Cat Attacked Quail

[AdamfromAtlanta]

Last night or early this morning my cat attacked my quail. i dont know how, but i suppose she was sleeping next to the bars of her car and the cat just grabbed her. anyway her wing was about torn off and she is in really bad shape. i cleaned the wound, removed the cat litter from the wound (she lives in a rabbit cage, cat litter is her littler, applied neosporin and and put the cage outside in the warm sun. she is still alive and it has been at least 5 or 6 hours possibly more. she is hiding in the shade i made for her now. she laid a soft membrane and only but no shell egg about 9:30 this morning. her male quail partner was by her side, he is hiding in the plastic house from the sun now. so now: what can should i do? should i continue on this course? or should i put down the quail? if the wind needs to be removed i am inclined to put down the quail. what is best for the animal? and is there anything more i should be doing?

 

[LavLady]

You have done everything I would have done, inspect, clean, treat. I think the person closest to an animal is the best person to say when an animal is beyond saving. Many people would not go to the lengths you did for your quail so far. Even if she dies she is lucky to have been treated with kindness and compassion. You might find the wound stays cleaner if she is on wire, and if her mate is an aggressive breeder you might split them up until she feels better, but that is all up to you.

 

[burny]

I hope your quail survives

.One single piercing from a cats teeth could make a bird sick Good luck

!

 

[AdamfromAtlanta]

Hey thanks guys. she was still alive until a bit ago. i had a long think and decided that it might live if i amputated the wing but i thought this would be unkind to the quail, it would have required me to remove the wing and a bone still in her body, effectivly surgery. i thought that further treatment would be unkind. i euthanised the animal about 20 minutes ago. i wish i had done it this morning now. ugh i know it is part of the whole thing but i feel awful. her little partner is calling now, and he is normally a pretty quiet fellow

 

[Sill]

You did the right thing for your quail and she isn't suffering now.

The thing about rabbit cages is the bars of the cage are usually wide enough apart that predators can reach in and grab a bird, sometimes even getting the entire bird through the wire. Quail should be in cages with small enough spacing between the wire to prevent cats, raccoons, hawks etc. from grabbing them.