INJURY!

[RiverRatCat]

Ive just recently got my first set of coturnix quail, and I enjoy them quite a bit. But one of them has a wound on her foot that I may need some help with. It looks to me like a rodent bite. Ive cleaned her up with some warm water, peroxided the wound. She wasn't happy with that, but now I know the toes still work.

The picture isn't very good, but there's a large flap of flesh dangling from the center toe, and some skin stripped form one next to it.

The question being; what can I do to fix her up, at home? I would take her to the vet, but I got them for food. Mostly the eggs, but I still have to look at it objectively. :/

I should also note, that Ive put her in a cardboard box lined with paper towel with some food and water for now.

 

[DK newbie]

Ouch. Looks like that's straight to the bone - or possibly it's just a tendon I'm seeing but either way it a pretty nasty wound. I suspect you'll have to wrap the foot in something to keep it clean. Paper towel in the box is a good start, but it won't keep her own poop out of it - and you don't want such a deep wound infected. Vet wrap might work, but you'll probably need someone to hold her while you apply it. H2O2 can work wonders, so I'd keep cleaning with that 1-2 times a day.

 

[RiverRatCat]

i don't think its bone, but I'm not certain about that either. i took some better pictures now that shes cleaned up. and I think the end of the fleshy chunk is starting to die off. I don't suppose you can think of any substitutes for the vet wrap.. I can't think of anywhere that sells it, and to order it online it wont show up for 2 days.
On the other side of things, she looks better than when I pulled her out! More lively, and awake.

 

[DK newbie]

Hmm.. Vet wrap has the advantage of not sticking to the wound as ordinary gauze would. You probably have something in your first aid kit that is meant for putting between a wound and gauze. You could cut that to fit her foot then put gauze over it and tape the whole thing to make it stay on her. The skin flap will probably die no matter what you do, I'd cut it off once it has - then she won't feel it anymore. She might not even feel it now.

 

[RiverRatCat]

So, shes doing better! Shes putting weight on it, still limping, but shes walking. I didn't have any gauze on hand, or much of anything. So I cut a bandaid in half, and wrapped that around it. It didn't stay, but it did give it enough time to dry out and not be gooey. i did end out cutting of the dried up flap, she didn't seem to notice. I also stuck a thin layer or neosporin on the wound last night. I hope I can put her back in the cage soon.
Thanks for your advice too! I thought the wound would be much more detrimental than it seems to have ended up.

 

[DK newbie]

Quail are remarkably resilient little things. It seems that as long as they are eating and drinking, they can get over just about anything.