Scalp injury

[kristenm1975]

I have two quail who suffered head injuries during the night. Both are bloodied with feathers and skin missing but are up and walking around, eating and drinking normally. So far, there's no sign of the others pecking at the raw spots.
My instinct is to avoid further trauma by catching them and instead just keep an eye on them. Does this sound like a fair plan or should I catch them, clean the wounds, apply antibacterial ointment and put them in a warm hospital cage?

 

[Fat Daddy]

I have two quail who suffered head injuries during the night. Both are bloodied with feathers and skin missing but are up and walking around, eating and drinking normally. So far, there's no sign of the others pecking at the raw spots.
My instinct is to avoid further trauma by catching them and instead just keep an eye on them. Does this sound like a fair plan or should I catch them, clean the wounds, apply antibacterial ointment and put them in a warm hospital cage?

You didnt say but Id guess these are quail of breeding age.....I always go to aggression first when I find this and 80% of the time that is the case. If its not a aggression issue, something is spoking them in the dark when they cant see they are hitting the top of the pen.... But my money is on aggressive pen mate. I use "blu kote" and treat everyone in the pen so no one is different. It works wonders. It is very staining and quail resist it thou!!! be very careful around the head as it burns if you get it in their eyes.... If you separate them from rest, its always a issue rejoining the group. I resist breaking up a group if at all possible..... On the back side of all this. They will heal unbelievably fast with no treatment at all. But the root cause will likely continue without some corrective measure. Good luck

 

[kristenm1975]

Thank you for the advice! I'll see if my feed store carries blu kote. I'm worried about re-introducing a bird also. Fortunately, there's no male in the cage so its likely an isolated raccoon visitation as a few others have feathers missing directly on top. Darn coons.

 

[bush]

I have had the same problem a couple times and I cleaned wound and applied anti biotic ointment to scalp for a couple of days. It works fine is easy to find like at the dollar store, and I didn't not separate the bird from the flock

 

[kristenm1975]

Yeah, I ultimately separated the bird with the worst scalping just long enough to run to the store for Pick-No-More. Naturally when I put the gal back in the pen, they pecked her head because hello, weird gloppy blue stuff. Luckily, it must taste awful because they've left her alone from then on out.