Help with swollen crop

[greenfield]

This is the third female bob white to get a swollen crop. The first two died. I did an autopsy on the first and found the crop to be completely swollen. I suspect they may be eating fire ants. They drink a little but cannot eat. I try to eliminate the fire ants but that is hard to do here in Texas. Please help. It may be a disease?

 

[dc3085]

It may also just be impacted from something they are finding in their cage. try to eliminate anything they might eat that they won't be able to digest from the pen.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/76/impaction-and-foreign-bodies-of-gizzard

Ants can carry many types of parasites so you should try to do everything you can to eliminate them being in contact with your quail. Try ant stakes since quail can't get into them and you may also consider something like sevin dust. Sevin dust won't hurt your quail but should knock out your ants pretty quickly.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh, fire ants are known to kill quail. Even 1 ant can kill them and ingesting them is horribly toxic. We have them here too and I have taken to destroying the ant colonies. You need to get some fire ant chemicals, dig out the mound and make sure to get the queen or they will return. As long as the colonies are at least 150 feet from the quail area, I have found the ants won't travel this far. Any closer and I have to destroy the mound. And don't get stung yourself!! Burns like heck!!