Backward-walking Quail

[FloorCandy]

Glad you decided to try doubling the dose of E. That may be what turns the tide for this little one. Additional doses of B-complex can help strengthen the legs in tandem with the E repairing any neurological damage. Don't give up. Some cases require longer treatment.

So she’s still stumbling, but she’s up and about like crazy, and standing around instead of wallowing!
She’s furthest to the right:

Pardon her appearance, the spots and mess are from me trying to give her nutridrench with a dropper, she takes the vitamin e way better than she was taking nutridrench, it must taste bad.

She is closest to the water on the right:

She isn’t standing tall, but she is definitely standing more!

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I broke a vitamin E capsule in the birds' water today. All 3 drank like it was juice. I guess it must taste good.

They all look peppier but the biggest improvement is in the backward-walking quail. She stopped walking backwards a day or two ago, but still looked a bit dazed. Now, she's scratching in the sand and alert.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice.

 

[FloorCandy]

I broke a vitamin E capsule in the birds' water today. All 3 drank like it was juice. I guess it must taste good.

They all look peppier but the biggest improvement is in the backward-walking quail. She stopped walking backwards a day or two ago, but still looked a bit dazed. Now, she's scratching in the sand and alert.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice.

If I manage to get any nutridrench into her mouth, she spits it and sprays it everywhere. But the vit e must taste like bird candy, because when I squirt it in she swallows it down with no mess.

 

[FloorCandy]

So she’s still stumbling, but she’s up and about like crazy, and standing around instead of wallowing!
She’s furthest to the right:
View attachment 2435525
Pardon her appearance, the spots and mess are from me trying to give her nutridrench with a dropper, she takes the vitamin e way better than she was taking nutridrench, it must taste bad.
View attachment 2435526

She is closest to the water on the right:
View attachment 2435527
View attachment 2435528
She isn’t standing tall, but she is definitely standing more!

After a few days, the progress seems slow, but she seems to definitely stand and walk more than before. The new/old food arrived today so she’s eating that as well now, I’m hopeful for continued recovery. Also she is the first of her hatch to start laying lol.

 

[azygous]

Are you also giving B-complex? That should help strengthen his legs.

 

[FloorCandy]

Are you also giving B-complex? That should help strengthen his legs.

I haven’t started anything else, I’ve been giving vit e 2x a day, and now that she’s stronger, she really fights me on it. I also received the new/old food, and she is eating it. Yesterday she was standing all day, you know, about the normal amount of time as the others, and laying down in between, but never on her side, always upright. She still has trouble walking and balancing and falls over often, or wheelbarrow shuffles, but she gets right back up now.

I’m very hopeful for a full recovery now though. I think some of the remaining issues are a matter of her leg muscles atrophying during the week she was laying down, combined with rapid growth and weight gain during that time. I think as she stands more and tries to walk, they will improve.

on a related note, the food has much higher calcium, and the other 2 hens have stopped eating the oyster shell, which they used to love. I was suspicious they would keep eating it out of habit.

 

[azygous]

B-complex really can help with leg strength. You can't overdose her on B vitamins. Excess will be excreted in her urates. (They will turn yellow)

 

[Nabiki]

B-complex really can help with leg strength. You can't overdose her on B vitamins. Excess will be excreted in her urates. (They will turn yellow)

Can you give a source on that? I'm pretty sure you can overdose on vitamin Bs. I've seen veterinary articles specifically on vitamin B overdose in other types of birds, but I can't find anything specific to quail.

 

[azygous]

The two classifications of vitamins are fat soluble and water soluble. B- vitamins are in the second category. This means they are not stored in the body tissues but any that aren't taken up for nutritional needs are eliminated in the urates. This makes it very hard to overdose.

However, if you inject B-vitamins into the bird in large amounts over a long period, there is a danger of liver toxicity. Giving small amounts orally over a short term shouldn't be risky.

 

[FloorCandy]

I just wanted to give an update, even tho I’m not the OP, the advice given has made a huge difference.

My albino hen is up and about. She walks recreationally, not just to get food and water. Her balance isn’t great, and she gets knocked over often, but doesn’t have much trouble getting back up. She can’t get in or out of the sandbox gracefully lol but she can do it. I give her 2, 400 capsules per day, morning and night. She is much stronger now and fights me like crazy and often tries to spit it out after I think it’s in, so I started putting some in the water as well.

A couple weeks ago she was looking better, and I was busy, and I missed a few treatments here and there over the course of several days, and she dramatically declined. It seems she probably has a long term disability/internal birth defect that causes this, and she will probably need supplements for the rest of her life. I’m hopeful that once the damage is repaired, I can maintain her with just the amount in the water.

She started out lying down 99% of the time and flopping to the food and water, occasionally getting up into wheelbarrow position, face down in the litter. Slowly she would get up into the wheelbarrow position more often, and would also stand upright sometimes. She had a lot of trouble when I changed the chips, and they weren’t as compacted, she would flail her legs and not be able to get enough resistance to stand, just digging birdie snow angels in the litter. I started taping a layer of paper towels to the bottom of the cage so she would eventually hit bottom and get enough friction to stand. This week I did not add paper towels, and she did not have trouble standing at all in the fresh chips.

As she progressed, she would stand all the time and rest back on her hocks to sleep, because if she laid down she couldn’t get up without tremendous effort. But she has started laying down to sleep like normal, and even though she’s blind, she has gotten really fast at running away when I reach for her to get her out, but she inevitably hits a wall, through no fault of her balance strength or small legs, blind is still blind after all.