Coturnix Quail foot BROKEN OFF - ADVICE NEEDED

NinjaGamer2022

Songster
Apr 30, 2022
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This morning I went to check my sweet quails. My favorite quail I found with her foot broken off and bleeding.
I immediately brought her in. I put cornstarch on her wound, but it's still bleeding a bit.
The foot is connected to her leg by a very small amount of skin and/or flesh.

What do I do?! Do I cauterize her wound? Advice is needed. Thank you for your time.
 
This morning I went to check my sweet quails. My favorite quail I found with her foot broken off and bleeding.
I immediately brought her in. I put cornstarch on her wound, but it's still bleeding a bit.
The foot is connected to her leg by a very small amount of skin and/or flesh.

What do I do?! Do I cauterize her wound? Advice is needed. Thank you for your time.
I need a picture. how many this have happened?
 
I need a picture. how many this have happened?
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One of my siblings might have closed her enclosure door on her foot.
ugh, kids. I once had to re-home my dog because he bit my brother. my brother was 3 years old, didn't know how to pick up a dog, and was dragging the miniature poodle out of a room.

I think you should definitely clean the injury and wrap it with something. I'm not sure whether they make prosthetics for birds, but I know a chicken who lost half it's toes, and was fine after it heals up a bit. you might want to keep your quail friend in a smaller, more sterile enclosure, at least until it's legs stump heals.
 
@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous all have given great advice for treating chicken wounds, I would think a quail would be very similar. For now rinse with saline if you haven’t already, treat for shock by offering warm sugar water and raw egg yolk in a separate dish. You may have to dip the beak in. Keep somewhere separate, quiet, warm and dim.
 
Here is a link to some steps to treating wounds, by azygous. Post #17 on the thread. It’s aimed at chickens more so, but good guidelines in general. Start there until someone with much more smarts than me is able to comment on the damage.

I’m sorry about your quail. I hope that she is able to recover from this.
 
I’m not sure if the foot is savable on your own. Do you have any local poultry vets in your area?? Emergency vets? Treating the wound now to prevent infection is crucial and many other posters have given amazing advice but in the long run you don’t want the foot to heal out of place if it is snapped and can be mended

I’m so sorry about your baby! Treat and wrap it for now and see if you can contact any vet if possible. It may be worth looking to try and save her leg
 
You have a few options.
1. Clean and wrap the wound. Try to align the foot the best you can and hope she heals it with some use in it. I would recommend blue-kote, or chlorhexidine for cleaning.
2. Be prepared to fully amputate. I would look into some of the disabled chicken keepers' threads - at best you'll just need to make sure she's not getting bullied, at worst you'll need to make a prosthetic or a mobility device.
3. Take her to a vet and let the professional decide. This is probably the safest.
4. Cull. I'm not sure what the quality of life for a one-legged quail is, to be honest. She seems like she's a pet bird, so it depends on how willing you are to care for her.
 
@alinas2010 gave you some good advice. If you can get her to a vet asap, it is BEST. It does not look like the foot can be saved. The bone and joint are fully exposed. And, it doesn’t look like there’s enough skin to put back in place to heal over. It’s already been exposed to air and bacteria. If this quail is a pet, it can live without the foot. I’m NOT going to advise you on how to handle this. I will ONLY tell you what I’ve done myself (but, I’ve had poultry and game birds for decades)… I amputated cleanly at the joint, stopped the bleeding entirely, rinsed well with saline, applied non-pain relief triple antibiotics, bandaged, and separated with food water vitamins and heat during the entire healing process. I monitored very closely. And, I did all of this often to avoid and watch for infection. This is a very serious injury. Ultimately, you must consider her quality of life. If you try to save the foot in the condition it is now, a life-ending infection will very likely develop. You don’t want her to suffer that way either. Some may say to euthanize. I’m one for giving chances IF I believe one of mine has a good chance of living out its life with a disability. All of mine are pets to me. Yours may not be, so your decision may be to not save. Sorry you have to make that decision, and I’m sorry about your quail. 😞❤️
 

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