Lame now incontinent quail hen

[Pumpkingirl]

Hi there,

I have an 18 month old Italian (Cotournix) quail hen who at the beginning of the week seemed lame.

She appeared to not have any strength in her legs when I put them away at night, and flopped around. I immediately brought inside, separate from the others, and made sure she had access to food and water (with added poultry vitamins) to see how she got on.

Since then she has begun walking again, but does have some balance issues.

My main concern now is that she appears to be incontinent - she's not pooping round together balls. The beginning of the week she had what looked like partially digested poop just falling out her vent, and from this morning she has white liquid just constantly falling out.

At the beginning of the week we would bath her back end, scoop out anything with a cotton wool bud that appear to be causing her distress, and then thoroughly dry her before putting her back in the cage. Now she appears to have a hard lump in the area between her vent and ribcage (not present at the beginning of the week).

She hasn't been laying in quite some time, which could be a lack of sunlight (I'm in the UK).

The last day or two she's slowed down with eating and drinking.

Is there anything else I can do from home for her? I'll be trying to get a vets appointment if there's no further improvement by mid next week.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Pumpkingirl]

My girl appears to be egg bound - anyone successfully helped an egg bound quail recover?

 

[Nabiki]

If she's egg bound, it needs to come out ASAP. I would put her in a warm (quail body temp or a few degrees warmer) epsom salt bath and let her soak. Hopefully she will pass the egg.

 

[Pumpkingirl]

Thank you - I've given her a warm bath for about 20 minutes this evening and will be getting some salt tomorrow.

I know with chickens you get lubricate the vent, but obviously quails are much smaller - is that a possibility to help (maybe some vaseline on a cotton wool bud)?

 

[Nabiki]

Thank you - I've given her a warm bath for about 20 minutes this evening and will be getting some salt tomorrow.

I know with chickens you get lubricate the vent, but obviously quails are much smaller - is that a possibility to help (maybe some vaseline on a cotton wool bud)?

If you can, that will help. They are small, so you have to be very careful.

 

[Pumpkingirl]

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, she died maybe an hour ago.

I wanted to pop down a few pointers in case someone comes across this post and wants some further info (I spoke with a poultry vet earlier today).

Egg bound symptoms:
- lameness
- shallow breathing
- irregular bowel movements leading to white discharge
- hard lump near vent (not slowly appearing, but appears in a day or two only)
- lack of eating and drinking
- not laying/not producing regular bowel movements

Treatment:
- vet if possible
- warm water baths with Epsom salt (like @Nabiki suggested above)
- liquid calcium supplements (can be same as for humans but the dosage needs to be measured correctly for the weight of the bird)
- lots of lube! Preferably inside gently with the ear bud/q tip.
- the vet recommended to break up the egg, to help it pass. When I mentioned the possibility of egg shell pieces cutting her, he said the plenty of lube should prevent that. Consult a vet for this as this was in contradiction for what I'd found online.

In all honesty, I don't think there was more I could have done, and taking her to the vets would have been stressful and they might have just recommended her to be put down.

 

[Nabiki]

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, she died maybe an hour ago.

I wanted to pop down a few pointers in case someone comes across this post and wants some further info (I spoke with a poultry vet earlier today).

Egg bound symptoms:
- lameness
- shallow breathing
- irregular bowel movements leading to white discharge
- hard lump near vent (not slowly appearing, but appears in a day or two only)
- lack of eating and drinking
- not laying/not producing regular bowel movements

Treatment:
- vet if possible
- warm water baths with Epsom salt (like @Nabiki suggested above)
- liquid calcium supplements (can be same as for humans but the dosage needs to be measured correctly for the weight of the bird)
- lots of lube! Preferably inside gently with the ear bud/q tip.
- the vet recommended to break up the egg, to help it pass. When I mentioned the possibility of egg shell pieces cutting her, he said the plenty of lube should prevent that. Consult a vet for this as this was in contradiction for what I'd found online.

In all honesty, I don't think there was more I could have done, and taking her to the vets would have been stressful and they might have just recommended her to be put down.

I'm sorry for your loss.

A couple other symptoms of egg bound are lethargy, sitting with puffed feathers, and no poop at all.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, she died maybe an hour ago.

I wanted to pop down a few pointers in case someone comes across this post and wants some further info (I spoke with a poultry vet earlier today).

Egg bound symptoms:
- lameness
- shallow breathing
- irregular bowel movements leading to white discharge
- hard lump near vent (not slowly appearing, but appears in a day or two only)
- lack of eating and drinking
- not laying/not producing regular bowel movements

Treatment:
- vet if possible
- warm water baths with Epsom salt (like @Nabiki suggested above)
- liquid calcium supplements (can be same as for humans but the dosage needs to be measured correctly for the weight of the bird)
- lots of lube! Preferably inside gently with the ear bud/q tip.
- the vet recommended to break up the egg, to help it pass. When I mentioned the possibility of egg shell pieces cutting her, he said the plenty of lube should prevent that. Consult a vet for this as this was in contradiction for what I'd found online.

In all honesty, I don't think there was more I could have done, and taking her to the vets would have been stressful and they might have just recommended her to be put down.

Thank you for this post! It was very informative and will help me tons when I start breeding my quail.

SO sorry to hear of your girl's passing :'(

Just a note - with small parrots, they recommend using olive oil or other veggie oil. Interesting!

 

[le_bwah]

Poor hen . Thanks for sharing your experience, I hope you and your flock don't have to go through this again.