Japanese Quail with Arthritis

[GreenChicken07]

I have a male Japanese/coturnix Quail that has Arthritis. From experience, is there anything I would be able to do to alleviate his condition? He is very special and I would try anything to reduce his suffering.

Thank you in advance for any help or guidance.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have a couple of bobwhites that also have arthritis. Old birds. I have never come up with anything to rid them of their pain. They limp around quite a bit and have been doing so for about a year now. I do know that they don't do well on humid days. Dry days they seem to improve. They do enjoy sun bathing more than the other birds that are not suffering from arthritis however.

I have never tried any human ointments on them. I tried changing their diet a bit, but that didn't seem to do anything. I keep my birds on litter floors and I have added more hay to the floors to keep their feet off the cold ground. One of my boys has it in is hip pretty good.

So if you ever come up with any ideas something to ease the pain, please fill me in too.

 

[GreenChicken07]

Thank you for the reply,

He is quite old, I'm guessing round about 3.5 to 4 years.

I have looked around for any ointments that will help but there doesn't seem to be any available on the market. I've have tried adding more straw but it doesn't seem to help as his affected foot gets all caught up in it causing him to fall.

He can still do everything like dust bathing and sun bathing but walking is the difficulty.

I'll keep you posted if I find anything that will help.

 

[TwoCrows]

I understand. The two of mine that have it the worst are 6 years and 7 years old. But they are still going. One of my boy's is nearly taken to flying to get around these days. Pretty soon I am going to have to come up with other arrangements so he doesn't have to travel far to get food and water. Because the aviary is so large, he has to move further for the goods. He is not at the point that he needs to be put down as he still enjoys dust bathing, hanging out with his mate, and he is also the flock leader. And he still really enjoys keeping the other boys in line! So I play it week by week with him at this point. He is still very healthy otherwise and up to a month ago, before it turned cold, he was still mating with his mate and tending to her eggs. I think the next step I will need to take is cage him in one of the rabbit hutches so he only has to move short distances. But at this point, he would freak out not being able to command the group and the aviary.

Good luck with your bird! Keep me posted on his condition. We can compare notes later on to see how we can work with these geriatric birds.

 

[GreenChicken07]

More water and food stations might help the badly affected boy? My aviary isn't that big, so he still has access to food. I did however try increase his protein intake by giving him more bugs and insects but that didn't help at all as he gave the treats to his two mates.

He is still head of his "flock" consisting of his two mates and a rabbit. Although I wish he would tend to the eggs or at least try interest the girls in them, they have 12 at the moment and blatantly ignore them.

Best of luck with your bird and I hope for their sake that we can come up with a solution.

 

[GreenChicken07]

Hi all,

I have my first update on my quail with arthritis. We took him to the vet (he was getting worse by the day) and apparently its quite common in ageing quail. He prescribed a vitamin oil that is placed over their seed and I must scrape cuttle fish over their seed. It won't harm any of the other birds because both are natural products, but will be beneficial to them. The vet said that his joints need to be lubricated because they are stiff with age.

I'll keep the updates coming to see if this method works for me and to see if other people could try this method as well for their quail.

 

[TwoCrows]

GreenChicken...do you happen to know what type of oil this is? I would love to help out my geriatric quail as well.

And thank you for posting this! Helpful cures and such are always a plus here in the quail section.

 

[saz326]

when i started reading this thread i was thinking "I wonder what they feed".A few extras in the diet can really help.

i would enhance their feed with omega 3's which are known to have benefits to inflammatory arthritis. Something like cod liver oil, sunflower seeds, various nuts. The contents of supplement capsules, or liquid from the chemist could be mixed with feed.

Omega 3's are long chain fatty acids, whereas the other oils in the feed you use may be the short chain type which may or may not be metabolized to energy, or converted to the long chain forms that benefit the body's joints/brain.. Depending on how much you add you may wish to reduce oil rich treats such that the birds don't get too much oil in their diet. Bear in mind the suggested human dosage of whatever you buy, and dose by combined body size of the birds.

Additional vitamin e would also help. Good vitamin rich food could consist of ground up breakfast cerial, (be sure to choose something low sugar)

Oils will take a few weeks to get into the animals systems so there will not be immediate difference. Vitamins will also help the animals feel more alert so you may notice this change before the joints appear different. It has worked with my dogs, and hamster, (And grandparents!!) so it should work for the birdies.

Good luck,

Dr S.

 

[TwoCrows]

when i started reading this thread i was thinking "I wonder what they feed".A few extras in the diet can really help.

i would enhance their feed with omega 3's which are known to have benefits to inflammatory arthritis. Something like cod liver oil, sunflower seeds, various nuts. The contents of supplement capsules, or liquid from the chemist could be mixed with feed.

Omega 3's are long chain fatty acids, whereas the other oils in the feed you use may be the short chain type which may or may not be metabolized to energy, or converted to the long chain forms that benefit the body's joints/brain.. Depending on how much you add you may wish to reduce oil rich treats such that the birds don't get too much oil in their diet. Bear in mind the suggested human dosage of whatever you buy, and dose by combined body size of the birds.

Additional vitamin e would also help. Good vitamin rich food could consist of ground up breakfast cerial, (be sure to choose something low sugar)

Oils will take a few weeks to get into the animals systems so there will not be immediate difference. Vitamins will also help the animals feel more alert so you may notice this change before the joints appear different. It has worked with my dogs, and hamster, (And grandparents!!) so it should work for the birdies.

Good luck,

Dr S.

Thank you so much for this information! The only other thing I could think of to treat this was Glucosamine, however I was not sure how much was safe to give to small quail.

I have several different supplements that I keep around here that I can add to the feed. I make my own chicken feed and keep all sorts of things in my feed cabinet.

Very interesting! I am going to get right on this first thing tomorrow! My quail love to eat new things and will probably dive right into a new concoction of feed. Thanks so much!!

 

[saz326]

I have an image of you in my head TwoCrows, standing with a sturn face watching the birdies reach out, take a cod liver oil capsule, and a swig of rum to wash it down with....