Help! Quail with severely messed up beak area

j4e1o

Hatching
May 6, 2021
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9
(Warning: photo below shows a quail with a terribly injured beak area.)

Hi! New quail owner here. I got 10 coturnix female quail a few days ago and they are doing very well. But I’ve unfortunately just noticed that one of them has a very messed up beak area. As shown in the photo, she has an overgrown beak (both top and bottom), loss of feathers, crust, and dried blood/scabs all in her beak area. It looks really bad. She’s still eating and drinking well though. And thankfully, she’s the only one in the flock and the rest look perfectly happy and healthy. I put her in a separate temporary cage for now.
Is there anything I can do to treat her and fix her beak? Or is it so severe that I should put her out of her misery? :,(
Any advice helps! Thank you.

photo:
F28678C0-1A9E-45B2-A616-7C73DFF59618.jpeg
 
Welcome to BYC!
That looks like an old, long-healed injury. If she's eating and drinking and acting well, I personally would not be inclined to cull her unless she takes a turn for the worse. If her beak gets too long, it can be trimmed with a pair of dog toenail cutters. Be very careful if you end up doing this; it is easy to cut too short and lead to bleeding, especially with such a messed up facial structure impairing visibility.
 
Welcome to BYC!
That looks like an old, long-healed injury. If she's eating and drinking and acting well, I personally would not be inclined to cull her unless she takes a turn for the worse. If her beak gets too long, it can be trimmed with a pair of dog toenail cutters. Be very careful if you end up doing this; it is easy to cut too short and lead to bleeding, especially with such a messed up facial structure impairing visibility.
Thank you so much for your advice. I was afraid I would have to cull her, but I’m relieved to hear she should be fine right now. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on her and treat her wound with antibiotic.
 
Thank you so much for your advice. I was afraid I would have to cull her, but I’m relieved to hear she should be fine right now. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on her and treat her wound with antibiotic.
Honestly, it looks so far healed I wouldn't even bother with that. I see no evidence of systemic infection, it looks smoothly covered over in new flesh.
 
You may want to put a brick or cinder block in with her. That will give her something to wear her beak down on. She may or may not use it, but if she does, then you don't have to worry about trimming the beak.
 
I have a double silver with a brittle beak that I have to care for, and I find a dremel is very easy to use to shave it down gently. I’m suspecting her face is scraped because she cant see the tip to properly pick up food with it over grown in such a manner, and is tilting her head to the side and picking food up that way, scraping her face as she does so. I would trim with clippers and work on dremeling it if you can every 2-3 days a little. I don’t feel she will be able to wear them down on her own, particularly the bottom.
 

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