coturnix quail eye problems

[DanaWilson]

Hi all I'm new here. My husband and I brought home 4 coturnix quail chicks last thanksgiving. He built a nice coop for them when they got big enough to go outside and it turned out that we had 2 males and 2 females. They were all ok until a couple weeks ago when one of the males went lame and passed away after a few days. About a week later one of the females died too. I didn't see her when she died (my mother in law found her and took her out while we were at work) so I don't know if the same thing happened. Anyway we're down to 2 and the other day I went out to check on them and I found the female huddled in the corner, both eyes seemingly plucked out. I figured the male went after her so I brought her inside and have been doing my best to keep her hydrated (she'll drink water from a syringe if I drip it on her beak) but I'm concerned about her not eating. Last night my husband brought the male in with one eye swollen and gross so now I'm thinking it's something else that got the female. The coop is really secure so I don't know what could've happened unless they're sick. What can I do to feed my blind female and is there anything I can do to help the male keep his other eye (which looks fine today) and heal the wounded eye?
Thanks for any and all suggestions,
Dana

 

[DanaWilson]

This just in:
I just checked on the female and she found her water dish and was getting a drink on her own. If she can do that I bet she can find her food too

 

[DanaWilson]

Ok she's adapting to being blind really well. She found the food too! Now all I need is a suggestion as to what might have caused the problem and what to do about it

 

[LisaRussell]

I have 22 adult quail, and the same thing is happening to several of their eyes. A couple of them are completely blind, and others only have one eye affected. We haven't lost of them yet. Did you ever find out what this was from? I would like to treat as soon as possible.

 

[MrsBrooke]

It could be a simple eye infection, but since you've had fatalities and it's seemingly spreading to your other quail, I would say this is bacterial.



^ Did it look like this?

If so, it sounds like your have Coryza or mycoplasma (MG) in your flock, if there are sounds of respiratory distress.

You can treat Coryza (which can easily affect quail kept with or near chickens) with Sulmet, but I have no idea about dosage or anything... Maybe @casportpony or posting this in the Quail area of the forum would yield more species-specific help.

Birds suffering from Coryza and MG *can* recover, but they will be carriers for life and can infect any future birds you bring on your property. MG can be passed to offspring... Unsure about Coryza.

You have a few choices.

1) Treat, nurse them back to health, and maintain a CLOSED flock (no bird leaves your flock alive), or

2) Cull, sanitize, and start over with new birds in a few weeks.

I'm sorry to see your birds may have contracted something. I might recommend taking one in to the vet to have a blood test done to be sure about the diagnosis.

I hope it's just a really bad eye infection.

MrsB

 

[myvelasq1]

Hi. My birds beat up on each other too. Really bad. One of them his whole head was bloody and both eyes closed I thought he was going to be blind. I separated him from others. I washed all the blood off. And fed him oregano, garlic and parsley. Mixed with his food. He healed very well....
Now I have two more. Smh.