Is my button quail sick? (please help)

[ButtonBag]

I've posted before about Humbug who has been looking quite ragged recently. I'm currently moving them all onto a new feed which should be a bit more nutritious than their current gamebird crumble/seed mix.

However, over the past few days he's sometimes been sitting in one spot on the platform a bit puffed up, and slow blinking or closing his eyes for a while. He doesn't do it a lot, maybe once or twice an hour, and the rest of the time he's walking around as usual, digging for food, or even running, stretching and jumping up onto the log. I've seen him eating and drinking, and I haven't spotted anything unusual about his droppings. He has, however, stopped breeding with his mate.

Would a sick quail be lethargic all the time? Is he just taking rests as it's getting colder and darker? Or is it possible that he's sick but still has the energy to run and jump around? Here's a video of him closing his eyes for a bit, but then going back to normal pecking around when I move closer:

 

[Quailobsessed]

I'm really sorry about him. I wish I could be of more help. There definitely seems to be something wrong with him, but it's hard to know what. My only advice at the moment is to keep him warm and happy. If a vet is an option for you, I would recommend it.

As for catching diseases, you'd be surprised at where they can pick them up from.

 

[Quailobsessed]

How is he now?

 

[ButtonBag]

So after a week of Guardian Angel and supplementary heat, he seems to be back to his old self. Much more energetic, enthusiastic about food, mating and crowing again.

My theory now is that his poor feather condition was caused by being a picky eater, (perhaps only eating the seeds out of their old food and leaving the crumble), which led to him chilling and getting ill. I'm now clearing up any poop each day and leaving what food they scatter in there until it's eaten, rather than topping up or replacing as it gets low.

Thank you SO much for your help and reassurance @GreedySeedFeedy and @Quailobsessed!

Now I just have to figure out why my hen in a different cage has diarrhoea. Maybe the change in feed (although it's been gradual)? Hopefully a week or two of probiotics will help her out! It's always something with these guys!

 

[Quailobsessed]

He doesn't seem to have gotten any worse today, I'm thinking if it was something awful he'd be going downhill quickly? Is it likely they could just get a bug that's not some deadly disease?

I've put a ceramic heat lamp over one end of their vivarium, and given everything a good clean. I've taken their sand bath out temporarily in case eating it was causing digestive issues (they still have a bowl of budgie grit). He's done a couple of normal poops today (a bit small, but definitely not watery).

He's still running, jumping and flapping around, eating and drinking… just stopping to puff up and close his eyes once in a while Unfortunately I've seen his mate do the same thing once today as well.

There's one exotic vet I could try, but as we're in total lockdown at the moment, I'm not sure they're taking new patients. I'd also have to take a taxi quite a long way.

If he's still active that is a good sign. What you're doing for him sounds good. Have they done anything like this before?

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

Could your birds be exposed to a draft? By that I mean an air current coming from a window or door. You can check this by lighting a candle, placing it on or near the cage, and then watch it. If the flame moves a lot, there is a draft coming from somewhere and you need to move the birds. Drafts are surprisingly deadly.

Are your birds losing feathers? Sometimes during a molt, they can feel poorly and get sick more easily. It can be hard to detect a molt in some birds, if they tend to molt slowly and eat their fallen feathers. One of my coturnix hens tends to have invisible molts, I only ever know about them when I start feeling loads of new feather spikes under her plumage.

Is your feed off? Quail food expires and mold loves to set up shop in processed/hulled seeds and grain. There should be an expiry date on your feed. If you buy food from a big shop bin, or bought the food months ago, throw it out! Mold can sometimes make your birds sick before you can even detect it, and some feed stores pour new food on top of old food in the bin.

At this point, taking precautious measures can be life saving! You already added a heat source which is good! You can also give them some gefilus, like the kind humans take. They are little capsules you can open and there is powder inside. Sprinkle a light coating of this, like 1/8th of the whole capsule, on something it can stick to that they will eat quickly such as lettuce, apple shreds or scrambled eggs.
Probiotics specifically designed for birds is even better if you can find them.

Add apple cider vinegar (no other kind) to their water. 1 and 1/2 tsp per liter, 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp for 500ml, or 10 drops per 100 ml. If you can, you should pick up some "guardian angel" powder by The Birdcare Company. Since buying this, I can stop my birds from deteriorating much more easily than I have been able to without it. It's a good thing to have on hand when you don't know what's wrong yet.

If you can, ask any vets in your area if they will do a fecal swab on your birds. This is when you can use a kit to take a cotton bud used to wipe each bird's bottom, place it in a labeled tube, and deliver/mail it to the vet. They will smear the swab on a slide, and check for parasite eggs or other worrying abnormalities. If they are willing to do it this way you will have a much much easier time getting quick results without the stress of waiting for appointments or bringing your birds through the cold, scary car ride to a noisy office.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

I've posted before about Humbug who has been looking quite ragged recently. I'm currently moving them all onto a new feed which should be a bit more nutritious than their current gamebird crumble/seed mix.

However, over the past few days he's sometimes been sitting in one spot on the platform a bit puffed up, and slow blinking or closing his eyes for a while. He doesn't do it a lot, maybe once or twice an hour, and the rest of the time he's walking around as usual, digging for food, or even running, stretching and jumping up onto the log. I've seen him eating and drinking, and I haven't spotted anything unusual about his droppings. He has, however, stopped breeding with his mate.

