coturnix deaths

[bonnie in indiana]

Poultry experience = 40 years. Quail experience = 1 solid year.
All birds less than 1 year old.
My poutry house is a 7 year old 16x24 garage with 6 big windows and 2 doors and a garage door. The quail are in hanging cages with wire bottoms and are covered for the winter with plastic. My poultry runs loose in the barn. Have a few caged doves in there also. and my barn cat lives in there too. Tite for the winter but there is ventilation, and there is no crowding.
Problem = in the last month [cold] I have lost 9 adult females. No males. 2-3 from not being able to pass their eggs. A couple from unknown causes. Then I wormed with Wormal [ a relatively mild wormer and this site always suggests to worm 1 x year, it seems important]. So I wormed and 2 died in their sleep the same nite = from the wormer?

An then 2 [one before and one after worming] died from being too thin, just a bag of bones.
Whats up with that? I know poultry get Mereks Disease and "wasting" is a symptom.

I had NO problems for 11 months with adults, hatching, rearing, no problems and now 9 in a month. I have looked for cocci signs and nada.

Any ideas?

 

[TwoCrows]

There is really no way to know for sure exactly what these birds are dying from, however there is a few things that I might change if I were in your position.

You say your poultry run loose in the barn...If these are chickens, chicken dander and poop carry many bacterial diseases, viruses, respiratory illnesses and other things that can be harmful to quail. Doves as well can carry illness that can not only affect your quail but your chickens as well. So if I were having this issue, I would try to give the quail their own quarters somewhere other than with all these other birds.

I doubt the wormer killed any of the quail, however if the birds were already on edge and ill, the wormer may have definitely kicked them over the edge.

Mareks is not all that common in quail and other gamebirds and being common in chickens, you might see it there first. So I would rule out Mareks unless your chickens have previously shown signs of it.

As far as the egg laying issues...Being that these quail are only less than a year old, I would not force them to produce thru the winter until they are over one year old. Young poultry that normally lay seasonally can become stressed physically and the constant laying on a young layer can kill them. So I would wait until next winter to keep them laying, after they have passed their first birthday.

If I were you, I would give these birds a rest. If I had to, I would darken their area so that the laying stops. I would add vitamins to the water or feed and if the deaths continued, I would administer antibiotics for 10 or so days and see if this did not stop the dying.

You can always get a necropsy done to know for sure what is going on here.

 

[bonnie in indiana]

Thanks 2crows. I keep light very dim in the barn [60 watt for whole barn] and I do the vitamin route. Maybe I am a little more on the ball than I thought. Will try some low level antibiotics.
I will say that I am enjoying the quail experience. Thanks