One winged quail aka "surprise, my injured bird is your problem now."

mossgirlgreen

In the Brooder
Jun 12, 2019
2
13
24
After deciding quail was in my future, I quickly went from none to a covey of eight in a couple of weeks. I used to keep button quail but Japanese quail are a whole new experience. Some of them actually LIKE being held! It started with the only survivor of the batch a friend tried to hatch, and four more from the lady he got his eggs from. Keep in mind I'm keeping them primarily for eggs but I am not against culling as required.

I also got three quail from a lady who was keeping them as pets, arranged through the same friend I got the single hen from. A roo and two more hens. Turned out one of them had a badly injured wing that had obviously been that way for some time. She was carrying the wing funny and there was dry blood on her feathers. A closer look and there was a break at the carpal joint with some bone exposed. I put her in quarantine, talked to some people and figured she was destined for dinner. The next day though she active, alert, eating and laying eggs. No lethargy or sign of infection or pain, so I decided just to keep an eye on her.

On to yesterday, when her wing fell off.

My partner checked for eggs and instead found her wing - everything from the carpal joint out, sitting in the cage. It honestly looks (and smells) like a dry preserved wing - hard and crusty. Seems the whole joint was pulled from the body taking some skin with it, leaving the radius and ulna exposed about a centimeter. It's red and swollen around the wound but there's no bleeding, no sign of infection, and she still seems like any other quail. She's just, understandably with all my examinations, doesn't like being handled much.

So does anybody have any experience with an injury like this? I've seen birds recover from some gnarly injuries but I don't know about that much exposed bone, at least not to that degree. I had a pigeon with a similar injury but there was enough left at the joint that it eventually healed over. Just curious if she'd ever get to a point I could put her in with a few hens.
 
:eek:

If she lives through the infection window she should be fine! I'm dealing with my second scalping at the moment. They are surprisingly resilient. Just keep her clean and some people recommend putting a tiny bit of aspirin in the water for pain relief (Google for doses, don't quote me).
 
Well.. 'red' and 'swollen' actually means there is an infection. It might not be bad, but it's definitely there. The best thing (after culling her, which would definitely end all problems) would obviously be to get her to a vet that can treat her properly. But I also agree with the others that quail have a remarkable ability to get over injuries. I'd definitely try to do something about the infection though - disinfecting, antibiotic ointment or something.
 

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