button quail emergency!

[halfwaynowhere]

Woke up this morning to find one of my buttons dead, and the other one very weak. I have no clue what happened to them, they were fine yesterday, i even heard them chirping last night, like nothing was wrong, so i really don't get it. i give them food and fresh water every morning.
so now i have this weak little bird, and i have no clue what to do to try to make her better. i don't want her to die! any suggestions?

 

[PoultryParadise]

are they outside? if so what was the temperature there?

 

[halfwaynowhere]

they're inside, the house is around 72.

 

[Robo]

What kind of feed are they getting?

 

[mhwc56]

OOOOO so sorry!

something off with the feed maybe? Is it a new batch of feed?
how long have you had them?

 

[halfwaynowhere]

i've had them for about two weeks. i'd been feeding them a mixture of chicken lay mash, and bird seed. I just barely got game crumbles yesterday (i was trying to avoid buying a 50 lb bag, but that's all that was available). they were eating lay mash at the feed store where i bought them from.
i hadn't gotten any eggs from them since i bought them, though they had been laying at the feed store. i figured they were just stressed out from being in a new environment.
i'm thinking it was a diet issue. she's on the thin side, though i can't coax her to eat anything. i was filling up their food bowl daily, so i assume they were both eating. i didn't really look at the dead one to see if something was visibly wrong.
she struggles with me when i hold her, but otherwise, she's pretty limp. i can't even get her to open her beak to eat anything. i've got her in a small cage with a bowl of crumbles that have soaked in warm water, thinking it will be easier for her to eat that way, but no luck so far.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

It sounds like they are starving. Get vitamins into her immediately. Let me Pm Quaillady and Shelley they know Buttons.

 

[halfwaynowhere]

i've got her in a small cage sitting on a heat pad on low (and its right next to me so i'm constantly checking to make sure she doesn't get too warm). she seems to have perked up a bit, she's less limp. if i can just get some food into her, i think she might recover. is there a way to force feed her? she's not interested in food or water at all right now. i've tried gently dipping her beak in so she can see where the food and water are, but its not working. she won't open her beak. i don't want to try force feeding because she's so tiny and fragile, i don't want to hurt her, but how else can i get her to eat if she's not doing it on her own?

 

[Stellar]

Is she dragging her legs at all???

Could you PM the brand of feed you used....I know you mentioned Chicken mash...was this a recent bag of feed? Or was that the feed you gave them 2 weeks already. All the information you can provide, the better, whether here or pm.

 

[halfwaynowhere]

she didn't make it.
i still want to get to the bottom of this, so it doesn't happen again.
yes, she was dragging her legs.
i believe the brand of lay mash was Ace-Hi. they've been eating that here for two weeks, and also at the feed store for however long they were there before i bought them. Its the same stuff i feed the chickens, and i think its the only brand my feed store carries.