Our female seems sick? (RESOLVED)

[Dean&Laura]

Hello again.

Our female CPQ, Molly, seems sick.

She won't eat her mealworms, seems sluggish and makes these strange neck motions as if she's trying to bring something up.

We've isolated her from the others to stop the spread of infection.

She's an indoor bird who lives with three other indoor birds.

She's been laying eggs perfectly fine up today and seems to be acting strangely (fretful)

Please can anyone shed any light on this?

 

[Dean&Laura]

update:

We have found a small, hard lump on the right side of her chest. It is a new lump. Could she have something stuck in her throat?

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Dean&Laura. I know nothing about Quail but if she was a chicken I'd say it was either something stuck in her throat like a folded feather, or some kind of tumour or cyst. Unfortunately looking down her throat is going to be a job for the vet.

 

[Dean&Laura]

We did some research and it turns out it was an impacted crop. *relief* we thought it was a tumor then heard other people talking about hard lumps on the breast of a bird being a 'crop' problem.

So last night Dean and i fed her some olive oil (just a drop) and massaged her crop and today its receding back into the rest of her.

Such a relief...We did look down her throat (she was extremely well behaved) and we saw nothing.

 

[chrismahon]

Well that's a relief Dean&Laura! When you said 'new lump' I thought you meant one that wasn't supposed to be there. Yes, Olive Oil will do the job usually. Question is, what has she been eating to get it?

 

[Marigold]

So glad she's better. I notice often that two of my chickens in particular have asymmetrical chests from the front when they have full crops. This worried me no end at first until I found out it's actually quite common and they certainly have no digestive problems from it, just a heavy crop that swings sideways. I've never heard of impacted crop in quail, how clever of you to diagnose and treat it. Is she eating normally yet? You will no doubt be keeping a careful eye on her in case you need to repeat the oil and massage treatment. This must be a very tricky job on such a tiny bird as a CPQ. The main problem of getting fluid of any kind down a bird's throat is the possibility that it will go down the windpipe instead of the gullet. I would be interested to know what you used to do the job with such precision.
The other question to ponder is why it occurred - what is she feeding on? In chickens, it's possible for largish strands of greenstuff such as long grass to get impacted in the crop, and then to block anything else the bird tries to eat.Also even a pile of short stuff like grass mowings can do the same thing. Maybe varying the texture of greenery might help. I've taken to feeding my quail with stuff like chunks of lettuce or cabbage for them to nibble on, rather than cutting it up small for them, as then they get bite-size bits for themselves and it takes them longer to eat it, which keeps them amused and it goe down more slowly perhaps.

 

[Dean&Laura]

I think it was cucumber rind. We usually remove it after they have taken what they want from the cucumber chunks, i reckon she was stashing it under her nest as a midnight snack! From now on its skinned cucumber!

She's a very well behaved little girl anyway and feeling sick she may have just let us do what we had to with her in the hope it may have made her feel better.

The lump was the size and shape of a peanut and was black under the skin which frightened us but we thought that if it simply 'came up' over night it couldnt be a tumour as they can take weeks to grow. So we did some research and found 'crop' then 'impacted crop'

Dean reckons it was the cucumber rind and after looking around online for some solutions we found the olive oil trick.

I got the water jug for my electric iron (like a smaller measuring jug) and filled it a little with olive oil. We reclined Molly just slightly so she was leaning kind of back and opened her beak with a pair of plastic tweezers.

When her beak was open, i filled her lower beak cavity with the oil and then stroked her neck gently to get her to swallow. She swallowed it satisfactorily and 15 minutes later Dean held the crop between his fingers and gently massaged it in circles round and down to try and get the thing to empty. She must have enjoyed this because she was falling asleep as Dean was doing it.

This morning her crop was still enlarged but much less and she was much more perky and willing to eat seed and cut up mealworms but can't understand why she is still seperated from the others (i want to keep an eye on her for a while) and she has stopped the 'neck grinding' motion but is still not keen on swallowing large foods (mealworms) which is understandable.

Tonight we'll redo the oil trick and if its no better by Thursday we'll buy some live maggots from a fishing shop and get them down her neck. I hear the maggots will eat away at the blockage and then be digested normally with the quails other food.

Failing that it will be some roughage (oats and natural yogurt) and then its a trip to the vets if she is no better.

I'm just so relieved it's a 'normal' thing to happen rather than it being 'a lump'.

Thank you so much for the help and concern guys. It's nice to know we have someone we can turn to.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Dean&Laura. Maggots (white) only work on hens because they eat them whole. Being alive they wriggle around in the crop and break up the contents. She may be a bit small for them. But at least you know what caused the problem and can avoid it in future. If the crop has gone down now the blockage has cleared so she should be fine. Just make sure she is pooing normally and she can go back. Sooner the better or she will be treated as an outsider and attacked.

 

[Dean&Laura]

She's back in with her bevy now and her crop is slowly deflating. She managed to lay this HUGE egg yesterday which made us content she was on the mend.

She tends to eat her mealworms wholesale (greedy little madam she is) but as the crop is deflating on its own, we'll leave her to it and intervene if it starts to get back up.

Her poo's are a soft brown (which is normal for her) which made a change from the yellowy/green she was forcing out when she had her big crop.

Thank you all so much for the help and advice