Would a sick quail be lethargic all the time? Is he just taking rests as it's getting colder and darker? Or is it possible that he's sick but still has the energy to run and jump around? Here's a video of him closing his eyes for a bit, but then going back to normal pecking around when I move closer:

That little head jerk he does could be a shiver. Birds tend to shiver in short bursts like that. Are you able to hold your birds at all, or are you the Food Monster?

He is acting well when you come closer because most animals will go to great lengths to hide their illnesses. Pretty annoying, since doing this prevents you from easily helping them!

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

His feather condition has been terrible the past couple of months, I haven't noticed many loose feathers around but something is definitely not normal. I haven't noticed any bald patches, but he could be more susceptible to cold because of his ragged feathers.

This seems pretty likely at this point

I haven't heard of gefilus, but we do have some avian pre+probiotics that we were adding to their water once every few days (they have always had a thing for eating poop, which is worrying). I stopped recently because I was thinking all the dextrose could exacerbate an infection (I have no idea why), but I will try sprinkling some on food as you suggest. Should this be done every day? For how long?

Every day isn't necessary. Use probiotics as a way to 'top up' good bacteria normally present inside your quail. Especially after antibiotics, during times of stress, after diet problems, and any time your bird could be overrun by thrush or bacteria, such as in the case of sour crop or peritonis. It isn't really medicine or a cure, it just re-stocks the good bacteria to help break down food into basic nutrients to be absorbed by your bird, and a lot of those probiotics will eat up resources that can be used by yeast and bad bacteria so they can't multiply very easily. After using this once a day for 2 or 3 days, you won't need to again unless the infection doesn't clear up.
Mixing it in the water at the same time as acv might retard the probiotics a little, so do those first, then at the end of the day, replace with the acv water.

Acv can be given every day, it's a good practice and many bird people use it daily! You want one with 'mother', or a live culture in it.

The Guardian angel is used to support your bird's energy and try to prevent deteriorating condition. It should only be used to get you by until either
A) you discover exactly what's wrong with your bird, and start treating that specifically, or
B) symptoms subside.
Failing either of these, I would stop the G.A. after a week, as by then it's clearly not helping.

I'll see if I can find guardian angel, and will get some apple cider vinegar in the meantime. I've given them a choice of plain water or water with nettex nutri drops in it today.

Get rid of the unmedicated water, lol. Quail don't understand how to self-medicate, they only know that one water tastes funny and the other doesn't, and won't seek out their vitamins or medication when they feel sick the way we might. If your fluffballs need medicine or vitamins, you have to administer them responsibly or you're wasting your time.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions! I'm a litle worried about over-supplementing and making things worse though, do you think just using guardian angel would be good enough? Or should I be doing ACV and probiotics too?

You're welcome! I love birds and I'm happy to help with anything I can. Yeah, G.A. would be enough on its own, but using it in combination with acv and probiotics won't do any harm. I have heard not to use the guardian angel in combination with water purifying liquid such as aviclens, so if you use any, stop until your G.A. use has ended.
Also with G.A, stop using any other vitamins containing iron! In fact, when using multiple supplements, check the ingredients for heavy metals. Really common ones are iron, zinc, copper, selenium, and cobalt. If both supplements have one of these make SURE you don't exceed 100% of the reccommended allowance.
For example, if your feed contains 20% daily iron, your feather supplement contains 60% and your vitamin mix contains 40%, this adds up to 120% daily reccommended iron and is dangerous as unlike minerals like calcium where extra amounts are just pooped out, heavy metals can pile up and become toxic. You can't stop your feed, so you would have to stop one of the other two to get back down below 100% daily dose.

If you're ever in doubt, or the amount is not listed on the packaging (HORRIBLE practice! Should be illegal!) choose one of the supplements you feel has the most important benefits for your bird right now, and don't use the other until it becomes the better option. My cabinet is full of supplements, but I rarely use more than one at a time.

 

[ButtonBag]

Great, thank you! I've found some Guardian Angel which should be arriving tomorrow, so I'll start them on that and drop it after a week if it doesn't help.

Weirdly enough he seems to prefer drinking the water with nutri drops in, but I've removed the plain one anyway. I'll replace the nutri-water with plain + apple cider vinegar tomorrow when they're taking GA on their food.

I've spent all afternoon calling round vets, there are only two avian/exotic options; one isn't taking new registrations because of the lockdown, and the other won't see us without a referral. Tomorrow I'll try to find a general vet who will see birds and maybe refer, which will be tricky.

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

Great, thank you! I've found some Guardian Angel which should be arriving tomorrow, so I'll start them on that and drop it after a week if it doesn't help.

Weirdly enough he seems to prefer drinking the water with nutri drops in, but I've removed the plain one anyway. I'll replace the nutri-water with plain + apple cider vinegar tomorrow when they're taking GA on their food.

I've spent all afternoon calling round vets, there are only two avian/exotic options; one isn't taking new registrations because of the lockdown, and the other won't see us without a referral. Tomorrow I'll try to find a general vet who will see birds and maybe refer, which will be tricky.

Excellent!! That's great that he will accept the vitamins, only one of mine will go near their water when I add a certain calcium drop in it. The others will take one sip, and then run backwards, shaking their heads like they are being attacked. Quail can be so dramatic.
Vets are so hard to find for birds. It's so frustrating. The only one I have any access to is really not great at her job, and diagnoses illnesses by a quick glance, poorly. I got fed up with her and just treat the birds myself now. As soon as I can afford, I'll be buying my own microscope, too.