Typical (flight or fight) head Injury on a quail - What to do

This is luckily something that has rarely happened but when it does it is an excellent wake-up call to remind me that I still have plenty to learn about these wonderful little birds! So it was a rather horrible shock to open up the lid of the quail dormitory and find the ceiling splattered with blood and one of my female quail, Nuggets, with a horrible head injury and both eyes swollen and closed.

The first thing to remember if you are faced with a similar situation is 'don't panic'. Your bird, if it trusts you, can also pick up on your emotions, she/he is looking to you for reassurance. I am the World's worst and most pathetically squeamish person in a case of bleeding wounds, particularly my own but over the years I have had to steel myself! So I'm hoping the following article will share not only how to deal with an emergency but also, that a bird can look near death at one minute and be back eating and running about a short time later. For this reason I'll take you through what I did day by day to show you the improvement as it happens. Needless to say at the time, I did not photo cleaning the wound. I was too busy doing it and as Andy was holding the bird there was no one to film, plus my concern was for poor old Nuggets.

Injury - Observation & Assessment

Firstly, I inferred from the patterns of the bloodstains on the ceiling that the bird had repeatedly jumped and hit her head. As my quail have all been sleeping together in this house over the Winter, my first thought was to look at the male. Sure enough his beak and front were slightly stained. So I reasoned he had been trying to mate with Nuggets and she in turn had been spooked into damaging her head. I therefore removed Nuggets into our house and decided that from now on to protect the other females, the male would sleep alone.

Unless There is an Immediate Emergency, Always Treat Stress First

Nuggets with her head lolling downwards, feathers ruffled as if cold even though she was now in the warmth of the kitchen. She also immediately began to scratch a typical little quail sleeping form in the hay as if to say 'just let me sleep'. She had obviously read the latest research on melatonin! As the blood was drying on the wound and she seemed drowsy, I ignored the former and attended to the symptoms of stress Nuggets was obviously exhibiting. As she was quite conscious and had no problem with breathing, I used my usual emergency electrolyte formula of a small amount of organic cane sugar dissolved in warm water. To get her to drink as her eyes were closed, I just introduced her beak ever so slightly into the egg cup. She drank thirstily, interestingly not in the usual sipping way of quail but rather like a pigeon. I let her have a good drink until she began to splutter slightly.

Nuggets here today, 4 days after the injury, showing you how well she can drink from an eggcup and also more importantly how well her left eye has healed. This was the one we actually thought she had lost!

N.B. If you have an injured/stressed bird to deal with and are worried about getting electrolyte into it then please go immediately to my emergency electrolyte article at the bottom of the page. This is a comprehensive article on first aid for stress and shares what an electrolyte's function is, how to administer one in extreme cases and follow-up treatment in the case of the bird not responding.

In general though, what I am doing here is to rebalance the bird's system and thus get its body back up and functioning as quickly as possible. An electrolyte carries the electrical impulses which the body uses to 'communicate' within itself, in essence to tell itself what to do. Thus a sudden shock, stress attack, overheating, hypothermia, sudden or prolonged physical exertion can cause electrolytes to be rapidly depleted. The effect of this imbalance on the functioning of the muscles, heart and nervous system, produces the symptoms displayed by birds under stress. Again if you are unsure what you are dealing with, go to the article below. Be aware that stress is a killer and that your bird is as likely, often even more so to die of this than the physical injury of a wound. Stress can be fatal within 24 hours.

Wound - Treatment & Immune System Support

Once the stress symptoms had been dealt with I now decided to treat the wound. I was really hoping that her eyes were only suffering from the trauma of the injury and were closed because they were stuck together as the wound had bled. I gently applied warm mineral water on an organic cotton wool pad and succeeded in getting the right eye partially open. The left eye looked much worse, although both eyes were swollen and had slight peck marks around them.

The effect of her having had her head down in the hay meant she kept looking like she was wearing a camouflage kit, as bits of bedding were stuck to the wound but this was a minor consideration. It was so important that Nuggets should have a perceived place of safety and that her physical healing, which essentially comes from within should be supported by her environment.

