HELP! Sick Quail Chicks

[Sassinator]

Hi-

I am new to keeping and raising Coturnix quail. I bought some adult quail in March and have been incubating and hatching quail eggs since I first got them. It has taken me these three months for me to get the hang of hatching out the eggs with a decent hatch rate and now I have something going on with some of my newly hatched quail.

The second day after two of the quail hatched I noticed that these two quail have crooked necks and a tendency to walk in circles. I googled it and decided they probably had Wry Neck and put chick electrolyte and probiotic water in their cage as well as put in some quail scrambled eggs to eat to help them increase their Vitamin E and Selenium in their diet. They also had their gamebird starter food in their cage to eat as well.

Now two days later I find one of the crooked necked quail dead and upon examining it I find that one of its eyes was crusty and swollen shut. I then examined the other live crooked neck quail and find that it too has a crusty goopy eye that is swollen shut.

I have separated the crooked neck quail from the other quail chicks. I also looked at the other non-crooked necked quail and found three that look like they might have a very mild crusty eye and separated them just in case.

They have been kept in a large plastic tub with air holes in the sides and no lid on and a heat lamp clamped on the top side of it. They have heat with a heat lamp and have been on paper towels. They have been fed medicated gamebird starter and fresh water provided 24 hours in a lid with stones in it to prevent drowning.

I had a problem with some chicks two months ago that may or may not be related to this:

Two months ago three of one week old chicks I noticed had crusty, goopy, swollen eyes and crusty runny nostrils and bubbly froth coming from their mouths. I separated them from the healthy chicks.
After some research I went to the feed store and bought some chicken Oxyetracycline hydrochloride soluble powder and added it to their water. I gave this to them for 14 days and kept them separated and inside. All three of them got better and devoloped into normal looking healthy looking adults. I kept them for an additional week away from the other quail and inside with proper heat. I then added three of the healthy chicks to their brooder for a couple of weeks and saw no sign of further sickness and put all six in the big grown up quail pen outside. I so far have seen so sign of illness till these chicks.

Like I said- I am not sure if it is related but I thought I would mention it.

My question is: what do you think they are sick with and what should I do with them? Oxy. Hydro powder?, Cull them, any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Angie

Here is a picture of one of the crooked necked chicks he is in the middle:

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC and the quail forums!

My guess is that there are a few things going on here. Number one, I think there is a rampant bacteria somewhere between your incubator and your brooder. Each and EVERY time you do a hatch, EVERYTHING must be fumigated. Completely cleaned and ultimately disinfected between hatches in the incubator and brooder. Bacteria are a part of life and are on everything. When these babies hatch, dander, feather crud and embryo gunk gets sucked up into the venting system of your incubator. Bacteria love warm moist areas and if the incubator was not cleaned properly, the bacteria's are laying in wait for the next hatch. Same with the brooder. Babies carry all sorts of things, not necessarily harmful at the time, but bacteria mutate and the next batch of babies can get sick. So that is what I think the eye issues are stemming from.

As for the wry neck. Yes, there are diseases that give birds wry neck, but generally it is genetic. In other words, your birds are passing it down to their off spring. Usually it is from the parent birds not being fed enough vitamins and the weak genes are passed down into the eggs. So hence, each generation gets weaker.

This wry neck can also stem from incubation problems. If the eggs were not turned properly, or possibly the humidity was slightly off during incubation, the chicks were unable to get the proper amount of nutrients. Not getting into the right position before hatch time can also cause wry neck.

What you need to do is add Vitamin E. Selenium is many times needed to help the E absorb. So it wouldn't hurt to add this as well. Vitamin A can interfere with E absorbtion too. So a soft gel E capsule with a tiny amount of Selenium in one quart of water for a few weeks generally will fix these babies up.

You may have started out with weak stock to begin with, and because you are hatching from your own stock the problems are compounding. However don't let that discourage you from using your own eggs. Make SURE you are feeding the the highest quality gamebird feed you can offer them, and also include greens, veggies and fruits to their diets. Natural foods have more real nutrients that processed foods. It wouldn't hurt to add a good vitamin/mineral/amino acid/pro and prebiotic solution to their water several times a week as well to increase health. Then maybe your healthied up birds will produce healthier offspring.

Good luck and keep us posted on how things turn out.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh...and for the ones with the crusty eyes...You can use Terramycin ointment in their eyes. You can get this at many pet stores, online or I think Walgreens even carries it. I am an Amazon finatic, and I have purchased it from there. LOL This should clear up the eye problems.