Button Quail with Diarrhea

[ButtonBag]

One of my indoor button/chinese painted/king quails has had quite wet poops for a few weeks now. I've been adding probiotics to their water every day for the last 2 weeks (it looks like they also contain electrolytes), but today it's become really bad, like bubbly brown water. She also seems to have stopped laying for the past 4 days (she normally lays every day).

They've only had their normal food (a mix especially for button quails that I started them on about a month ago), with a bit of egg food on the side yesterday and the day before. I've also given them some hard boiled egg today hoping it might help. They've always eaten their own and each other's droppings, despite the probiotics I've given them before. I've tried calling around all the vets here but nobody will see birds at all.

Sorry for the nasty photo! But does anyone have any clue what's going on or how I can help her?

 

[chickenlittle21]

Does she have access to calcium?

 

[ButtonBag]

Yep, they always have a bowl of oyster shell grit, and she’s never laid a soft or otherwise unusual egg.

 

[PhoenixinNevada]

One of my indoor button/chinese painted/king quails has had quite wet poops for a few weeks now. I've been adding probiotics to their water every day for the last 2 weeks (it looks like they also contain electrolytes), but today it's become really bad, like bubbly brown water. She also seems to have stopped laying for the past 4 days (she normally lays every day).

They've only had their normal food (a mix especially for button quails that I started them on about a month ago), with a bit of egg food on the side yesterday and the day before. I've also given them some hard boiled egg today hoping it might help. They've always eaten their own and each other's droppings, despite the probiotics I've given them before. I've tried calling around all the vets here but nobody will see birds at all.

Sorry for the nasty photo! But does anyone have any clue what's going on or how I can help her?

View attachment 2425875

Maybe try a medicated start and grow feed. I dont know about Quails but it works on chickens for Diarrhea.

 

[Nabiki]

Maybe try a medicated start and grow feed. I dont know about Quails but it works on chickens for Diarrhea.

Be careful of the medicated feeds. Some medications that are fine for chickens aren't fine for quail.

 

[ButtonBag]

Yeah I think I’d prefer to avoid medicated food unless I was certain what I was treating for. They are so tiny, only the size of finches, so I’d worry they could easily overdose on any drugs.

 

[ButtonBag]

Well, it turns out that she was just completely burying her eggs! So still laying every day.

Her droppings over the past couple of days have still been very soft, but not completely liquid. Does anyone have suggestions for foods that might help?

 

[ButtonBag]

Bumping this thread because she still has this problem, on and off. She drinks a lot of water and does large wet poops. Sometimes they're normal, but some weeks they'll all be like this. I'm stumped, because their food is always the same.

 

[007Sean]

Can you post a pic of the ingredients tag on the feed bag? It might help determine if it's the feed causing the issue. Also, do you use a 'municipal' water source or 'well' water?

 

[ButtonBag]

Thank you! This one hen seems to be the only one with a problem out of 4. She has actually stopped laying for a week a couple of times lately.

Here's the feed info (it's a mix marketed as specifically for button/ornamental quail), it's translated from German so sorry if anything is worded strangely:

Composition:
Corn, soy meal extraction meal from peeled seeds (steam-heated, with soap stick), wheat, canary seed, niger seed, Plata millet, Senegal millet, white millet, red mohair millet, peeled oats, hemp seed, grass seeds, wild seeds, cardi seed, white millet, yellow millet, buckwheat, perch Brown, Japanese millet, spinach seeds, aniseed, radish seeds, clover seeds, milk thistle, calcium carbonate, wheat semolina, linseed (extra) 1.2%, monocalcium phosphate, parsley leaves, gammarus, rosemary, oregano, marigold flowers, lavender flowers, cornflower blossom, red clover blossom, camomile blossom , Brewer's yeast 0.8%, sodium chloride, vegetable oil (sunflower, rapeseed, coconut, shea oil), sunflower extraction meal feed (with soapstock), carbonate shell limestone, carbonate algae lime, quartz, red stone, vegetable charcoal, sodium bicarbonate

Analytical components and contents:
17.5% crude protein • 8.90% crude fat • 5.80% crude fiber • 11.2% crude ash • 3.30% calcium
0.60% Phosphorus • 0.20% sodium • 12.0 ME MJ / kg • 0.35% methionine • 0.75% lysine

As for water they've always had bottled spring water because the tap water here is very hard. The website says:

Average analysis at source	mg/L
Bicarbonate	150
Calcium	40.5
Chloride	6.1
Magnesium	10.1
Nitrate (as NO3)	3.1
Potassium	0.7
Sodium	5.6
Sulphate	5.3
Dry residue 180°C	170