I have a pair of female coturnix quail, approaching 5 months old now.
Yesterday morning I noticed one seemed to be struggling to walk. It seemed to stumble sideways to the right, and then fall over. It then got up, walked a bit and did the same, but braced itself against the wall. Then went over to its sandpit and laid there. I put my hand in the cage to see if it would have trouble moving away from it, and it got up and ran away, no problems, no stumbling. So I left it for 4-5 hours. Then after that time, I noticed it doing exactly the same thing, stumbling to the right side, as if it were having trouble with its right leg, and then falling over or bracing itself against the wall. It seemed to do this several times. I noticed it had a bit of feces caked on the foot (only a very small amount), so I decided to wash its foot so I could check for bumblefoot. I slowly reached into the cage to pick it up, and suddenly Ailment cured! it perked up and ran away from my hand, no issues at all in running. I waited till it calmed down, then managed to pick it up and put it in a bucket with about half an inch of warm water to clean its feet, and still in this slippery container, the quail who had previously barely been able to walk, had no balance issues whatsoever, walked around as if it were just walking round on shavings. I then put it in a box with a towel at the bottom to dry off its feet, and still no issues. I tried to inspect it for bumblefoot, but it was fighting and kicking tooo hard for me to get a good look. I didn't see any problems from the quick look I got. So I put it back in the cage. It walked around fine for 1 minute, did the strange stumble once again for the last time, and hasn't done it again since yesterday, not even when running over to get the watermelon and mealworms I provided for them afterwards.
Anyone know what this behavior may be indicative of?
Yesterday morning I noticed one seemed to be struggling to walk. It seemed to stumble sideways to the right, and then fall over. It then got up, walked a bit and did the same, but braced itself against the wall. Then went over to its sandpit and laid there. I put my hand in the cage to see if it would have trouble moving away from it, and it got up and ran away, no problems, no stumbling. So I left it for 4-5 hours. Then after that time, I noticed it doing exactly the same thing, stumbling to the right side, as if it were having trouble with its right leg, and then falling over or bracing itself against the wall. It seemed to do this several times. I noticed it had a bit of feces caked on the foot (only a very small amount), so I decided to wash its foot so I could check for bumblefoot. I slowly reached into the cage to pick it up, and suddenly Ailment cured! it perked up and ran away from my hand, no issues at all in running. I waited till it calmed down, then managed to pick it up and put it in a bucket with about half an inch of warm water to clean its feet, and still in this slippery container, the quail who had previously barely been able to walk, had no balance issues whatsoever, walked around as if it were just walking round on shavings. I then put it in a box with a towel at the bottom to dry off its feet, and still no issues. I tried to inspect it for bumblefoot, but it was fighting and kicking tooo hard for me to get a good look. I didn't see any problems from the quick look I got. So I put it back in the cage. It walked around fine for 1 minute, did the strange stumble once again for the last time, and hasn't done it again since yesterday, not even when running over to get the watermelon and mealworms I provided for them afterwards.
Anyone know what this behavior may be indicative of?
