Runny poop (veen gleet?)

[MomFoldingLaundry]

Hey guys,


Yesterday I separated my adult quail to sex them, and an awful lot of them seemed to have runny poop. I thorougly cleaned out their coop with fresh bedding, and gave them a vitamin and electrolyte supplement in their water. I also put in only 2 boys with the 18 of them. When I checked the coop last night, the poops in it were well-formed little balls. though of course I may not have been seeing every poop in there.

I looked up runny poop and saw that there is a condition called veen gleet, and now I’m paranoid that a bunch of my quail have it. it seems like more should be laying than are. I’m only getting like 4 eggs a day from 18 girls, though granted only half of those are
full grown.

so what should I do? I am loath to turn them all upside down again and shuffle them around coops if I can avoid it, as that’s stressful for them. Should I run down to the feed store and get other supplements? If so, what do you recommend?

some sources recommend a round of antibiotics. Have any of your needed to go that far?

finally—what do you think stressed them out? In restrospect, one of my girls has been fighting something similar for a month. She got stressed from overbreeding. But...maybe the straw bedding I’m using is the problem? It doesn’t breakdown, and instead gets wet and matted. (Hawaii rain gets everywhere and straw is notorious for sucking in moisture and holding it.) They have tons and tons of room in their coop, but it always seems super dirty in there. Way more so than when I used to just use leaves from the yard and occasional wood chips. I think the leaves and wood chips decomposed better.

anyway, thanks for listening. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[FloorCandy]

If they’re all acting fine, you probably scared the poop out of them by sexing them and stuff. I would keep an eye on them, but if it firmed up afterward you probably just startled them.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I have a inch or more of gravel under my bedding because of notorious Hawaii flash floods. It still doesn't keep the straw dry, but it does help the drainage afterwards.

I am also moving away from straw and starting to use everything I rake up in the backyard. The birds prefer it and so do I.

As far as your birds laying, I'm convinced Hawaii quail are on Hawaii time. One of my girls took a full 15 weeks before deciding to lay eggs. (also, some of your girls might not really be girls. . .)

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

A couple times, I’ve seen a yellow crust around the cloaca. Not sure what that is, but I’ve seen it on boys, too.

 

[MomFoldingLaundry]

I have a inch or more of gravel under my bedding because of notorious Hawaii flash floods. It still doesn't keep the straw dry, but it does help the drainage afterwards.

I am also moving away from straw and starting to use everything I rake up in the backyard. The birds prefer it and so do I.

As far as your birds laying, I'm convinced Hawaii quail are on Hawaii time. One of my girls took a full 15 weeks before deciding to lay eggs. (also, some of your girls might not really be girls. . .)

Yeah, it’s really my fault for not keeping track of how old everyone is.