When I first started investigating the quail, I called my state poultry Vet. The Colorado ones are a couple of gal Vets who told me to keep them in separate enclosures, quail off of ground, quail covered from other wild bird's droppings.
During the phone call the ladies stated their main concern and what they saw the most of was the coccidiosis and ulcer causing form of the peritonitis (sp). I also talked with my own Vet willing to see the chickens and the quail. He said bring me stool samples... not the quail, if one comes up sick.
So there is more than just the Coryza to consider....
However, I am interested in Quaillady's "closed" farm theory. Practice good handwashing, footbaths, changing clothes between species. Consider that Mareks and some others are airborne. Not sure what all Quail are prone to from the chickens other than the big two...being the Coryza and the Coccidiosis...parasites. Those Vets did not want my quail scratching around where the chickens had defecated... Sheesh that can stay in the dirt for years.
I think keeping them separate is hard for some of us backyarders. I am keeping mine hutched on a deck above where the chicken air normally flows. I change clothes and practice hard core biosecurity, particularly when youngster quail are being brought up. I am considering growing a taller section of grass and creating a pvc bent pipe wire run with wire bottom off the ground, but low enough for them to pick at the grass through the bottom... Problem is, my chickens have been everywhere. And I have a nosey one that defeats EVERYTHING I try. Speckle see's my fencing as her personal "environmental enrichment challenge of the day"...
The "closed" theory is one I am thinking on. No matter how hard you try, you will have the microbes around your environment. Hatching your own, breeding your own, keeping clean, and immediately removing and treating anything that even looks "off" is just good modern day closed farm management.
It seems to me as a layperson that your own hatches are going to grow up with the "family microbes" present on your property, no matter how hard you try. Unless you show, or share equipment, or bring in new birds, it seems there can be a standard mix of resident "bad ju ju" on your place that everyone grows up having been exposed to and grown up around. I tend to think of the people who had teens during the H1N1 time and used lysol, masks and good biosecurity in their own home and no one else became ill in the family. Or they had it and overcame it right there.
I still fret and wash, even bought some second hand medical scrubs and crock shoes or irrigation boots that can be foot bathed and or thrown in with the wash with bleach, when handling different species.
Rule of thumb as well. Handle your most fragile first. Then go out and handle the chickens last. Maybe then you won't have to change as much. Vet told me that one. Or if you have a sick bird. Handle the healthy first...then the sick one last (after a change and wash).
I did ask those Vets if there was a certain distance apart needed...they only stated separate living quarters off the ground, and covered from the droppings of the wild birds (again, as I pushed the topic).
Interesting topic. Those pictures scare me straight. But I really, really want to try this...CAREFULLY.
Thx
Tonya
During the phone call the ladies stated their main concern and what they saw the most of was the coccidiosis and ulcer causing form of the peritonitis (sp). I also talked with my own Vet willing to see the chickens and the quail. He said bring me stool samples... not the quail, if one comes up sick.
So there is more than just the Coryza to consider....
However, I am interested in Quaillady's "closed" farm theory. Practice good handwashing, footbaths, changing clothes between species. Consider that Mareks and some others are airborne. Not sure what all Quail are prone to from the chickens other than the big two...being the Coryza and the Coccidiosis...parasites. Those Vets did not want my quail scratching around where the chickens had defecated... Sheesh that can stay in the dirt for years.
I think keeping them separate is hard for some of us backyarders. I am keeping mine hutched on a deck above where the chicken air normally flows. I change clothes and practice hard core biosecurity, particularly when youngster quail are being brought up. I am considering growing a taller section of grass and creating a pvc bent pipe wire run with wire bottom off the ground, but low enough for them to pick at the grass through the bottom... Problem is, my chickens have been everywhere. And I have a nosey one that defeats EVERYTHING I try. Speckle see's my fencing as her personal "environmental enrichment challenge of the day"...
The "closed" theory is one I am thinking on. No matter how hard you try, you will have the microbes around your environment. Hatching your own, breeding your own, keeping clean, and immediately removing and treating anything that even looks "off" is just good modern day closed farm management.
It seems to me as a layperson that your own hatches are going to grow up with the "family microbes" present on your property, no matter how hard you try. Unless you show, or share equipment, or bring in new birds, it seems there can be a standard mix of resident "bad ju ju" on your place that everyone grows up having been exposed to and grown up around. I tend to think of the people who had teens during the H1N1 time and used lysol, masks and good biosecurity in their own home and no one else became ill in the family. Or they had it and overcame it right there.
I still fret and wash, even bought some second hand medical scrubs and crock shoes or irrigation boots that can be foot bathed and or thrown in with the wash with bleach, when handling different species.
Rule of thumb as well. Handle your most fragile first. Then go out and handle the chickens last. Maybe then you won't have to change as much. Vet told me that one. Or if you have a sick bird. Handle the healthy first...then the sick one last (after a change and wash).
I did ask those Vets if there was a certain distance apart needed...they only stated separate living quarters off the ground, and covered from the droppings of the wild birds (again, as I pushed the topic).
Interesting topic. Those pictures scare me straight. But I really, really want to try this...CAREFULLY.
Thx
Tonya
