severe head damage. please help

[Conman]

Just dab it with some acholl

 

[Conman]

Other wise you cant do much

 

[wildone]

thanks! she is drinking a bit, but i havn't seen her eat yet. is that bad?

 

[JaeG]

She's probably a bit in shock. She'll be ok and the male should encourage her to eat. Just make sure he's not going to start trying to mate with her and make her wound worse.

 

[Conman]

Dont worry she will be fine just keep an eye

 

[wildone]

thank you for the support. i am worried about her.

 

[FirstTimeClucky]

I've had button quail scalp each other or try to kill each other, to the point where the entire scalp was peeled off of the skull and blood was spattered all over the cage.

Quail are very tough. They are evolved to withstand rough treatment by the males when they breed. My coturnix roos fling the hens around by their head and neck feathers, and the hens only lose feathers. My button quail all healed up fine. I used a bit of Polysporin on the scalped areas and this helped it heal faster. Blu-Kote is another product you can use to prevent wound infections and speed healing.

It's normal for a quail to be less active after it's been scalped or wounded. They may stand in a corner in a hunched over position with the feathers fluffed, and they'll go off of their feed. This only lasts a day or two after they are injured, then they gradually start to perk up and eat again. I'm guessing it's a shock reaction to being in pain, as well as a way to avoid predators when they're vulnerable.

Personally I wouldn't leave a wounded quail with other birds, especially males, in case they pick on her. I'd give her a few days until she's acting normally, then try putting her back in with the others.

 

[wildone]

well i ran out of cardboard boxes, but would you suggest that i put the divider back in?

 

[JaeG]

well i ran out of cardboard boxes, but would you suggest that i put the divider back in?

Only put it in if the male is trying to mate with her or harassing her in some way. Just watch out for bullying when you reintroduce them and remove the bully or divide her off in some way. Often a week separated from the group brings them down a peg or two.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good Luck. We used a small pet carrier as our hospital ward. My 11yo would separate out any injured quail - some with pretty major injuries. Sometimes she would use a wet cloth to gently try to clean off a wound, but mostly she would quarantine for a day or so, then put back in with the rest. We used some puppy pads in the bottom of the carrier as padding with water and food. Here is one picture of a approx 6 week old hen. Obviously picked on by another quail. Several injuries like this occurred amongst the birds - neck and eyes were the most common spots. Another one ripped off its toenail when it got caught in some hardware cloth that was overlapped - now that was bloody, and it happened to a white quail, so extra gory looking as its whole belly was bloody from the very bloody toe. Some were butchered, some kept as layers. Only one male per cage of girls now (5 cages), and no-one seems to be picked on, although we did need to switch around an aggressive hen that was picking on other hens in that cage.