What's wrong with my quail?

[Twoandhelp]

I'm brand new to quail and I have 10 cortunix. One of the girls has her vent and stomach area picked clean of feathers and her vent seems large and is goopy. With maybe a bit of blood? I did find an egg with a small amount of blood on it yesterday. Also found an egg with no shell? Anyway- is she a goner or is it an easy fix?

Edit: ok there's two. The rest look good. 8 girls 2 boys

 

[DK newbie]

It sounds like she could be egg bound, but I've never actually seen this myself. She could have picked the feathers herself due to distress and pain in the area. I believe people place the birds in shallow, warm water to make it easier for them to pass the egg. And if that's not enough, they might put some kind of grease on and in the vent.. But if she is egg bound, you should be able to feel the egg in front of the vent. If you can't, she might be the one that laid the egg with blood on it and she might have had trouble passing that one, causing her current appearance. You might want to apply some antibiotics as she could have internal damage.
Now, to making sure it doesn't happen again - are you feeding them additional calcium? Egg binding and eggs without a shell can both be consequences of a diet that has too little calcium. Oyster shell, grinded to a size the quail can handle is a good way to supply calcium.
If they do have calcium available - do they get direct sunlight or does their feed contain vitamin D? That's important for them to be able to utilize the calcium.
If that's not it either - what are you feeding them?

 

[Twoandhelp]

neither seem egg bound but as a new quail owner I could be wrong! I'm not exactly sure what they were being fed, but I'm pretty sure it was a game it's starter and I have them on game bird starter now. No supplements at all. Their whole bottom side is free of feathers. The vent seem large but I don't know what it should look like. I'm just comparing it to my experience with ducks. The vent seems to be mucous-y with a small amount of pinkish/red good as well that I figure is blood. I have 8 girls and I got 8 eggs today despite the issue that two are having. Also, I'm pretty sure they are eating and drinking fine. They act like everyone else. Just have nasty vents and missing feathers down there.

 

[Sill]

How are your quail housed? Do they have access to the ground? I'm wondering about parasites and them picking at their bottoms out of irritation. Keep and eye on them and make sure to separate them at the first sign of the other quail picking on them. If they see blood they can't help themselves, they will pick and make it worse. Also, remove one of the males, two can stress the hens out from over breeding and sometimes fighting each other. One male can easily keep 8 hens fertile.

 

[Twoandhelp]

Their housing is hardware cloth on the bottom. Off the ground. They have a box with shavings or straw where they can get out of the breeze if they need to and I sometimes put a small pile of straw at another end because they seem to like it. But This is just my third day of having them. I bought them with the hutch so their housing has been the same.

Can I put regular poultry vitamin/electrolyte tabs in their water? Maybe that would help them out. I haven't seen anyone picking on them yet!

1 male to 8 female- whoa! I can remove a male! My run has a door on each end- I could put a divider in it so that each male had 4 girls? I know for my ducks that a good ratio but maybe you'll say otherwise for quail? I've seen different numbers given when I research

 

[kyzerc]

I had that happen to two birds,skinned whole bottom of one and pulled the leg off another,my grand daughter caught the dog pulling on leg,we didn't have the pans under cage.Put pans back ,no more trouble.the one with 1 leg gets around good.I cant see how they could get to them with the small wire.At ist I thought it was rats