Coturnix quail can't walk?

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molmol

molmol

Hatching
Feb 22, 2015
4
0
7
Hi everyone,

I have two ten month old coturnix quail, in Boston. They are living in our greenhouse for the winter. This morning, one of them suddenly had trouble walking. She is able to eat if I hold her still with her head at the food, but can't walk properly. She pushes at her feet and they're strong but she sort of scootches on her belly.

Is it possible she flew up and bonked her head? She seems to have trouble with her neck control. Is this a death sentence? Can I help her recover? Right now, I have her in a separate small box inside in my kitchen but I'm not quite sure how to best take care of her.
 
Yes she most likely boinked her head. Many quail do heal from this so I wouldn't write her off just yet. It can take a couple of days for swelling to go down in the head/brain or neck area that is being effected.

Keep her warm tonight. So either had a heat lamp or bring her inside the house. Bring them both inside so one is not alone or add a heat lamp to both of them. Injured birds can go into shock easily and they need heat to keep them alive. Injured birds also heal faster if they are warm.

Make sure he is able to eat and drink and if not, physically dip her beak in the water every hour or so. Also, feed her some hard boiled eggs. Easy to eat and digest and is great emergency food for birds. Injured quail tend to go off their gamebird food but they will readily eat eggs.

Hopefully she heals in a couple days. Keep us posted!!
 
Thanks for the advice! I brought the other quail inside, and this injured girl is now in a tiny warm box. I'm having to put her head into the water but she is drinking and eating fine when I do that. Here she is, using a bit of warm boiled egg as a pillow!
400
 
Poor baby. How is she this morning? These things happen when they boink their heads. Keep her warm, dip her beak into the water so she can drink every hour. Hand feed her every hour and just keep her quiet. If she doesn't appear to be healing in by 6 or 7 days, you might consider putting her down. But give her a few days for now. Many times it is only a small swelling somewhere between the head and neck and once the swelling goes down they regain mobility.

Keep us posted!!
 
She's slowly improving. We are feeding and watering her every hour (I actually even kept her by the bedside and did it overnight!), and sometimes when we go to check on her she's standing up! She can't really walk after getting up, and she will sometimes fall over on her neck/head, but I think she's getting stronger. I just hope she isn't reinjuring herself over and over when she falls from standing!
 
Sounds like she is healing. Keep up all the lovin' and I hope she makes a full recovery!!

Keep us posted as I would love to hear she pulled through!!! :)
 
Thanks for letting me know it could take a few days. That helps. She still acting like her neck isn't quite connected to her body; she can stand up sometimes, especially if she's balancing on her beak. Eating and drinking well. I'll give her a few more days of loving and hopefully it'll work. Thank you.
 

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