Once I had her one eye open I now decided to treat the wound, this I did with a home-made antiseptic and anaesthetic  wash. It's a treatment I use for all wounds, cuts and abrasions. This comprises a warm bowl of water containing the following essential oils: five drops of True Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) two drops of Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia). Lavender oil has properties which include being a powerful skin healer and regenerator, relieving anxiety and is also an antiseptic. Tea tree's properties include being a very strong broad spectrum antibacterial as well as a great support for the immune system and it is also an anaesthetic. I buy my oils from a local organic shop, which sources from aromatherapy laboratories in France, where we live. I would always look for organically certified oils and it is sometimes more economical to buy them in sets as the one below which contains both of the above as well as other oils I use on my birds and which you will find discussed within my written articles.

As these are oils they naturally float on the top of water but I use an organic cotton bud to break up the drops and spread them across the surface.

Seen here, the day after her injury she is already looking more perky though still keen on being safe in her box, where she had her food even though I also put food outside the box to show her it was a safe place.

Her right eye is already beginning to heal even though her left eye is still closed. She is thus having difficulty with depth perception and feels a lot safer in her box! She also still has the slightly 'fluffed up look and her wings are slightly droopy. If you look at her expression she also doesn't look the usual confident Nuggets!

By the end of day 2, I realised that the dried blood around the back of her head, though not on the wound itself was beginning to annoy her. She had started to leave the box to eat her food and was beginning to scratch at the back of her neck. I therefore, took some warm mineral water and with a cotton wool pad removed as much as possible of the blood on her feathers without touching the wound nor exerting undue pressure.

I also had managed to get her left eye lids cleared and realised that the eye was intact, which was marvellous. It also meant Nuggets found it much easier to see where her food was and to scatter it around!

You can however see in the photo, that the left side of her face is still slightly swollen.

She is on her usual 100% organic diet of sprouted triticale, a little cooked pasta, a mix of root and leaf vegetables. This she supplemented by going around the skirting boards under the cupboards and eating all the spiders!

I also, seeing she looked so calm yesterday, now gave a further treatment on the wound of melted raw virgin organic coconut oil. This I applied with an organic cotton bud.

Organic pure virgin coconut oil is a magical substance, which contains lauric, capric and caprylic acids, these have wide ranging properties, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-fungal, antibacterial and soothing qualities. It is a great support for the immune system and has both healing properties for the skin and promotes the regrowth of feathers/hair. We use it in cooking as well as in making cosmetics.

So, a happy ending to what, at first sight looked like something really tragic. 

The fact that our male quail started to call for the first time this year on the afternoon of the day we found Nuggets injured, showed me that the courting season had begun. 

Until I have figured out how male quail fits into the natural environment I am endeavouring to create and whether or not they do/can revert to connubial bliss, I shall keep them separate at night.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube, Odysee  or BitChute Channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

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© 2016 Sue Cross

Stress and Organic Chickens Part Two - Emergency Treatment, Follow-ups & Keeping Calm.

Stress is a potential killer, so it's important to treat it quickly, in particular if concurrent with any kind of injury. Your bird's system needs to be functioning at optimum to deal with both the physical trauma of the wound and the potential for any kind of infection. The great thing about this emergency treatment is that it is concocted from simple foodstuffs you probably already have to hand in your kitchen cupboards. It is also an excellent treatment for extreme fatigue, such as in the case of finding an exhausted racing pigeon, which I have done on a couple of occasions.

Easy home-made electrolyte solutions

The simplest of all remedies and much akin to the old treatment for shock you'd find in 1930's detective novels is the ubiquitous warm sugary drink. Just take a fraction of a teaspoon of raw organic cane sugar, a tiny amount of salt and dissolve it in a egg cup of warm water. The technical term for this is an electrolyte solution and your objective is to rebalance the bird's system and thus get the bird's body back up and functioning as quickly as possible. As suggested by the name, an electrolyte carries the electrical impulses which the body uses to 'communicate' within itself, in essence to tell itself what to do. Thus a sudden shock, stress attack, overheating, hypothermia, sudden or prolonged physical exertion can cause electrolytes to be rapidly depleted. The effect of this imbalance on the functioning of the muscles, heart and nervous system, no doubt explains the nature of those symptoms I have observed in birds under stress. These latter I outlined in my previous blog.

