Help me please... Cortunix quail with his scalp gone

[gabrielle1976]

Ok so aperantly the universe decided that I havent had enough pain and anguish lately , Yesterday was a pretty rotten stressfull day and today all I wanted to do was come home clean everyones cage and go to bed, I am so tired and have a bunch of stuff going on . Well I got into the cortunix cage and poor little jeffery was sitting there with his ENTIRE scalp missing , you can see his skull in spots , and as far as I can tell there is only one eye left , there is a scab over where the other eye should be , I dont know if the eye is under there or not. I have him in a hopsital cage with food and water and I sat and watched him for over an hour he simply sits there and does nothing , I cant take him to a vet the local ones will not do poultry and game birds only horses and such when it comes to non domesticated things non house pet type stuff. I do know a vet that lives up in the mountains but thats about 30 miles away and I cant get there. Im not even shure if she is still there havent seen her in years.
What can I do besides keep him seprate , quite and clean? Did the other cortunix do this to him or do you think it was my chicken that had a growth spurt and is now about triple there size. I need to know if this will happen to another one or not .
Someone pass me a stiff drink .

 

[shelleyd2008]

It was probably the other male, if you have any anitibiotic ointment WITHOUT pain killer you can put that on him. You'll have to keep him seperate from the other male, the other one will just do it again most likely. I have had this happen, but it's always been one of the hens that got the scalping.

 

[gabrielle1976]

I am pretty shure its a boy , I could of course be wrong but I have sexed them and double and triple checked.
The chicken chick is going to his new home Friday , that will leave 2 girls and a boy , Will that be ok . I dont really expect Jeffery to make it , though I will fight for him as long as he wants to live.
Thank you for the quick response.

 

[Teach97]

Usually it is females getting too much attention but males will do it to each other fighting over females. Sometimes you can save them and other times you can't...I pulled on through this week so maybe there are some good vibes going. I use Blue Kote (I think that is the spelling...long day) It works fairly good. Best of wishes!!!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Okay, let me rephrase that. Your coturnix are all together right? 2 males and 2 females? I think it was most likely the other male coturnix, not the chickens. It could have been, but I doubt it.

And don't lose hope on Jeffrey yet, I have had some that were pretty bad that pulled through!

 

[calgal98]

My quail are in a community pen. Two of my white quail got scalped today. Both around the ears. I pulled them both and placed them in a smaller pen. I treated them with SMZ, an antibiotic ointment for my horses/goats. Its white and somewhat camo's the wounds. They are recovering. I only have about 6-7 white quail with the rest of the browns (about 150 total) For some reason the whites have been picked upon. I think the ears are more visable. They are also stressed about the move to divided pens. The hot weather necessitated it. This is the first I've seen of the cannabalistic nature of the quail. Wish I could put them all into a more natural environment. I am really enjoying the quiet nature of the quail as opposed to the chickens. I can do most anything with them and they don't freak! Very quiet in nature! V.

 

[WriterofWords]

I've had my Coturnix with missing scalps, neck bones showing, spines exposed, all due to the aggressiveness of the males. I've separated them from the others in my infirmary pen, NOT put anything on them and they've healed up just fine. I found when I tried to apply anything it stressed them out too badly. Good luck with yours, mine healed up great as long as they were alone.

 

[calgal98]

Mine didn't seem to mind the antibiotic dressing. It stopped the others from picking as well. Shall see tomorrow. This dressing acts as a barrier to oxygen (like desitin) It helps to stop pain. If they respond well, I shall let you know!

 

[cawooduck]

I may sound cruel, but when i had my roosters getting scalped, and by scalped i mean extreme scalping where the whole skull was showing and both eyes were either gone or poked back in, i would just cull the rooster. The reason being, as most people know i like to experiment and i would let the battle weary roosters recover and then turn them back into the breeding cages, only to have them get the heck beat out of them again. It seems that once a rooster has been hammered, it will continue to be hammered until its dead. The only other solution is to set up another breeding pen for the beat up rooster to establish himself with his own hens.

I have even switched roosters from one breeding pen to another to see how the hens react, and the hens became brutal towards the "fresh meat" in the pen, it was short lived after careful observation and i switched the roosters back and the hens would calm down.

Just my simple observation.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
I SECOND ALL OF THIS!!!! dont need to treat them with anything just keep them separated and let them heal they will heal wonderfully with no infections as long as theres no flies and other ickies.