Quail chick with one crusty swollen eye

[TwoCrows]

Unless you had a necropsy done on the chick, you will never know what sort of bacteria or virus it had internally. Obviously some bacteria or possibly a fungus spread from the eye internally, or perhaps this was a secondary symptom that showed itself as an eye infection. Sorry about your baby.

 

[dc3085]

I actually didn't think to save it for a necropsy, but I should have as many birds as I have. I haven't had any problems since and I hatch a few hundred cots a month so I either got lucky or was something he couldn't spread. Thanks for all your help.

 

[TwoCrows]

I actually didn't think to save it for a necropsy, but I should have as many birds as I have. I haven't had any problems since and I hatch a few hundred cots a month so I either got lucky or was something he couldn't spread. Thanks for all your help.

All this being said, make sure to disinfect incubators and brooders between each hatch. Bacteria can not only mutate, but will multiply in huge numbers in warn moist areas.

 

[dc3085]

I'm running the incubator out so I can do just that. The hatcher and the brooder I disinfect with bleach and then sunlight each time they get different chicks/eggs put in them. I'm trying to schedule hatches better so I can clean the incubator more often. I don't usually go more than two hatches at a time without cleaning the bator but sometimes it ends up running 35-40 days without cleaning because I stagger my hatches so my incubator never really shuts off. I have enough space now that I can stop doing that if its a no-no but I couldn't handle 200-300 chicks all at once when I started the staggered hatches.