Severly scalped chinese painted quail

[abot87]

I just woke up to one of my blue breasted chinese painted quail that has bo freaking scalp!

He was the smallest boy of 3 with 8 hens. Roughly 90% of his head has been stripped of both feathers and skin. Its just blood, and bone from what I can see.

What do I do?

He's hardly moving and looks to be sleeping the whole time?

Its my first injured quail. Please I'm begging for advice!!!

ABOT

 

[Outpost JWB]

1st, let me say, I have 0 experience with quail & I'm not a vet.

Now, for the questions.
Do you know what did this? Other chicks, predator, malfunction in the coop?
How old is the chick?
Is it eating & drinking still?


Separate the chick from the flock. If you have a brooder box with a light, perfect. No idea where your location is, so just don't get chick too hot.

Get some electrolytes in the water for it asap. Save-a-chick works great for chickens & is inexpensive. Or something comparable if they don't have that where you live.

If it's summer where you live, I would bring the chick indoors. Watch out for flies. They will lay maggots on the wound, and the maggots will devour the chick. Sorry to be so blunt, but word of caution.

Keep the wound clean. Again, speaking from the chicken world, chickens are very resilient & it's very surprising what they can bounce back from. Good luck & please keep me posted.

 

[Outpost JWB]

If you can post pics, it would help.

 

[eHuman]

Separate him, give extra warmth, apply whatever meds to the wound that you have (i forget what we use but it is for that purpose) do not reintroduce until healed and feathered.

 

[DK newbie]

As for the treatment, I agree with the others - as for future prevention, do NOT keep more than one roo that's more than ~8 weeks old in an enclosure that has hens. It's way too likely to cause problems.

 

[abot87]

I've seperated the boy from the others. I figure he's barely past 8 weeks.

I sprayed some Terramicen on the wound and put him in a hamster cage ontop of a electic blanket with a towel over the cage to lock in heat. The spare bedroom is unfortunately the coldest in the house and its the nursery.

He needs a second round of terramicen but i figured id give him some time to settle. Poor thing is already overly stressed and he wasnt handling the previous terramicen spray very well. Fumes made him wonky.

Ive attached some photos.

Ive looked in the run but i cant see the missing scalp and feathers. Its possible he flew to high but i noticed yesterday morning they were picking on him. I just figured its male territory fights. Same as i have in the big outdoor aviary.

 

[Outpost JWB]

I would disagree with that statement. The OP has not stated what the cause of the injury was. Not necessarily a matter of too many roosters. It is such a common misconception that farmers can only have one rooster per flock. My flock has 90-100 chickens. They free range from around 9am-9pm on 3 acres. I have 7 grown roosters & 1 cockerel that are all together in the same 10'x20' coop at night. The youngest chicks (4 months old) go into a dog crate at night. Even when hens are brooding chicks, I have never had a rooster injure a chick.

As for the treatment, I agree with the others - as for future prevention, do NOT keep more than one roo that's more than ~8 weeks old in an enclosure that has hens. It's way too likely to cause problems.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Looks like you are on the right track to recovery with the little chick. You would be surprised how resilent they are. Please keep us posted.

 

[abot87]

This is the first time ive seen such violence amongst my birds. Im new to chinese paited quail, but ive only ever seen my japonicas chase each other. Never had a single drop of blood and they go crazy some times. Its possible the chinese quail are just that much more aggressive with territory. I think I'll add some more hiding spots just incase I have one bad *** in there thats tearing my quail apart.

Also it couldn't have been a predator. I close my avairies at night and everything was in tackt when i opened this am. The damage was sustained inside, just need to find out how.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Make sure they are not overcrowded. They also need to have feed and water 24/7. There has been a couple of times I've had a batch of chicks attack one. Once they get to the blood, they don't stop. Every time I've had this issue, it's had to do with overcrowding, ran out of feed, or water. You are lucky you found the chick when you did.