- Oct 2, 2014
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So I have these 6 quail living in a plastic tub brooder in my room with a screen over it. It's a little crowded, but then I've had 9 quail in there before, and it's only temporary.
In the past few months, I've had 3 birds that got sick. One quail fell seriously ill with a fever, but recovered with antibiotics. One of her chicks died around the same time, possibly from the same illness. A couple months past without incident, but when I moved my parakeet in with her and her mate, he got sick with a respiratory disease and despite veterinarian treatment died within a few days. Although it can't be confirmed that any of these cases were actually related, they all showed the same symptoms of heavy breathing and lethargy. Several weeks have past since the parakeet's death and no other birds have shown any signs of illness whatsoever. It could be completely unrelated, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Tonight I was watching TV when I heard this huge ruckus going on in my room. The quail are never that loud and usually are asleep at night, so I knew something weird was going on. I ran into my room to find one of the young quail laying on its back, taking its last few gasps of breath. It all happened so fast, I have no idea what was going on, but it died within seconds. The other birds seemed just as shocked as I was. Like I said, they all seemed completely healthy prior to this. The only thing I can think of is that the bird might have randomly decided to run into the side of the cage and break its own neck or something. I have had the birds jump up and hit the screen lots of times, but it never injured them before, and they usually don't just jump up randomly in the middle of the night for no reason. Any idea what might have caused this bird to suddenly drop dead??
Also-I didn't feel like butchering it tonight so I just wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer. Should it be okay, or should I gut it first? And do you think it's still ok to eat? Like I said, I really don't think it was sick, but then I don't know what happened.
Update: So after googling it, it sounds a lot like flipover disease, but are there any other possibilities?
In the past few months, I've had 3 birds that got sick. One quail fell seriously ill with a fever, but recovered with antibiotics. One of her chicks died around the same time, possibly from the same illness. A couple months past without incident, but when I moved my parakeet in with her and her mate, he got sick with a respiratory disease and despite veterinarian treatment died within a few days. Although it can't be confirmed that any of these cases were actually related, they all showed the same symptoms of heavy breathing and lethargy. Several weeks have past since the parakeet's death and no other birds have shown any signs of illness whatsoever. It could be completely unrelated, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Tonight I was watching TV when I heard this huge ruckus going on in my room. The quail are never that loud and usually are asleep at night, so I knew something weird was going on. I ran into my room to find one of the young quail laying on its back, taking its last few gasps of breath. It all happened so fast, I have no idea what was going on, but it died within seconds. The other birds seemed just as shocked as I was. Like I said, they all seemed completely healthy prior to this. The only thing I can think of is that the bird might have randomly decided to run into the side of the cage and break its own neck or something. I have had the birds jump up and hit the screen lots of times, but it never injured them before, and they usually don't just jump up randomly in the middle of the night for no reason. Any idea what might have caused this bird to suddenly drop dead??
Also-I didn't feel like butchering it tonight so I just wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer. Should it be okay, or should I gut it first? And do you think it's still ok to eat? Like I said, I really don't think it was sick, but then I don't know what happened.
Update: So after googling it, it sounds a lot like flipover disease, but are there any other possibilities?
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