Wounded Quail :(

[vigibigi]

Hello,
I have a rather badly injured quail and wondered if anybody had any advice for us...

I noticed on friday, yesterday, that this quail had been sitting on top of one of their hutches, all alone and fairly still, all day. i watered and fed him up there when i noticed, when he was cleaning himself, that he had a big raw patch under his wing. I didn't want to remove him from the pen, knowing what might happen when / if he goes back in, but eventually i decided it was best to bring him inside. It seems as though he has about an inch long gash just under his wing and as far as i can see its only his skin damaged, not his flesh.

Now were very unsure as to what's happened. The day before (thurs), another of the quails began chasing him around the pen whenever he came close, all day long. This hasn't happened in the past but they're all just about reaching sexual maturity so i figured it was related to that - as of yet were unsure of the sexes, but are slowly figuring them out one by one.
So, either he/she was injured by this other quail, which seems unlikely considering the area and severity, Or (we think) a cat may have pawed him through the chicken wire.

Either way, he's inside now, eating and drinking and seeming fairly cheery but limping around when hes not resting.

Really were wondering whether to try and clean the wound / what to clean it with?( Salt water, we imagined, might help him out?) Obviously underneath the wing is a fairly tricky spot to treat. If anybody has any suggestions i'd be very very grateful.

Thank You!!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

We have had some chickens with some fairly bad wounds from a hawk who healed quite well. I have iodine on hand that I mix with water to clean wounds. Hydrogen peroxide could be used for one cleaning, but repeated cleaning with hydrogen peroxide slow healing. If you don't have those around then water with a bit of salt like saline solution would work. If you have antibiotic ointment like neosporin, you can put that on the wound. Most first aid stuff that you would use on people can be used on birds, but important exceptions are anything with the pain relievers benzocaine or lidocaine.