Quail chicks dying one by one - can I do anything?

[Kippers302]

Hi, My first covey of coturnix quail chicks hatched five days ago… they’ve seemed fine (except the maybe-albino one I’ve asked about in another thread, which actually is doing alright) until today but now they seem to be dying off one by one. Based on info I’ve read here I believe the first died of omphalitis/mushy navel (it had the black scab and a soft spot on the navel), the second died of wry neck (it had been walking fine just an hour or so earlier but I came back to see its neck twisted upwards), and the third of a ruptured air sac (it had a lump on its neck that I was able to get some air out of, and was panting and couldn’t stand). I’ve added some vitamin E to their food and put Nutri-Drench in their water, so I’m hoping for the best with the remaining six. But those three seemed to take a turn for the worst so suddenly. Is there anything else I can be doing to help them?? Have I been doing something wrong? Sorry if this is a rambling post and thanks for any advice.

 

[le_bwah]

Some hatches are just unlucky, tbh. If your temps are right, food is right, water is clean, there isn't a whole lot you can do to account for any other issues after the fact (e.g. incubation temps being off, genetics, etc.). Vitamins won't hurt (except iron), nor will probiotics. Sounds like you're taking care and doing what you can.

Although, are you certain the last chick had a ruptured air sac? That's a pretty violent injury for a young bird. They also have large lumps in the sides of their neck from their crops that come and go as they eat, which are normal.

 

[Kippers302]

Some hatches are just unlucky, tbh. If your temps are right, food is right, water is clean, there isn't a whole lot you can do to account for any other issues after the fact (e.g. incubation temps being off, genetics, etc.). Vitamins won't hurt (except iron), nor will probiotics. Sounds like you're taking care and doing what you can.

Although, are you certain the last chick had a ruptured air sac? That's a pretty violent injury for a young bird. They also have large lumps in the sides of their neck from their crops that come and go as they eat, which are normal.

Thank you! This makes me feel a little better at least. Good to know about the crops… maybe it wasn’t a ruptured air sac after all.

 

[Nabiki]

What are you feeding them?
What are the temps in your brooder? Does it have a warm side and a cool side?
How are you providing them with water?

 

[Kippers302]

What are you feeding them?
What are the temps in your brooder? Does it have a warm side and a cool side?
How are you providing them with water?

Feeding them starter game feed that I’ve ground up in the blender. The brooder is being kept in a small room & heated with a heat lamp, and yes it has a cool side. They seem to be using both sides fairly equally. The water is in bottles with small cup attachments that fill up and are cleaned multiple times daily. Thanks for your reply!

 

[Nabiki]

It sounds like your setup is fine and that you're having a run of bad luck. Keep us posted on how the rest are doing and maybe we can try to do a bit more troubleshooting.

 

[Kippers302]

It sounds like your setup is fine and that you're having a run of bad luck. Keep us posted on how the rest are doing and maybe we can try to do a bit more troubleshooting.

Will do, really appreciate it.

 

[CliftonQuail]

Feeding them starter game feed that I’ve ground up in the blender. The brooder is being kept in a small room & heated with a heat lamp, and yes it has a cool side. They seem to be using both sides fairly equally. The water is in bottles with small cup attachments that fill up and are cleaned multiple times daily. Thanks for your reply!

I've seen mixed signals on grinding feed. I feed crumbles and have never ground it any finer. I've had the rare unexplained death in the brooder, but never 3 in one day.

 

[nao57]

One thing you can do...

When you have large amounts of chicks not make it, its a good sign the nutrition ratios in the feed aren't good. That's what I learned when I had a couple batches of ducklings not make it. (Its similar even if not the same animal.)

How I adapted... the feed from mills and stores isn't adequate nutrition. So you supplement it. Real whole seed is good because you can't tamper with unmilled seed like you can with milled feed product.

Basically they are fluffing milled feed too much with filler garbage.

Now... I'm not encouraging you to go to war or complain or be angry. Its just that agriculture in this country has a lot of issues. You still need feed because you have to have a budget. You have to have affordable feed. But what you can do is have like 80% feed, and then 20% unmilled seed mixes from all kinds of stuff. And if that doesn't work, try 70,30, etc until you get it right. But for me doing unmilled seed WITH the normal feed worked pretty well to solve my issues.

But when there's economic damage, crop troubles, all kinds of problems with farms... the natural tendency is to compensate this with having animal feed take a hit on nutrition as inexpensive fillers are put in. People don't actually try to make this unhealthy though, its just they are trying to save their farms and lots of farms having trouble.

The result is you have to be more aware of how to do a feed mix and mix supplements in.

This is my opinion on why lots of people are having laying hen issues. Plus why some chick batches come out with high mortality rates right now. Its related.

 

[Kippers302]

One thing you can do...

When you have large amounts of chicks not make it, its a good sign the nutrition ratios in the feed aren't good. That's what I learned when I had a couple batches of ducklings not make it. (Its similar even if not the same animal.)

How I adapted... the feed from mills and stores isn't adequate nutrition. So you supplement it. Real whole seed is good because you can't tamper with unmilled seed like you can with milled feed product.

Basically they are fluffing milled feed too much with filler garbage.

Now... I'm not encouraging you to go to war or complain or be angry. Its just that agriculture in this country has a lot of issues. You still need feed because you have to have a budget. You have to have affordable feed. But what you can do is have like 80% feed, and then 20% unmilled seed mixes from all kinds of stuff. And if that doesn't work, try 70,30, etc until you get it right. But for me doing unmilled seed WITH the normal feed worked pretty well to solve my issues.

But when there's economic damage, crop troubles, all kinds of problems with farms... the natural tendency is to compensate this with having animal feed take a hit on nutrition as inexpensive fillers are put in. People don't actually try to make this unhealthy though, its just they are trying to save their farms and lots of farms having trouble.

The result is you have to be more aware of how to do a feed mix and mix supplements in.

This is my opinion on why lots of people are having laying hen issues. Plus why some chick batches come out with high mortality rates right now. Its related.

Wow, thank you for this reply, this is great information.