Sick Quail

[Florence NightingQuail]

Hey all - I have a female quail, just under one year old, who isn’t well. There’s no sign of illness amongst her other 5 coop mates, who are all in an open ground quaviary. But this little blonde hen is lethargic, sleepy, weak, not eating, just sitting around kind of puffed up with her eyes shut a lot. She has clearly been either over-sexed or outright bullied, all her head and neck feathers have been pulled out. But I’m not sure whether she got bullied because she was ill, or got ill because she’s been bullied. She has no open wounds, except for a sore on her foot which I’ve salt water bathed and doesn’t seem serious. I removed her from the Quaviary and put her in her own infirmary on the lawn a couple of days ago, but she doesn’t seem to be improving. Tonight, I managed to get some hydrolites and antibiotic water into her with a syringe feeder, and gave her a check over and cleaned her bottom. Her poo is watery and green. Is there anything else I can do? I think she may be dying....

 

[007Sean]

Can you post pics of her droppings? The symptoms sound similar to Ulcerative enteritis. If you have or can get Erythromycin or Duramycin, I would administer it in her water. If it is UE, it can kill swiftly, 1 to 2 days.
Usually their droppings will be watery and have a yellowish color, along with the other symptoms you mentioned but it could be green, depending on what she's been eating.
Along with the symptoms you mention does she have a nasal discharge? or a respiratory distress?

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Can you post pics of her droppings? The symptoms sound similar to Ulcerative enteritis. If you have or can get Erythromycin or Duramycin, I would administer it in her water. If it is UE, it can kill swiftly, 1 to 2 days.
Usually their droppings will be watery and have a yellowish color, along with the other symptoms you mentioned but it could be green, depending on what she's been eating.
Along with the symptoms you mention does she have a nasal discharge?

No nasal discharge, unfortunately I don’t have a poo pic handy. Though the poo I saw had no yellow colour, it was just clear and green in parts. She’s been eating game bird starter pellets, weeds, whatever worms she finds, and various fruit and veg scraps. Same as all the others, who seem completely healthy.... she’s been sick for 3 days so far, I isolated her as soon as I saw her looking ill.

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

There was a rather large legless lizard that we found in our swimming pool that got thrown in for the quails about 3 days ago - they all descended on it like ravenous fiends though, and none of the others seem to have suffered for it? We thought it was a baby snake at first, it was so big! But I did have second thoughts after throwing it in, because it may have absorbed chlorine and salt from the pool through it’s skin (it was too late by then, they’d devoured it within seconds)

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Ok, I just got home from my nightshift and checked on her and she was a lot worse. I had to put her out of her suffering immediately. Her head was tilted back and she was waving it around spasmodically from side to side and falling around running in circles. WTF is this and should I do something to protect the rest of the flock that she was in with up until 3 days ago? They all look fine right now, but I'm really worried there's potential for some nasty disease to be in the quaviary now! Any help much appreciated!

 

[Nabiki]

Ok, I just got home from my nightshift and checked on her and she was a lot worse. I had to put her out of her suffering immediately. Her head was tilted back and she was waving it around spasmodically from side to side and falling around running in circles. WTF is this and should I do something to protect the rest of the flock that she was in with up until 3 days ago? They all look fine right now, but I'm really worried there's potential for some nasty disease to be in the quaviary now! Any help much appreciated!

Can you have the body sent to a local lab for a necropsy? That is very alarming, and you want to know what it is. Head tilted back like that sounds scarily like Virulent Newcastles disease.

The price for a necropsy is usually quite reasonable. Here is a list of labs by state.
https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/poultry-necropsy-labs/

 

[FloorCandy]

Can you have the body sent to a local lab for a necropsy? That is very alarming, and you want to know what it is. Head tilted back like that sounds scarily like Virulent Newcastles disease.

The price for a necropsy is usually quite reasonable. Here is a list of labs by state.
https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/poultry-necropsy-labs/

I agree, sounds very scary, definitely try to have a necropsy.

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

Oh no, I hadn't even thought of a necropsy! I'm kind of new at this - all I thought when I dispatched the poor girl was "thank god the garbage truck hasn't been to collect yet this morning". And now, it has - so her body is long gone. I just read that Newcastle hasn't existed here in Australia for several years now though; so I have no idea where she would've picked it up from? I feel really bad for what she went through overnight while I was at work though, wish I'd been more decisive about it yesterday. All her flock mates are looking perfectly fine so far, and laying big eggs like clockwork. I've put a dose of worming mixture in their water as a precaution...

 

[Nabiki]

Oh no, I hadn't even thought of a necropsy! I'm kind of new at this - all I thought when I dispatched the poor girl was "thank god the garbage truck hasn't been to collect yet this morning". And now, it has - so her body is long gone. I just read that Newcastle hasn't existed here in Australia for several years now though; so I have no idea where she would've picked it up from? I feel really bad for what she went through overnight while I was at work though, wish I'd been more decisive about it yesterday. All her flock mates are looking perfectly fine so far, and laying big eggs like clockwork. I've put a dose of worming mixture in their water as a precaution...

Watch them closely. I don't know if you can have one tested just in case.

 

[Florence NightingQuail]

I will be, I am now so worried I can't even sleep! Thanks for your help guys.