Scabs growing over Quails toes?

TheBirdLady2001

Songster
Oct 11, 2016
199
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Windsor, Ontario, CA
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I bought some young button quail yesterday, and upon closer inspection of one of them, it seems to have scabs attached to it toes. I tried to remove one, thinking that it was just dried dirt and feces, but the poor things toe was shorter than the rest, and it had no toe nail under the scab. It did bleed a bit, but stoped within a few seconds. I will not try to remove the rest of them. But does anyone know what this is? Sorry for the bad quality in the pictures. Thanks!
 
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Not a scab..it is a poop ball. It has probably killed the nail under which is why it bled. Soak the foot WELL until it softens and can be gently worked off, if it bleeds put some blu kote on it.
 
When my buttons get it, I put them in an old hamster cage with pebbles on the bottom, then pour warm water on the pebbles so they are just covered. Leave the birds in there for 1-1½ hours then the water dissolves the poo balls and the pebbles remove the dissolved bits so I won't have to do any pulling/squeezing/twisting and the toe won't be hurt.
The less you handle the bird, the less stressed it gets and 1½ hours is nearly always enough for them to walk the poo balls off themselves.
 
When my buttons get it, I put them in an old hamster cage with pebbles on the bottom, then pour warm water on the pebbles so they are just covered. Leave the birds in there for 1-1½ hours then the water dissolves the poo balls and the pebbles remove the dissolved bits so I won't have to do any pulling/squeezing/twisting and the toe won't be hurt.
The less you handle the bird, the less stressed it gets and 1½ hours is nearly always enough for them to walk the poo balls off themselves.

You have a very good method there... like a quail foot spa.

I did a similar thing... my cage had a wire grid bottom, so I just stood the cage in a tray of water for a while, just deep enough to cover their toes. They seemed to like to paddle about!
 
You have a very good method there... like a quail foot spa.

I did a similar thing... my cage had a wire grid bottom, so I just stood the cage in a tray of water for a while, just deep enough to cover their toes. They seemed to like to paddle about!

That sure is even less handling of the bird ^^ Unfortunately I don't want to use wire floor cages, but for this purpose I can see the advantage.
 
That sure is even less handling of the bird ^^ Unfortunately I don't want to use wire floor cages, but for this purpose I can see the advantage.

I can recommend the wire floor... had great success with it. You might worry its not comfortable on their feet or not natural... which is what I thought, but I made a few modifications and the birds thrived.

The wire floor was very fine... it was easy for them to walk on and also no feet or toes could get stick.

I covered over the wire mesh with a thin layer or hay... which they loved to hide in, and it made the gaps in the wire even smaller.

I had a large flat dust tray in thee covering about a quarter of the floor space, so they could go in there to relax and lay flat (although they also did this on the wire floor so it much be comfortable enough for them)

The best benefit of the wire floor was being about to use the large cage like a chicken tractor. I would place it outside on nice days, and move it around various locations in the garden.

The quail were able to peck at the grass and weeds that poked up through the mesh. They were also to peck and scratch at the dirt and soil and they found lots of bugs, worms and other stuff to eat which was really good for their diet.

When I used to keep them on the sawdust / wood chips and paper mash (I tried a lot of things) they would always get dirty feet no matter how often I cleaned it. Also I had to throw away a lot of bedding which I though was wasteful and not good for the planet.. or my wallet lol.

The wire floor I only have to use a small amount of the hay... or even dried grass from the garden. The quail hardly ever got dirty feet.

But, I understand this method might not be good in different situations or right for every one.
 

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