Advice please, quail injured head and both eyelids

[JoshuaEG]

Hi

I recently decided to keep quail in my back garden. Bought a coop and a run, and then bought 4 female coturnix quail 2 weeks ago.

3 days ago I check up on them to find one with a severely wounded head, cut almost to the bone across her head. I quarantined her to an old budgie cage using a towel as roof of the cage so she couldn't do any more damage to herself. After checking the coop I found blood on the ceiling so she likely did this to herself.

The top parts of her eyelids were severed, and it appears that she can't close her eyes completely. The top of her head has mostly scabbed over. Her right eye is sort of milky.

She eats and drinks normally and reacts to my hands. Though, sleeping a lot lately and who can blame her.

Do you think she could recover from this? Even if she does, wouldn't it be cruel to keep her alive?

Any advice you can offer is appreciated, thanks

 

[dc3085]

If they can eat and drink normally I don't interfere. You'd be amazed how tough these little things are. Most likely she'll recover, but you may have problems with eye infections in the future if her lids don't work right. Even if she loses the use of an eye she'll still be just fine as long as she can get to the food and water. Her quality of life may not be exactly the same but it's probably better than being eaten...

 

[ChickenLegs13]

After all the swelling goes down and the scabs go away chances are she'll be fine unless she sustained brain injury when she banged her head.
I'm quick to cull injured birds but actually that is a minor injury that heals quickly.