Quail suddenly not moving, trouble walking/eating, head down

[bathtub]

Hi all -

One of our quails is suddenly very out of sorts today. She was doing fine yesterday, and laid an egg, though my husband said he thought she seemed a little "reserved" and didn't get as excited when he brought her cucumbers as she normally does. Today she's just sitting down with her head drooping and sort of cocked to one side, she seems unable to walk or eat/drink. She lives in an indoor modified rabbit hutch with one other female quail, who thankfully seems to be doing fine. We separated them and cleaned out the hutch entirely so we could monitor her more closely - so far she has not pooped (which is concerning) so we can't tell if there's something amiss with that. We didn't notice any strange poops in the bedding we cleaned out. She had been getting a little pecky with the other girl for a couple of weeks (which was a first - normally they are pretty inseparable) but that seemed to stop after we added another water bottle and started feeding them their veggies separately.

She is not eating or drinking on her own. We gave her some lukewarm water through a dropper, and on the advice of our vet we gave her four drops of water that contained 2 nux vomica rounds dissolved in an ounce of water. Her weight seems normal, there don't appear to be any obstructions in her crop, and her plumage is in great shape with no evidence of mites or fleas. We did recently administer a flea treatment to our dog and cats after our dog got fleas, and are planning to put some savin dust in the quail bedding/sand boxes as a precautionary measure, but I don't see any evidence of mites or fleas in any of our four birds (we have another two in an adjacent hutch). The other three birds (Thank God) seem to be doing fine. They are all about a year old.

One thought we had was that this could be the result of a 'boink' (she's our most skiddish bird, and I have seen her jump up flustered from time to time), but there is hardly any space in the hutch for them to gain speed... it's a two-story hutch with just a little ramp between them, and each floor is only about a foot high.

We love these birds so dearly - they were hatched in our bathroom, raised as chicks in our bedroom, and now they live in a very cozy corner of our living room. They get fresh bedding every day and a deep clean each week, gamebird feed, oyster shells, and fresh veggies daily. Very grateful for any qualified support we can find.

Any ideas on what could be wrong and what we can do? Should we be worried about the other birds?

 

[bathtub]

Do you live in CT as well? I know of a few vets in the area that I have taken my pet birds to, as well as others I have worked at that see quail, pheasants, and gamebirds on a regular basis. I would highly recommend Dr. McClure at Country Companions veterinary services in Bethany, CT and Dr. Fahy at South Wilton Veterinary Group if your hen doesn’t get any better!

Thank you for this helpful suggestion! I will definitely keep it in mind.

I'm sorry, but I checked the product link, and that is a homeopathic remedy. That means that there is such a tiny amount of the "active" ingredient that it is literally useless. The website that it links to, vitaminlife.com, is known to sell quack remedies and offers a lot of advice that has been actually disproved through scientific methods.

I sense that you are trying to be helpful, and I really see where you are coming from. I would like you to know that I didn't buy the product off of that website, I just linked there to show what it was. I have administered the product to my animals on the advice of a licensed and seasoned veterinarian who has a DVM from Cornell and relies on peer-reviewed research to employ complementary methods of treatment. I also personally saw the difference the nux vomica made in our cat, who was not responding to the prescription anti-vomit medication we tried first. This intervention got her eating and saved her life. I should likewise hope that the product only contain tiny amounts of the active ingredients, as strychnine and brucine are lethal in any other quantity.


For those who may come up with a similar issue, I'll post the sad end to the story. After a couple of days it was clear that she had suffered some kind of spinal injury that she could not sustain. We did our best with supportive care, but it was not enough. Yesterday after my husband gave her some food in a dropper and put her back in her bedding, she stretched out her legs, turned on her side, curled up a little, and went to sleep forever. We buried her with coriander seeds - her namesake - and some cucumber and meal worms - her favorite treats - to help her on the big crossover.

