orphan baby pheasant issues from long ago

[adamt]

a few years ago in the middle of summer (in the middle of iowa), a hen pheasant got hit in front of my house, it was late friday evening, and i went and "saved" about 8 newly hatched chicks from the side of the road. There was no one to call that late in the day, on friday, and i thought i would hold them in my chicken coop til monday. I put a heat lamp on them and had some game bird starter. all was well til about sunday afternoon and they started bending their heads back all the way and dying. i lost all of them within 24 hours. they bent their heads straight back all they way and i could do nothing. it happened quickly. it was not heat or water related.

my question is, what was it?

feed issues?
disease?

what could be done? i have raised numerous barred rock and wild turkey in the same building.

i imagine my turkeys or chickens had a disease in the coop

if i were to raise quail or pheasants in the future, will they do the same thing again?


thank you in advance

 

[007Sean]

Hello adamt, sorry to hear about your loss. Without having lab test done (necopsy) and smears, theres only 2 things that I can think of that may have been the culprit of chicks that age. Infectious Bronchitis and Infectious Coryza.
They could have contracted it either by the chickens or the turkeys. Most likely it was Infectious Bronchitis. I wouldn't expect or suspect Coryza due to the age of the chicks.
If your going to raise quail or pheasants, I would not have chickens anywhere near them, they carry many diseases that they can tolerate and show no symptoms but will kill quail and pheasants and gamebirds in general....I would also build a new enclosure for the birds you want to raise. I wouldn't house them in same enclosure that this occurred, even though you have raised other birds there with no problems.
I'm a huge proponent of BIOSECURITY. It should be priority #1. Don't cross contaminate feed, water or the different enclosures used to house your birds. Washing hands, changing clothing, shoes etc, before entering the different enclosures or handling the birds will help to keep disease to a minimum.