I think my quail has bumblefoot.

[lukin26]

I have Japanese Quail in an outdoor pen. Last week one of my hens was laying by the water and it was raining, so I tried to scoot her under the roof so she wouldnt get soaked, but she kind of toppled over. She will not stand up and one of her legs goes out to the side. THe bottom of her foot looks like she has a sore on the bottom and I looked online and it seems she has bumblefoot. I ordered some medication for her to make a paste and put it on her foot every day until it heals, but it hasnt come yet. I just dont know if that is the only problem or if her leg is actually injured. Im afraid to hurt her more if I pick her up because she drags herself away from me when I go to feed her and put spray on her sore. She is eating and drinking. I have her separated from the others in the coop with food and water next to her so she doesnt move too much, but its been 2 weeks now.

I also have another question: we got 20 hatchlings.. it turned out 15 were male and 5 were female. I was getting 5 eggs a day from the hens. There was too much fighting, so we thinned the crew down to 5 males and 5 females.. now I am only getting 2 eggs a day. I understand that my injured female from above is not laying but I dont know why the others arent now? I feed them purina crumble for laying and give them mealworms and green veggies.

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC and the quail forums!

If you do suspect bumblefoot and from your description here, it sounds like bumblefoot, move the bird to soft bedding. No hard wire as that is only going to worsen the infection. So, wood shavings, grass hay, straw, or something soft to the foot pads. If the bird is able to be handled without too much stress, you can try soaking the foot in a warm epsom salt bath for 10 mins a day. Epsom helps draw out the poison. You can also apply neosporin, (without the pain killer) and even some preperation H. The H will help reduce swelling.

As for your question about the laying hens...Are these Coturnix quail? If so, you need to keep the ratio proper to not only keep the peace, but for the health of the hens. 1 male to 4 to 7 females. Any less females, and the males will mate them to death. Kills them. And it stresses the females to the point of not laying, eating or drinking properly. And never mix males.

 

[lukin26]

Thanks for your answer! Yes they are coturnix quail. This is our first time with them and this site is very helpful. I had wood chips in there with her but they all fell through the wire so now I have a towel in there. I just tried soaking her foot in epsom salts, which she is not very cooperative.. she flew out of my hands. I got her to settle down and kept dripping the solution on her foot, she seemed ok with that. Ill keep trying that. I have veterycin wound and skin spray that I keep spraying on her also. My mother has exotic birds and has dealt with medicating them so she said when the meds come she will come over and help me with holding her. A couple sites have said to inject the wound with penicillin and then cut the infected portion out, but I dont know if I could do that. My mom found a site that said use tetracycline powder and make a paste out of it and apply and that will make it disappear without having to cut it out. I think/ hope that will work better.

Thanks for the answer about making the ratio better. I have read that also. since we cut the number down to 5 males, its definitely a lot more peaceful in there and all their feathers are growing back on the top of their heads. We are either going to give the other 3 males away or we are going to buy more females.

 

[TwoCrows]

Yes, from the pics, it does look like a foot pad infection. Doing bumblefoot surgery is a bit difficult on such a tiny pad. I have done it on plenty of chickens, but I don't know if I would attempt it on a tiny quail foot. But if you can do it, it might really help the situation. Any type of antibiotic ointments, paste or sprays will help, although if the infection is bad enough, unless the pus ball is removed, many times the bird does not recover. Good luck with this one and the rest of your quail!

 

[Nichrome]

If you intervene surgically on your bird, i suggest putting it on sterilised sand as it will make miracles with quail feet. After you bake, lasagne, cakes or muffins, put the dry sand in a tray and put in the hot oven. Turn the oven off and let it cool with the sand still inside. Make sure the heat goes through the height of the sand in the tray.

 

[lukin26]

Thanks for the info! Sounds like a good idea. I dont think I will perform surgery on her. I am going to try doing the tetracycline powder paste first. The medication is shipped now so I should have it by tomorrow or wed. I hope this helps. She seems to be trying to use this foot a little more, so maybe the spray Im putting on her is working.

 

[Nichrome]

Remember a very simple formula...paste + sand = a mess

 

[lukin26]

Very true! They are a mess no matter what they do it seems.

 

[ducksssss]

I don't know about quail but in birds of prey straw and hay in an enclosure could cause aspergillosis so I don't know if I'd use that for bedding

 

[lukin26]

Just an update.. Her foot looks alot better. I changed all their food to Purina game bird breeder formula and after 3 days, they have started laying again. Her leg was out to the side, my mom said it felt as if her muscle was weaker than on that of the other leg, so now that she is getting more protein in her diet, I think shes going to get better.