We love you sweet Coriander and will miss you forever

 

[Nabiki]

From googling:
"Nux vomica is the common name for a homeopathic medication that comes from the Strychnos nux-vomica tree, which is also called the vomiting nut or the poison nut tree. This natural remedy uses the seeds of the tree as its main ingredient. "

"Strychnos nux-vomica, the strychnine tree, also known as nux vomica, poison nut, semen strychnos, and quaker buttons, is a deciduous tree native to India and to southeast Asia. "

Wait. Homeopathic? That's pseudo science at its worst. Homeopathic medicine has no benefit (except perhaps as a placebo) and has been known to cause actual harm in cases of poor quality control.

If a vet recommends homeopathic medicine, I strongly recommend getting a new vet.

 

[bathtub]

I'm sorry for your loss.

https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-58/nux-vomica

Thank you for saying that, though I feel it is a little disingenuous to follow a statement like "I'm sorry for your loss" with a link that is clearly intended to make someone feel bad, wrong, or worse about an already very sad situation. The purpose of a site like this is to help each other, not to hurt each other.

Putting aside the hurt your comment caused, I want to reiterate that I completely understand where you are coming from. I am a scientist and I also think there is a lot of nonsense out in the world, and I can see why you might think this falls into that category. It is precisely because there is so much nonsense on the internet that I choose to trust my licensed, experienced vet over a webmd article. As an ecologist, I also want to clarify that the article you cited does not make a distinction between Strychnos nux-vomica (the tree, whose ingested parts are fatal) and Nux Vomica the over-the-counter product, which (as you very rightly pointed out) does not contain active ingredients in quantities sufficient to cause the kind of reactions listed in the article you've just shared. In any case, the article is written about use in humans, not in felines or poultry.

One thing that I love about quails is that they always remind me to be kind and gentle. That's a lesson I think we all could take to heart in this world.

Thank you everyone who tried to help us with sweet Coriander. We'll be reinforcing the quail hutches with padding in hopes we don't encounter anything like this again.

 

[danalovesdogs]

Do you live in CT as well? I know of a few vets in the area that I have taken my pet birds to, as well as others I have worked at that see quail, pheasants, and gamebirds on a regular basis. I would highly recommend Dr. McClure at Country Companions veterinary services in Bethany, CT and Dr. Fahy at South Wilton Veterinary Group if your hen doesn’t get any better!

 

[Quailobsessed]

So sorry for the loss of your beautiful quail. Thank you for caring for her while she lived.

 

[Quailobsessed]

@Kiki

 

[Kiki]

What did the vet say?
Can you post a picture of what the vet gave you to give her?

 

[mixedUPturk]

water that contained 2 nux vomica rounds dissolved in an ounce of water. Her weight seems normal, there don't appear to be any obstructions in her crop, and her plumage is in great shape with no evidence of mites or fleas.

Is this a summary of the vets assessment? Were they an avian vet of just a regular pet vet? Very kind of anyone to see a quail

Like Kiki asked 'vomica,' thats interesting, can we see what that is?

Poultry diseases are so hard to diagnose from an outsider because so many symptoms of different ones mimic one another.

Has there been any contact with any other birds? You saw a friends chicken or something? Anything?

Even the tiniest Blood sucking insects can do a bad number on birds but you would see very obvious evidence of it if fleas were the culprit.

Hanging her head sounds Bad im sorry

Could be a bad boink.

Could be something neurological.

Where did the eggs you hatched come from?


Disclaimer
I am not a vet i am a 5 yr long enthusiast and breeder.

 

[aart]

nux vomica

From googling:
"Nux vomica is the common name for a homeopathic medication that comes from the Strychnos nux-vomica tree, which is also called the vomiting nut or the poison nut tree. This natural remedy uses the seeds of the tree as its main ingredient. "

"Strychnos nux-vomica, the strychnine tree, also known as nux vomica, poison nut, semen strychnos, and quaker buttons, is a deciduous tree native to India and to southeast Asia. "