BQ keeps re-opening her head wound

[TheWeeBee]

Thanks for all of the advice and encouragement! Got the Bee on my shoulder now, she approves of this thread

 

[jbobs]

So nice to see there are vets out there who will put so much effort into a wee quail I have stitched up the heads of many a quail myself over the years, but now that I'm (almost) and vet tech i can actually place proper sutures and not mangle the crap out of my poor birds LOL

 

[TheWeeBee]

I took Bee's collar off last night and let her have her first dust bath in nearly 3 weeks. She was happy being able to preen and sit in her sand dish, so I just left her alone.

Then I noticed that one of her eyes was swollen and red. I think she had gotten some sand in it, and I got it out with a wet Q-tip. By this morning the eye was back to normal.

Now I'm seeing these bald patches on either side of her neck. The skin is pink not broken or irritated looking. I wonder if it was because of the collar being on for so long? Or that now she can finally scratch her head (her original wound is still healed, she hasn't bothered that at all thank goodness), she may have gotten a bit carried away? She seems to be in good spirits and has an appetite. She was doing her little happy quail hop around the floor this morning.

In the second pic you can see where the skin at the top of her head turned grey and lost quite a bit of feathering. That was like that when the vet saw her and he didn't think it was abnormal.

 

[TwoCrows]

I would say that the bald spots ARE from the collar. So not to worry. They can lose their feathers very easily even if it is just sticking their necks thru cage bars. During breeding season when I have to cage my bob pairs, they are always sticking their heads out around the cages to reach things on the other side. (these cages are on the floor of the aviary). And every summer all the quail have bald spots on the backs of their necks where the feathers get rubbed off. Even breeding makes bald spots on the backs of females. Feathers are delicate.

So I wouldn't worry too much. It takes feathers about 6 weeks to fully grow back in. But I am glad she is doing better and her collar is off. I am sure she is thrilled to be rid of that thing!

 

[TheWeeBee]

Ahhhh I see! The collar sat well below her head though, which I thought made it unlikely that they'd been caused by that. I know that my other untame quail, especially the male, drop their feathers in a hurry when they're stressed. But my two tame ones never seemed to have that issue, which is why I was freaking out (OMG an infection or something???).

And oh lord, has she been happy to have that thing off! She looks so bedraggled with all of her bald patches, yet so cute lol