye dropper. Did you find anything out about your problem? If so, what did you learn. I am going to call the vet tomorrow and see what he says. I will let you know.
Thanks for your help

if the feet are just curled up their are a few things you can do. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
1. give vitamin water often this helps.
2. to straighten out the foot itself, get tiny furniture pads, and stretch out the toes on the pad. If its just the toes curled up, this will force it to use its foot to walk and can clear the problem up. if its the whole leg that's tougher. Also watch these guys around water, the scooters can often drown.

Check the quail forums for more info on the pads.