This remedy I have used not only on my own birds but on other rare occasions such as when rescuing an exhausted homing pigeon. In fact if you look on racing pigeon web sites you will see a similar emergency treatment (using a greater proportion of sugar) advised for those who find displaced birds. 'Hubert' as we called him, was on his first race and had been thrown off course by a storm. I also used the treatment on a stressed out sparrowhawk, who became entangled in our hedge after having been surprised by me whilst she was attacking a fantail.

WARNING You can only use this method however, if the bird is breathing normally. If your bird is gasping for breath, trying to get it to drink can be highly dangerous, as it can choke or 'drown' by breathing water into its lungs. My solution for this is to get a small piece of fruit such as orange or banana and dip it lightly in the sugar and salt mix. The fruit is then introduced just into the point of the beak with the bird's head in its normal position. The electrolyte is thus absorbed even if the bird is not able to swallow the fruit. If the bird is hardly responding at all and/or you have a problem opening its beak, then with your fingers coated with sugar take the tip of the beak and gently try to introduce some sugar into it.

Another great kitchen cupboard electrolyte is organic unpasteurised apple cider vinegar, which also contains enzymes beneficial in giving the bird's system the 'kick start' needed post shock. You will only need a few drops added to an egg cup of warm water.

I have found, although I can not explain why, that stroking the back of a bird's head whilst lightly dipping its beak into the liquid will get it to drink. I obviously have very tame birds, who trust me and are easy to treat but we recently rescued a moorhen, who had been run over and was exhibiting signs of stress. I gave the same emergency treatment and got it to drink in the way described above. The moorhen's case is a good illustration of why treating for shock should be the first treatment given. As you can see from the photograph, it is holding its wing down and leaning against the orange box. These two factors were in effect due to stress and righted themselves over 24 hours. It actually had concussion and a wound in its side but no breaks. After a week of recuperating, we were able to return it to the wild.

What to do if the symptoms still persist or get worse?

Sneezy my Silver Sebright, as explained in my previous blog, had what I presumed to be a stroke after having witness close-at-hand a sparrowhawk attack on one of our fantails. I had immediately given her the electrolyte  but her condition continued to deteriorate. All I could think was, that I needed to get some nutrients into her to support her nervous system. The ones I chose were turmeric, Brazil nut and coconut oil. Turmeric for curcumin, traditionally used to prevent and treat neuron damage and the amount I took was just enough to cover the end of a teaspoon. Brazil nut for selenium, again to support the nervous system and coconut oil, which contains a multitude of nutrients and essential trace elements, to support and strengthen the immune system. The turmeric and Brazil nut were mixed into a teaspoon of melted coconut oil.

It was quite difficult to treat Sneezy. By now she was paralysed all down one side and she was losing control of her neck but on the positive side, I had the knowledge of her being very tame and trusting of me. When I finally succeeded in getting the teaspoon into a good position for her, she made a supreme effort and managed to suck the mixture up. I was worried about the amount of selenium, as it is toxic in large amounts and it is quite difficult to gauge in such a small bird (Sneezy is about the size of a thrush). However, I just finely grated the end of the nut, took just a couple of these gratings and hoped it would be enough.

Well it worked and I have used this mixture again for extreme cold stress and have been just as successful. I was amazed how quickly (less than 24 hours) Sneezy regained the use of her wing, leg and neck and made a full recovery.

Keeping calm - you and your bird

To complete and complement the treatment you will need to keep the bird warm and calm.  I have always found that birds are very receptive to the reaction of others. So even if you feel like panicking, don't. I talk to my birds all the time I am treating them, explaining what I am doing and they certainly respond to the tone of my voice.; Poulie and Chicklette, the first hens I ever had, taught me so much about how my own stress levels impacted upon theirs. They say the Ardenner breed takes on the personality and comportment of the breeder, so I cannot thank them enough for holding up that mirror!

Even the moorhen was calm and receptive, whilst it was recovering. The day it pecked me whilst I was feeding it, was the day I knew it was ready to be released! It is interesting that I find the same pattern occurs with wild birds in stress or injury. They will trust me until they get better, which is as it should be.

I have made two films, one on the subject of Squeaky's cold stress and the other in which Sneezy demonstrates how I administer the emergency treatment. They were made on my old camera so are not in the HD of my more recent films. However the main thing is, I hope, that they will help by sharing what I did.

The next article on stress can be found by following this: LINK

If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube, Odysee  or BitChute Channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

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© 2013 Sue Cross