- Aug 11, 2011
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Hi,
I posted about this guy in the diseases/cures/emergencies section but didn't get any responses so I am hoping for some insight here - we took in a coturnix quail chick this past Sunday who was very ill. We had no idea how poor his condition was until we picked him up - the ad just said he had been found running loose, and the person who had him didn't know much about poultry.
He's been to the vet and they said from what they could tell he was starving (probably due to running lose, and then the diet of birdseed he'd been fed a week prior to us getting him) and there was possibly some kind of bacterial infection. He's on trimethoprim sulfa. They couldn't tell me how old he was but based on what the person who found him told me,I'm guessing around 4 weeks actually now that I am looking around at pictures of other people's birds, maybe it's younger? Not sure, I've only had chickens and ducks before so quail is a new frontier for me!
We've got him on gamebird starter crumbles and he's eating pretty well, but he still can't stand up and is very weak. The vet wanted us to give him Harrison's parrot feed also but it only has 14% protein and I am worried that will exacerbate his issues? We have also offered boiled/scrambled egg when he seems to lose interest in his feed.
I know it's kind of silly we're going this far to save the little guy, but my daughter really likes him and I feel bad for him - it was human error that got him this sick, after all.
Have any of you ever had a chick get this bad and end up recovering? How long did it take before they were up and about on their own?
Oh, also, I keep saying he but we have no idea what it is. He/she has alot of spotting on his/her breast so I understand that in some color varieties this would indicate that it's probably female? Including some photos!
http://i.imgur.com/ATyNt2H.jpg Me holding it in normal light. Sorry no pic of it's breast, it's still kind of skin and bones and also doesn't like being picked up because that usually means its medicine time.
http://i.imgur.com/tUEKnqv.jpg under the heat lamp. I keep trying to go without it, but he starts shivering and won't eat so I guess he still needs it?
I posted about this guy in the diseases/cures/emergencies section but didn't get any responses so I am hoping for some insight here - we took in a coturnix quail chick this past Sunday who was very ill. We had no idea how poor his condition was until we picked him up - the ad just said he had been found running loose, and the person who had him didn't know much about poultry.
He's been to the vet and they said from what they could tell he was starving (probably due to running lose, and then the diet of birdseed he'd been fed a week prior to us getting him) and there was possibly some kind of bacterial infection. He's on trimethoprim sulfa. They couldn't tell me how old he was but based on what the person who found him told me,
We've got him on gamebird starter crumbles and he's eating pretty well, but he still can't stand up and is very weak. The vet wanted us to give him Harrison's parrot feed also but it only has 14% protein and I am worried that will exacerbate his issues? We have also offered boiled/scrambled egg when he seems to lose interest in his feed.
I know it's kind of silly we're going this far to save the little guy, but my daughter really likes him and I feel bad for him - it was human error that got him this sick, after all.
Have any of you ever had a chick get this bad and end up recovering? How long did it take before they were up and about on their own?
Oh, also, I keep saying he but we have no idea what it is. He/she has alot of spotting on his/her breast so I understand that in some color varieties this would indicate that it's probably female? Including some photos!
http://i.imgur.com/ATyNt2H.jpg Me holding it in normal light. Sorry no pic of it's breast, it's still kind of skin and bones and also doesn't like being picked up because that usually means its medicine time.
http://i.imgur.com/tUEKnqv.jpg under the heat lamp. I keep trying to go without it, but he starts shivering and won't eat so I guess he still needs it?
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